It is time to turn our way back towards home. But not by the most direct route.
We check out after another nice buffet breakfast. Our destination for the day is Albury, but I am happy when B suggests we visit Daylesford first because that means heading inland and skipping the motorway.
First are housing developments and rolling hills to Bacchus Marsh. From the it’s on the motorway and off the motorway to the trendy rural town of Daylesford.
Both Alex and I are feeling a little under the weather, but we follow B to browse the antique and art shops. I enjoy the old toys in one, especially the Star Wars figures and vehicles I once owned or lusted after.
We sit down for hot chocolates, then continue driving towards Shepparton. The car’s GPS takes us across a complex set of mainly rural roads, some well kept, others riddled with potholes and not even two cars wide.
We go through Heathcote and the Nagambie, home of the racehorse Black Caviar and a big lake with an inflatable playground that many are enjoying on this Australia Day public holiday.
We bypass Shepparton (which the car navigation system poshly calls shPARTon) and head straight for Boris’s Fruit Shed, where we buy pears, peaches and apples, their freshness a wonderful change from supermarket fruits.
Then it’s the final leg towards Albury. The GPS tries to take us on a shortcut of a dry weather only dirt track, but I turn around and take an alternative route. We saw a number of other cars heading the same direction though.
The motorway is the worst part of the day’s journey. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and I am hungry and tired. It is with great relief that we at last arrive in our Albury hotel.
The Atura’s concave frontage is from another era. It was once the most luxurious hotel in the city. But it has been refreshed and is still nice today, a last little luxury for this trip.
I have miscalculated my clothing for this trip and have to head out on to the dead holiday streets to Kmart for some clothes for tomorrow.
Then we all go out, starving, searching for dinner. Eventually we settle on Table 451, which seems to be Italian but is actually sort of Indian. My lamb burger has naan instead of buns, along with raita and pickled onions. I enjoy it, something different.
All our hotel rooms have faced west this trip and so we watch another sunset through the window, the Albury War Memorial another lighthouse overlooking the city.
Tomorrow, we go home.