ECHUCA VIC

HAPPY AS LARRY! That pretty much sums it up when you lob at a pub, get a welcome from the staff and a nod from the locals. Oh, and if the place hasn’t been totally taken over by race screens, odds boards and pokie machines. A place where you can relax, talk if you want, or mull the day if you don’t.

Because there’re few things more comforting than a smiling face after a day’s ride and there’s no surer way to kill a country pub faster than selling its soul to gambling.

But down along our rivers, such as they are at the moment, the Pub and the Punt have had a much longer, much healthier and very different symbiotic relationship. And it’s this connection of pubs and punting that brings me to Echuca on the Murray.

I’m booked into Echuca’s (just) oldest hotel, the Echuca Hotel, one of few pubs here still with accommodation.

You can park the bike on the grass around the back and the showers work well. That’s about