The Star Guest Lodge in Narrandera, the town that is also home to the world's largest playable guitar.
On Tuesday, Robert and I took a road trip to Melbourne. Along the way, we saw the quintessential Aussie signs for Kangaroo, Koala and Wombat crossing, which always manage to make me smile no matter how many times I see them. As for the real thing, there were lots of kangaroos and emus, but only one dead koala and one dead wombat.
Driving through the country towns of New South Wales, I always feel like the same blueprint has been used. The main street is wide and the cars are parked on the diagonal, with many of the places requiring backing in. Stores have broad false fronts and the pubs are always named the Commercial, the Empire or the Criterion. If a town has the old style pubs, they have a second floor with ironwork on the verandah. Incidentally, these old pubs always seem to be on a corner and have a corner door entrance. And even the smallest of towns have an Olympic-size swimming pool.
At a rest stop in Beckom.
For some reason on this journey, we drove through or past a lot of towns that required double names, including Grong Grong, Wagga Wagga and Walla Walla. I have to say that the name Wagga Wagga has always been a favorite, but just for the way it sounds as I have never been there. I also came across some rather poetic creek names, including Turn Back Jimmy Creek, Hell Hole Creek and Five Mates Crossing. In Beckom, we stopped at a rest area in the middle of nowhere with hand-painted sign posts with the distance posted to Boston, Buenos Aires, Boston and other B-named towns for some obscure reason. And in Narrandera, we saw the world’s largest playable guitar. You can’t beat that for entertainment value on the road, can you?
{ 1 comment }
The diagonal parking is a Southern NSW thing actually. In Northern NSW, the horizontal park is more common.
Comments on this entry are closed.