One of the great things about Number One (and only) Son turning 18 is that we now have the freedom to act like we are in our 20’s and take a road trip. No plans. No bookings. Just get in the car and drive.
That’s what P and I decided to do on Tuesday. We got in the car, picked a direction and drove. No particular destination in mind. Just to take that road and see where we end up. Stop when we see something interesting. Just do what we want.
The first night we ended up in Central Tilba. Why? Because we watched River Cottage on tv and wanted to check the area out.
We stayed at The Two Story B&B. Ken and his wife who run the place (also the general store) were fantastic and couldn’t have been nicer. When we approached them to see if they had a vacancy they were sitting out the front having a drink with some locals. Ken sent us inside to check out the place first before he would even consider letting us book a room and we got to choose which one we wanted. We picked the blue one because it had the view of the main street.
We did a quick tour of the shops before they closed. Was surprised to note that the lolly shop clearly labeled all their gluten free lollies. Was very controlled and only bought 3 bags. Baileys boiled lollies, green apple gummy bears and COBBERS!
Quick drink at the pub (everything else closed at 5). They had plenty of spirits, but none of those fancy mixes. Coke goes with everything right?
Of course we had to do some exploring and walked up to the water tower lookout. Good thing I wore wedge sandles because I wouldn’t have been able to navigate the rocks in heels. Back to the B&B.
We found it interesting to compare the photos from our hotel room from our last holiday just 2 months ago in Vegas
To the view from our hotel for this holiday
BIG DIFFERENCE.
We went to the pub for dinner (it was that or drive back to town). Food was ordinary but got to meet some people from the River Cottage show and get the gossip. Found out that the guy who is the star of the show no longer lives on the farm and that there are a whole heap of people who are employed to work as ‘research’ that you never see.
Locals at Central Tilba are really friendly and enjoyed the whole time we were there. Would love to go back some time.
Day 2 we decided to head south. Through Bermie. Quick stop at the Blue Pool
Down through Eden and decided to keep going south. Discovered that there is pretty much nothing that resembles a town for 200km after Eden. Which we found really weird after the NSW coast where there were little townships every 20km or so.
Finally ended up at Lakes Entrance for the night. Decided to stay simply because we had never been there but had heard of the place. Explored main street – not near as cosmopolitan as I thought a town frequented by Melbournites would be. Would even say Batemans Bay was more cosmopolitan. 
Checked out 90 Mile Beach. Decided to believe whoever named it that and not test the name. There are these fantastic wood carved sculptures on the main street that are definitely worth the trip to check out.
Day 3 put us in a bit of a conundrum. P wanted to check out the road that is used for the Mount Bulla Sprint, but we weren’t sure if we could get there in a day.
We thought we would drive and see how close we could get. So we headed up the Great Alpine Road. P had a ball driving all the twisty roads headed up to Mt Hotham with virtually no traffic. He was only disappointed that he was in a car and not on his motorbike. I think he has now added this road onto his Bucket List.
Stopped at the top of Mt Hotham.
Nothing open in summer but definitely worth the view.
More winding roads coming down the mountain and ended up in Beechworth for the night. Planning on going home on the Great Alpine Way tomorrow so we can say we have traveled on the two highest roads in Australia. P promises me that it really doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that they are twisty and winding, but I secretly think the whole way he has been listening to a voice over in his head that has been commentating his driving like you hear on the Taga Rally videos. Maybe I shouldn’t have let him watch the Dakka Rally before we left for our road trip. …….
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