Aussie Adventure is Trip of a Lifetime for Peter Johnston of Oasis Travel!
When my Australian friends told me they were moving from Summerville in the Mornington Peninsula to Bendigo and invited me to come out and see the new place, I jumped at the chance. To start the trip off, I decided to treat myself and go in style in business class.
Having had a cooked breakfast in the business class lounge, I boarded the airplane, took my seat and was served a glass of champagne, the first of many! After a long 24 hours, but feeling refreshed, I met my friend at Tullamarine Airport and the two hour drive to Bendigo flew past as it was non-stop talk along the way.
Bendigo is a beautiful Victorian gold mining town with lots of restored miners cottages, with verandas and wrought iron lace work. It has a great coffee and restaurant culture too. After a day or two to rest up, we started the adventures. First stop was a drive to Echuca for a paddle steamer trip along the mighty Murray River, with Victoria on one side of the river bank and NSW on the other, it was like a scene from Crocodile Dundee with flocks of cockatoos flying overhead and cuckaburras laughing in the trees.
Next day, we had arranged to meet up with an old friend in Melbourne, so got the train, passed through Kangaroo Flats (just love that name!) and got the tram from Flinders Street Station to China Town. Had a brilliant lunch and catch up, a quick look around the city before catching the train back to Bendigo, passing through Kangaroo Flats (did I say I just love that name?) My friend’s husband just happens to have a pilots licence and his own cesna airplane, so, a couple of trips had been planned out by air.
First one was flying to Robe, in South Australia, a small quaint old fashioned seaside town. Millie the dog came too, strapped in to the back seat! We stayed in a lovely clapboard beach cottage and just chilled out, enjoying the sun and surf. Robe is famous (in South Australia!) for it’s freshly caught lobsters, so of course, it would have been rude not to have tried one, washed down with a bottle of locally brewed wine, I have to say, it really hit the spot.
After a few days back in Bendigo, the second trip was to Flinders Island, Tasmania. A small island with a population of 1500 people and about quadrouple that in Kangaroos and wallabies! We stayed in a log cabin with a friendly wallabee that came to visit on the veranda, hoping for a carrot or two. On a visit to the general store, to stock up on groceries, we heard how the owner spent her spare time rescuing baby wombats whose mothers were road kill, sounds awful and I have to say, you see plenty of them lying by the side of the road. By chance, she happened to be feeding two she had recently rescued and we got to give them a quick cuddle, they were so cute.
We called in to the local pub for lunch and the cook came out to take the order with an “are you’s gettin’”! He only came from Portrush and although he’d lived there for 25 years, certainly hadn’t lost the auld accent. Back in Bendigo, we spent time to visit an old gold mine and had the opportunity to pan for gold. As you can guess, I didn’t find any, as I’m back at work! Also went to the Chinese museum which is to recognise the Chinese immigrants that helped to build up the town back in the gold rush days. It also has the worlds longest Chinese Dragon, which comes out every year for the Bendigo Easter Parade.
All too soon, my two weeks were up and although sad to leave, I still had the pleasure of my flat bed and studio to be pampered in for the flight back to Dublin. Much as it is fabulous to visit the many iconic sites of Australia, it was totally amazing to see the small rural places and experience the country lifestyle, this really was the holiday of a lifetime and I have such wonderful memories.
