So away we go… Only four hours or so to Holbrook, the town with the submarine on the main street.
Got away around 10:00 and drove to Jugiong for a lunch stop at the Long Track Pantry. I had a Reuben and Jo had a Chicken Wrap… both very enjoyable and generous in size. Great place to stop for a bite or to camp over the road in the very extensive riverside campground run on donations.
Back on the road quickly to Holbrook for an overnighter at the Riverina Hotel. The ‘Riv’ is a part of Country Pub Camping, a website where pubs around Australia offer (mostly) free caravan parking in return for having a meal and a drink there. We stayed at the ‘Riv‘ for our first ever night in the van when we drove it back from Melbourne after picking it up. Great country pub with locals and blown-ins like us… Good food and cold beer. There were four other vans parked out the back at 2:30 and we were lucky to snaffle the last place along the fence otherwise we’d have been down the road to the caravan park or looking for an alternate free camp.
The ‘Riv’ does classic pub meals and pizzas and is obviously a focal point for Holbrook. I had the ‘Steak Schnitzel (Devils)’, which was basically half a dead cow, crumbed and topped with sweet chili sauce, melted cheese, laying on a heap of chips and steamed veg… Jo had her usual Calamari working on the idea that Holbrook is hundreds of miles from the coast but if it has a submarine in the main street then the seafood must be really fresh…
Full bellies, a beer and a wine and time for an early night… The first night in the van is always the best sleep ever and we both went down for nine-and-a-half hours of unbroken sleep.
Next morning, we took a stroll up the street for a coffee and to take a look at the ‘HMAS Otway’. Having been to Holbrook a few times it was good to see the Otway again but this was the first time we actually walked along the deck. It’s usually covered in screaming kids… This time it wasn’t.
That killed enough time to head back to the van, batten down and head off for the drive to Shepparton via Benalla…