Rest day and moving day from Wagga Wagga to Beechworth. 4/10/19

We cleaned up, and headed out of town, leaving just in time to meet the 10am checkout after an egg and bacon breakfast.  

The house has been a very nice respite and , although about $50/ night more expensive than the motel room, gave us the ability to sleep better, wash, and spread out in comfort, plus cook for ourselves if we wanted to.  All of these are worth a lot and reduce the stress levels, which is valuable when in the middle of a championship. 

We decided to take the slow way to Beechworth on back roads (at least some) , but were foiled at our first attempt, when a road  which showed as going through was found to have a gate across and to be a padlocked stock reserve now. 

We were forced to back-track a little way, but took the first available choice road and managed to still wind our way through the back roads and zig zag around remote properties, until we eventually met up with the bitumen again just near to Yarong Creek. 

We followed the Olympic Highway into Albury and turned off there just on midday, making our way to a lovely bend in the river (Noureil Park)  where the River Deck cafe fed us extremely yummy barramundi fish cakes and salad with sweet chilli sauce as we sat on their deck and enjoyed the sunshine and the ambience.  Families were having picnics, kids were splashing in the river shallows created by concrete shelves just under the river level and some girls were sunbaking on the lawn. 

Then we headed  on our way to Beechworth via the winding mountain road. 

By the time we got to Beechworth the weather was markedly different and it was threatening to rain.  We took a side road around the lake (Lake Sambell?) and stopped to have a cuppa before heading on to our accomodation.  As we checked in to our hotel (the old nurses quarters from the Mayday Hills mental institution)the rain started 

The George Kerferd hotel now incorporates these "Linakre Quarters" and also another hotel building with restaurant, breakfast facilities and conference facilities, where we went for breakfast each morning before heading off to our events.  The area is on a hill overlooking the town, (drive up the hill past the Beechworth bakery and just keep on going) and has stands of lovely old trees and  huge numbers of Rhodedendrons.  It might as well be a botanical gardens. 

I was dreading that the rooms might be really basic and terrible, because it was cheap, but they were lovely.  Very comfortable.  We had two adjoining rooms with a bathroom shared between us and tea and coffee facilities.  Breakfast was provided after a short walk down the hill to the restaurant. 

the pond where the frogs were singing

The old Linaker Quarters where we stayed

view down the spooky corridor. 

Trevor and I attended a meeting about Maprun which Peter Effeney (the developer)  was holding , to try to see if it could maybe be used for training in SA with the darts.  The jury is still out, but it keeps on developing and becoming more likely as time goes on I think.  I took lots of notes and will think more about it as time goes on.  This means that you GPS the coordinates of the controls and a mobile phone with GPS location (but not necessarily a sim card) is used to register that you actually got to each control.  You can then compare your run to others who have completed the same course. 

I got in touch with Julie Bent (an old workmate who moved a couple of years ago) , and we set up to catch up the following day at her place after our event.  

She recommended that we visit the Brewery and Pizzeria , which we duly did, snagging the end of a table (as long as we ate quickly enough to be finished by 7pm) , and trying their brewed shiraz - which was bubbly and a bit coffee tasting.  I didn't mind it, but Trevor disliked it.  We didn't buy any to take home with us. 

The place is quite quirky and worth a visit if you are ever in Beechworth.

We ran back to our car in the pouring rain, and headed around to the local caravan park by the lake, where we visited for a while with Al and Zita, who had made their way back to Beechworth , having picked up Kiana in Melbourne at the airport.