twovespas

Day 15 – Dunkeld to Echuca

OK, so I have got a little emotional twice on this ride – once on the Great Ocean Road, because I couldn’t believe that it was the first time I was there. And also because I was so happy that I was there with that person, on that scooter, on that day. The second time was when we turned north/north-east from Glenthompson. The view was incredible – the Grampians and proper Victoria. At one point I looked to my left and saw a beautiful paddock which had been turned in to haybales. There was a huge dam and brown sheep and the Grampians were rising in the background. I was stoked to be there and loving every second of it.

Our first stop today was Ararat for fuel and stares from the locals. Also a coffee stop at Maccas (wow – how many Maccas did we get coffee at?!?) which again we couldn’t get on to the network. Give us some network Maccas – that is what you are good for! Oh well, back on the road and we were intrigued to ride through a place called ‘Ampitheatre’. What? Why is it called Ampitheatre? Is there actually an ampitheatre? We didn’t see it. Googling must occur once we are home methinks.

Then, turns out there is a place in Victoria called Maryborough (as well as Queensland). I was expecting just another fuel stop with a pub, but turns out this place was huge! But I think I still prefer the Queensland option! But that is natural given I am a Queenslander. Queenslander! Our lunch stop today (a very late lunch) was at Castlemaine. I was so excited to be here because I had sung the song so many times in primary school. As we rocked in to town, Morgan made communication with me and sung the song – as well as giving me some fun facts about Castlemaine. We rode through town and then back again to try and find somewhere nice to eat. Well, we found it. Its called Cured Cafe and we had awesome turkish – Morgan a doner lamb meal with garlic sauce, dips and salads; I had a falafel kebab with garlic sauce, hommus and salad. I thought their coffee was awesome, but Morgan didn’t rate it. Doesn’t matter, it was a fantastic meal, which we were surprised to find in Castlemaine.

Our next surprise was finding ourselves back on a freeway. For some reason we thought we were on kinda backroads today but it made perfect sense that there would be a motorway linking Melbourne and Bendigo… So Bendigo, awesome – we will be back. We didn’t stop because it was getting late in the day and we wanted to push to Echuca, but turns out the place is chock full of cacher hides which we NEED to find – as I said, we will be back. We spotted a couple of scooters, one parked up on the footpath as it should be.

So on to Echuca, turned out we were staying in the ‘Historic Port’ area of town and the place I had chosen was next door to both an icecreamery and a chocolate shop. Unfortunately we were too late for the chockie shop but the icecream turned out to be our dinner later that night. We did a bit of walking, enjoyed local beers and did our heads in trying to find a 4* difficulty geocache which was in a heaps public place with a very very awesome bit of camo. Once we had finally tamed it, we spent more time walking around the area finding other caches and learning about all the history. And trying to avoid being pooed on by the myriad birds – corellas and about one million of them. Then the icecream and back to our room to try and blog (fail) or log cache finds (fail) and sleep (fail). Staying in the historic port area of town on a Friday night, in such an old building, on the ground floor meant a very noisy time with drunks and holiday makers staying up very late. No matter – our room was cute and quaint and the shower was good so we were happy. Oh – the local beer was really good. Its called the Echuca Brewing Company and we sampled the Paddlesteamer Premium Lager and Murray Classic Gold – delicious!

The 1st Choice for Annoying Families

Tomorrow, on to Wagga Wagga. Ciao!

Click HERE to see today’s pics.