Big Trip 2026(1) Day 3 - The Long Drive

I had planned today’s drive, from Corowa to Jindabyne, to be the longest of the entire trip.  It was not only long, but the weather conditions made for one challenging drive.

We said goodbye to Corowa and headed back over the border to Victoria to our first break in Beechworth.

I first came across Beechworth playing with Box Hill City Band at the Beechworth Celtic festival. This town is noted for the number of festivals they have each year,  I think it was one of those festivals where I had taken Lesley and Nick (no Ben yet) and over the subsequent years we have regarded the town as a special destination. So much so that, when Nick first became interested in this trip, he insisted on a visit to Beechworth as one of his conditions for coming with me. I was happy to oblige.

First stop was Beechworth Bakery to get some breakfast (food reviews below). 

Nick then forced me to go to Beechworth Sweet Co so he could stock up on some sugary stuff (it would have been rude of me not to participate). I was looking for some mandarin sweets. The lady behind the counter went out the back and packaged some up for me as they had run out of them in the shopfront. Great service there!

After a bit more sightseeing it was back to Beechworth Bakery to buy something for lunch, as I wasn’t expecting to be in a town selling food around lunch time.

Everything was going according to plan until we made a toilet stop in Granya. Getting back into the car, I misread Google Maps (not my fault, I swear. It was behaving funny), made a left turn instead of a right turn, and headed in the wrong direction.  When I say “wrong” direction, there were two ways of getting to Jindabyne, and they both took roughly the same time.  I was trying to avoid the route that would send us through a lot of the recent fire activity from the Walwa bush fire in January. I failed.

Once we hit the edge of the recent fire activity we were driving through fire effected land for the next forty minutes or so (the Walwa fire burnt about 120,000 hectares of land).

It appears as though there had been a fair bit or rain in the area since the fire as there appeared to be large tracts of green ground cover.  This contrasted with the significant fire impacted trees, however a lot had some epicormic growth already coming through.

By the way, these photos were all taken by Nick whilst I was driving. Great work there.

Once we drove past the old fire activity it was only a relatively short distance before we reached Corryong, not a town I was intending to drive through.  A large ship caused me to pull over and investigate.

This was in front of a public toilet. Although it was threatening to rain it was a good place to have a rest and eat some lunch.  Well done Corryong for an innovative approach to providing opportunities to stop and rest.

I had been challenged in the readers' comments to provide a review of a ham and salad roll. Here is one that also included some cheese.

My review: Purchased premade at the Beechworth Bakery. It was OK. Probably too much green stuff.

After a decent rest we continued our drive which started to climb into the Mountains. At Khancoban we paid our entry fees into the Kosciuscko National Park. And then it started to rain. And rain. And rain.

It also became foggy. Not enough to onscure the road, but enough to ensure there were no scenic views.

It’s times like this where I am glad to be able to share the driving and Nick was more than up for the challenge. By the time we reached our cabin at the Jindabyne Discovery Parks we were both a little bit knackered from the concentration of driving in challenging conditions.

Tea tonight was take away.

We have a full day here tomorrow before heading onwards on Thursday.

Food Review

Nick said the "sausage" was the best he has had so far on this trip, however the pastry was too flaky. 8/10

On my last trip I was disappointed with a pie that I had at the Echuca Beechworth Bakery. Given that this was "head office" I expected better this time around. My pie of choice was the pepper steak. This was a much better pie as it was very, very meaty with a lovely  peppery flavour 8/10

 Today's Album - Soundtrack to the movie Gladiator: 20th Anniversary Edition

Kms Travelled Today -  447

Kms Travelled Total - 937
 

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 2 - What Plans?

 Previous readers to my blog will be aware that I put a lot of effort into planning for these road trips.  Time to leave, estimated time for food breaks, suggested place to eat, who’s driving and when and ETA for the final destination for the night are all some of the things on my daily itineraries.  It started as a necessary part of our family travels as the more nervous of our group would be assured I knew what was going on.  More recently it was to assure Lesley that I wasn’t attempting the impossible on my trips. Besides, planning a trip is part of fun!

Somewhere along the way, sometimes in the second week, I’ll end up referring to these daily itineraries as nothing more than mere suggestions, and just play it by ear.

We sort of did that today.

The itinerary showed us leaving Echuca at 9:30am. I suggested to Nick the previous night that we leave at 9:00am and grab some breakfast in Echuca. We ended up leaving Echuca at 9:15am and ate breakfast in another town.

I’m starting to cop some heat for my pie reviews. Something about pies not being healthy, and making poor life choices for a body that should be looking after itself.

Yes, pies are not the healthiest choices that I could make.

Breakfast consisted of a pie at Brereton’s Bakery in Nathalia (review below).

Nathalia doesn’t seem to have much on offer, though it did like showing off its favourite son, Richmond superstar of the seventies (and coach for two years), Francis Bourke.  Mind you, the town of Yea still tries to get mileage out of it being the birthplace of Olympic equestrian champion, Bill Roycroft (though I note that Wikipedia actually has his place of birth as Melbourne not Yea, and that he grew up in Flowerdale.)

The next stop was Tocumwal, however before that I had to visit one of Australia’s lesser known big things the Big Strawberry in Koonoomoo.

Maybe not that big

 There was a sign there leading to the town of Mywee. (Ho Ho! I should have taken a photo.)

We had a short break in Tocumwal where we admired the mighty Murray, and were annoyed by the dozens of corellas (I think), screeching up the place.

Lunch was going to be in Yarrawonga, but we decided to push forward to Corowa and have lunch there.

After lunch we found our accommodation for the night (Corowa Bindaree Holiday Park has great two bedroom units).

Before we had a break for the afternoon I decided we should visit somewhere to buy presents for those of the family still at home.  Corowa Distillery was that place. 

Fun fact 1: It also makes chocolate. The same family owns both this chocolate factory as well as the one in Junee.

Fun fact 2: You cannot sample all the whiskies on offer and expect to drive away sober. Pick carefully  (No, I did not sample all the whiskies. I behaved myself.)

Fun fact 3: Nick sampled a whisky as well. I wasn't expecting that. 

Tea tonight was at the Australian Hotel. I loved the Art Décor feel however it had seen better days. Apart from stick tables the interior was well kept. 

 I also had one of the better porterhouse steaks cooked (medium rare) at a pub.

Food Review

Nick didn't rate this sausage roll highly. “It was OK, just nothing special about it” 6/10

I tried to amend yesterday’s error by having a steak and mushroom pie.

I am personally not a fan of square pies, however the filling for this pie was pretty good.  Nothing flash, but an honest, tasty pie. 7/10

Today's Album - Hoodoo Gurus Kinky 

Kms Travelled Today 235

Kms Travelled Total 490 

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 1 - Getting Into The Swing Of It

 Welcome to my 2026 big trip (Part 1).

For those of you not caught up with my 2025 shenanigans (or for me rereading this in 2035, forgetting what happened 10 years ago) I had open heart surgery back in April 2025.  This was to replace my enlarged (and invreasingly dodgy) aortic arch with a synthetic one.  Recovery was a bugger and any significant road trips in 2025 were ruled out.

2026 originally looked promising with a big trip in March, however ongoing health concerns caused a bit of a loss of confidence in traveling far and wide.  I reconsidered doing one big trip for this year, and instead will break the trip up into two halves – half now and hopefully half at the tail end of 2026.

“What was the full trip going to be?” I hear you all ask.

The plan was to drive along the coast lines and borders of Victoria – heading down along the Great Ocean Road to Nelson in the west, then up through to the Northern point near Mildura, then following the Murray down to the Alps, crossing those mountains till we hit Mallacoota in the far east, and finally following the coast line until we get back home.

The new plan is to head straight up to Echuca, on the Murray, turn right and complete the second half of that trip.

This time around, I wasn’t going to be traveling alone. I had Nick to share the driving, as well as navigate and ensure that I don’t do anything stupid (maybe that's a mutual thing).

Here he is.

That's Nick, helping pack the car

 This first day was a fairly short drive covering a lot of roads that I had driven before.  The plan was to reach our cabin in Echuca at the earliest time possible, and then explore the tourist precinct.

First stop was morning tea, in Seymour.

Those who read my blog for the previous trip in November 2024 will remember I undertook a pie review everyday (well, most days).  I will be continuing with that challenge this time. Nick has agreed to undertake a similar challenge, with sausage rolls.  Details of our reviews will be at the end of each blog.

After buying the aforementioned food we drove to the Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk in Seymour.  This was an extensive outside tribute to those who fought in The Vietnam War, with every Australian participant named on a series of panels.  It sort of makes sense that a memorial like this is located here, given that the Puckapunyal Army base is located nearby.

 Brief stop at Murchison to meet the locals.

Murchison local

 Lunch stop was at Kyabram. Neither of us were particularly hungry so we had a snack and took the opportunity to stretch our legs before heading the last 40km to Echuca.

Accommodation is at the Four Seasons Caravan Park. We have a spacious 2 bedroom cabin for a cost under $100.

Tea tonight was at the Star Hotel in Echuca. I’ve eaten here a few times before and have never been disappointed.

Fish & Chips. Chicken Parma

Turning now to sport, it was good to see the Kangas win their first game of the season.  After many years of disappointments is it too soon to start hoping for something better?

Food Review

The first review today comes from Gaffney’s Pie Kitchen in Seymour. You have to appreciate the confidence from a shop that has expanded to two, with the second one in Heathcote.  I’m not sure which location was the first one.

Nick’s review of the sausage roll was that it tasted very similar to the (excellent) sausage rolls made by the original Flying Tarts (our local bakery in Pheasant Creek). Score 8/10

 I started my pie quest with an unusual creation – The Chicken Parma pie.

This was a very ambitious pie that almost worked well.  Large chunks of chicken breast with a special “parma” sauce, with some melted cheese on top.  I think there may have been some bacon according to the website, but wasn’t featuring in my pie.

Conceptually I think it ticked all the boxes necessary for a parma experience. It just didn’t rate highly for me. Maybe I wanted a more tradional pie, and that’s my fault for choosing something different. Score 6/10

 Today's Album - Midnight Oil 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

Nick has allowed me to play 1 album per day. Normally we drive listening to audio books and podcasts.

Kms Travelled Today 255