Joe and I decided to head up to Euchua midweek, in a desperate attempt to get away from the cold Melbourne rain. It's got a cute name, say A-chook-a, and is about 2-3 hours away, depending on whether you stop or not. It is an inland river port and is really popular for fishing and living on houseboats in summer. Note to self - houseboats are really ugly, more like containers floating on water. So steam paddles were the thing, as the river is really shallow ( I could stand in it and have the top of my head showing) and they still operate for tourists. I took pictures of the boats we passed, and forgot to take a pix of the boat we were on. It was called the
Alexander Arbuthnot, which led to a whole series of bad jokes (from Joe) revolving about ahbuthen.
My best pix of the trip.
The sun and warm weather kicked in on the second day, and I walked around in a t-shirt outside in the sun for the first time in a month. It was nice weather in Bendigo too, where I took this pix. Look, blue skies! What is really funny is that we were almost planning a roadtrip to Lakes Entrance, which is really beautiful until concerned friends mentioned that it is colder than Melbourne this time of year. Lakes Entrance is currently flooded.
There is a chinese temple in Bendigo because there was a large Chinese population who came during the Gold Rush. The name outside the temple is jin shan, which means gold hill literally. At that time, Victoria had a 12 pound levy or entry tax, so to save money, these Chinese immigrants got off at Robe, in South Australia, and walked 300km or so to get to Bendigo. And these days we pay airport tax without question.
Joe and I decided to head up to Euchua midweek, in a desperate attempt to get away from the cold Melbourne rain. It's got a cute name, say A-chook-a, and is about 2-3 hours away, depending on whether you stop or not. It is an inland river port and is really popular for fishing and living on houseboats in summer. Note to self - houseboats are really ugly, more like containers floating on water. So steam paddles were the thing, as the river is really shallow ( I could stand in it and have the top of my head showing) and they still operate for tourists. I took pictures of the boats we passed, and forgot to take a pix of the boat we were on. It was called the Alexander Arbuthnot, which led to a whole series of bad jokes (from Joe) revolving about ahbuthen.
My best pix of the trip.
The sun and warm weather kicked in on the second day, and I walked around in a t-shirt outside in the sun for the first time in a month. It was nice weather in Bendigo too, where I took this pix. Look, blue skies! What is really funny is that we were almost planning a roadtrip to Lakes Entrance, which is really beautiful until concerned friends mentioned that it is colder than Melbourne this time of year. Lakes Entrance is currently flooded.
There is a chinese temple in Bendigo because there was a large Chinese population who came during the Gold Rush. The name outside the temple is jin shan, which means gold hill literally. At that time, Victoria had a 12 pound levy or entry tax, so to save money, these Chinese immigrants got off at Robe, in South Australia, and walked 300km or so to get to Bendigo. And these days we pay airport tax without question.
