After Canberra, we made our way down the coast through Bateman’s Bay, stopping at Eden for the night. We found a really, really cute place to stay in Eden, with two bedrooms, a washer and dryer, and right on the ocean. I wished we had a little more time there, it was really nice and relaxing. From Eden, we went to Moe, (pronounced Mo-ee, with a long o) and stayed the night there. From Moe, we stayed in Horsham overnight, where the innkeeper showed me the best internet site to get great room rates call www.wotif.com. I have booked all my rooms through that site since then. We finally made our way to Adelaide on Saturday night. All of the little towns were really nice, and off of the tourist path. The innkeepers were all friendly and welcoming and gave us good advice on which way to go and interesting points to look for.
View from an outlook between Bateman's Bay and Eden
Almost all of the small towns we went through are organized the same way. There is a town center, where all of the shops and restaurants are located, usually about two or three blocks long. We would usually stop in and get lunch and do a little exploring of the shops before we got back in the car. Each town also has a well maintained public restroom, not associated with any shop or convenience store, so you don’t have to stop at someone’s business just to use the bathroom.
It seemed to us like everything in the towns closed down about 5:00, including the restaurants, making us worry that we would not get any supper. Then we discovered private social clubs. There were several things to do at the clubs, including gambling. Gambling is legal in Australia, and the place to gamble is a social club. There were slot machines and Keno. Each one had a raffle for something; one was a new car, and one was giving away groceries for a week. They also had entertainers come in for concerts. Most importantly to us, however, was that they had restaurants, with good prices and pretty good food. And, they let folks come in who didn’t live in their area without becoming a member. So, we went to the social clubs in the evening for supper and a little bit of people watching.
The scenery was beautiful and everywhere we looked was a picture. We saw a lot of dairy farms with very steep, grass covered hills. It was not good for farming, but was excellent pasture for dairy cows. The diaries all looked like picture-post cards from the road.
Road Trip – Final Impressions
Driving on the left side of the road got a little bit easier as time went on. Jack and I helped each other out with reminders to get on the other side when we were making turns, etc. After awhile, the panic and hysteria in our voices also subsided. Our car was a Holden Commodore, made by General Motors. It was pretty big and comfortable to drive, except for the other-side-of-the-road thing. It went pretty fast without effort. However, speed limits are strictly enforced here. They monitor with speed cameras in cars that they park on the side of the road. They move them around so you don’t know where they’re going to be. We think Jack might have gotten a speeding ticket because one of those cars snapped his picture doing 7km over the speed limit. We will see if the car rental company adds to the bill.
Speaking of the rental company adding to the bill, one of the perils of driving a strange car on the other side of the road is blind spots and backing up. Yes, I confess, I backed into a sign and scratched the left rear panel just a little bit. Budget Rent-a-Car didn’t think it was that little, though, and added a substantial amount to my American Express card as a result. Needless to say, I was pretty happy to turn the car in and again rely on public transportation. That alone should save me a bundle in car repair costs.
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