Dimboola and the little desert

I arrived home yesterday after a great weekend in the Dimboola area. It was interesting to get out to do a bit of sand driving for a change.
Dimboola and the surrounding towns are suffering badly from the drought with their resivoirs being down to around the 8% mark.
Sadly this year I have managed to go driving on three lakes where normally people would be boating and swimming.
The shop keepers in Dimboola and Jeparit were extremely happy to see us. We were told that most shops were running at a about 40% of normal takings over weekends. A lot of shops we saw had already succumed to the drought and were now closed.
I am already making plans to head back out to this area in the not to distant future, for a couple of reasons.
A. To try and help out some of these areas by pumping some much needed money back into their economy.

B. To go and check out the Big Desert

C. To go back to the Dimboola Hotel.

Any one heading up this way should stop in at the Dimboola hotel. Pat the publican could not have been friendlier or more helpful. You can get a double room at the pub for $30. The rooms are basic but the beds comfy the food is good and cheap. We spent 3 nights there and were treated like Royalty. Our bar bill was reduced considerably due to Pats insistence that he buy us drinks every now and then.
He was on the phone to the local CFA captain about maps when we told him the ones we had bought were less than impressive.
All in all he could not have helped us more. It is this sort of service that seems to be harder and harder to find now a days. But it is also this type of service that will ensure that he will get repeat buisness from myself and Any one else who I can entice to get up there.

So if you have a bit of spare time on your hands head on up to Dimboola have a beer at the Dimboola Hotel. And check out the 4x4ing in the area.