Have you noticed that when you are on holidays you do things differently?
Sometimes you get up early and go out for breakfast, have lunch and maybe dinner too in a lovely restaurant or pub. Maybe you pack special picnics.
You window shop and occasionally buy something you can’t resist and investigate every nook and cranny of where you are and its surrounds. You visit art galleries and sculpture parks.
Maybe you go for long walks, whether on a beach or in the hills or mountains, yet never walk at home.
If you are not going away these school holidays, why not pretend you are on a holiday and do all these things from home?
Why not get up early and walk into town for breakfast at the art gallery or coffee from any of the early-opening coffee shops or caravans?
If you were in Europe, eating or having coffee where the truckies stop would often be rewarded with the best value coffee and food.
If you were in Paris you would definitely go to the Louvre; why not go to the Benalla Art Gallery and see the Ledger Collection and follow the activity sheet designed for all ages?
See the video art from the ACMI Collection and Jacqui Stockdale’s The Outlaws’ Inn — this will prompt you to go to Glenrowan and beyond to further investigate the Ned Kelly story.
I always say one thing leads to another.
When I am in town I always look in Millers’ window and read the tea towel messages, they make great gifts. I can’t resist looking in at Polished, Rambling Rose and elsewhere just in case.
Why not walk around the lake and botanic gardens and play ‘I spy’ at the boulders with brass plaques, then read them and learn about past associations. See how many you can find — some are hard to spot.
Like any tourist, go to the Benalla Visitor Information office (now at 4 Bridge St) and get all the information about Winton Wetlands and Mokoan Hub and Café, and also the Silo Art Trail.
It takes a couple of hours to follow the north-east trail, so allow enough time to stop and eat at the historic Tungamah or Goorambat pub (check opening times). Goorambat now has a café with special toilets, go and see what I mean — and don’t forget to find Sophia.
If you have not already found all the street art paintings in Benalla get the brochure and make an excursion to find the 60 or more works.
We created a Christmas tradition by taking our children to Melbourne to see the Myer windows and had dinner at a laneway restaurant first. For a special effect we took them in their pyjamas.
After 67 years, the theme this year is Disney. The lights are on from 7.30am to midnight until January 6.
If walking in the hills around Benalla is your preferred recreation, think about going on a poo treasure hunt to identify what animals were there before you and maybe how long ago. Children will love finding the square poo of wombats.
I always knew that snakes shed their skin but only recently that they do so regularly as they grow, so see if you can find snake skins too and look for birds, smell the leaves, look at the view — don’t trip over!
Holidays are great times. Once you have mastered holidaying at home in Benalla, apply the same routine and day-trip in any direction around Benalla where everything is different again. Good holidaying and day-tripping takes practice.
To finish a great day, go to Spot 4 Icecream, The name says it all, but be there before 6pm.
Happy day-tripping.
— Suzie Pearce