Everton - but not the soccer team.

We’d not made plans for a summer trip this year, but always intended on taking the caravan out. In Feb. 2009 we picked up our caravan, brand new from Jayco, having been one of the first built in January of that year. That means, our caravan turns ten around this time! So how could we not go away to celebrate 10 happy years together? 

So, early in January once Christmas was packed back in it’s box and New Year was done and dusted for another year we began planning…

Five years ago we visited Colac Colac (pronounced Clack Clack) near Corryong and loved it. That was in spring. Would it be too busy in January? We checked and they had plenty of room. Booked it we did.

I looked for somewhere to stop a night or two on the way up and with some research on Wikicamps and other online sources, came across a small caravan park at Everton, just over half way to Corryong. They had a pool, a summertime essential and they were near the Murray to Mountain rail trail, meaning we could go for a ride. So we booked two nights there as well.

Departure day: After a coffee break in Yea, a pit stop at Swanpool

and a lunch stop at Brown Brothers Winery in Milawa we found ourselves in Everton. Actually, the lunch stop at Brown Brothers probably wasn’t necessary, it was only 12 km’s short of Everton, but hey, the cellar door beckoned. They also allow free camping, something to bear in mind for a future trip.

Everton caravan park is both quirky and lovely… quirky as it has lots of old cabins and ensuites that are looking run down. Lovely in that it has lots of nice gardens, the pool, shady sites and new ensuites. We had our own private bathroom which was quite new.

Once set up we had a look around Everton. This did not take very long as it is quite small. No wonder I’d never heard of it before, other than being an English football team! A highlight for tourists at Everton has to be the Everton bus stop. It’s pointless trying to describe it. This is what it looked like:

Across the road from the bus stop is the Everton General Store. We could not help but notice it’s claim to having world famous milkshakes. That was attention getting. We might have to check those out tomorrow after our bike ride.

After walking past the attractive hotel we found ourselves finished with our tour of Everton and adjourned to the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Being a warm day, it was nice to cook and eat outside and enjoy the daylight hours of evening.

Next day we had a plan – ride in the morning and visit the pool in the afternoon. The Murray to Mountains rail trail runs from Wangaratta to Bright and has a branch line up to Beechworth. Previously I’ve ridden from Beechworth to Bright which was around 80 km’s. Today we planned on riding the ‘Everton Triangle’. This involved 2 sections of the rail trail and a quiet country road to complete the third leg. All up it was around 10 km’s. So an easy ride. The challenge was, there were over 20 geocaches to grab on that triangle!

We set off from the caravan park and rode the short distance up Diffey Rd to join the trail. Heading towards Wangaratta initially we found all caches up to the old Everton Station.

Found a nice old letterbox and had a drinks and snack break at the old station before setting off on the leg towards Beechworth. This is where we failed to find one cache, but all others found and logged. Slight uphill for this section. Further along it gets quite steep, but we didn’t have to face that!

Heading along the third arm of our triangle we found more caches, another cool letter box and an unusual gum tree that appears to have an elbow…

Once the triangle was complete we decided to ride another couple of km’s towards Bright before returning to Everton.

I’d googled ‘world famous Everton milkshakes’ and found a couple of links, but mostly the internet wanted to tell me all about Everton Football Club in the UK. We decided we’d have to try for ourselves and see why they are world famous.

They were nice – strong flavours, but nothing to suggest they should be famous in every corner of the globe. The flavours were out of the same plastic bottles that other places have - so they don't make their own unique flavouring. Nice marketing, it got us in the door ordering five milkshakes!

The afternoon was again spent in the pool, trying not to splash too much as the owner was adamant that too much splashing would empty his pool and he did not have enough water to refill it. I don’t think they get many kids staying at Everton!

These two days at Everton certainly got us back into caravnning mode and was a great start to the trip. Would we stay here again? Most definitely, assuming there was still water in the pool.