Day 1 of my road trip. Mornington Peninsula to Barmera.
Barmera Hotel foyer
I’d planned each day of my trip using Google Earth to plot out my route and to give me a vague idea of how long it would take each day, so I could in turn work out where to stay.
Today’s trip would take a little over eight and a half hours.
This journey I have actually done before, although not to stop at Barmera. My road trip last year to Woomera I stayed in Morgan on the way back. This time I had learnt from that experience and was determined not to stop in Morgan again.
Barmera looked good enough.
Barmera Hotel room
My accommodation for the night was the Barmera Hotel Motel. I had booked online (the only accommodation on my trip that offered this). I’d opted for one of their hotel rooms.
Hotel rooms I find have more character than motel rooms, they’re usually older and in the main building rather than being tacked onto the side at some point when cars and motels became a thing that needed to be provided for.
Barmera Hotel bathroom
The Barmera Hotel Motel hotel room was interesting and had character. It also had an ensuite, which was nice.
In fact it had everything that you’d expect of a motel room; fridge, TV, balcony. The fact it had a balcony was the only real thing that differentiated it from a motel room (I presume). That I had to go into the hotel and walk up a flight of stairs to get to the first floor room.
Also the floor was creaky, which I’d guess the newer concrete and brick motel rooms to the side of the hotel wouldn’t exhibit.
Downstairs in the dining room I was again reminded of the curious presence of the hot and cold sides / salad bar in the dining room. Something that I remember existing in Victorian pubs and bistros in the distant past. I remember they were a fixture of the 1980s and 1990s, and they basically disappeared from pubs in the late 90s and early 2000s as everything went more gastro-pub-like.
But in South Australia it’s still there. Or maybe it’s just country pubs, I’ve not really visited any really country pubs in Victoria so maybe the salad bar is still alive and kicking. Although that said I’ve not visited enough pubs in South Australia to make a pronouncement on the presence of salad and hot vegetable bars in pubs either.