Day: October 29, 2025

I rolled into the Corio Bay Motel in Geelong after a drive of just over 5 3/4 hours from Wagga Wagga. However, that included two stops for a break and refreshments and a sandwich for lunch. The drive was very pleasant with bright blue skies, little wind and very little traffic. I was on the Hume Freeway and Highway connecting Sydney and Melbourne I think the whole way. The roads were excellent as they have been almost everywhere I’ve driven during my stay here, with an excellent surface, rolling green landscape on each side flanked by trees and the occasional glimpse of low mountains off to the left.

Sadly, I passed lots of dead kangaroos and other wildlife on the way south but although there were many signs showing to watch out for koalas in the road, I still haven’t seen any, dead or alive. I’m beginning to suspect that koalas are an endangered species and the only ones here in Australia are all in zoos.

With a name like ‘Corio Bay’ you might expect the motel to be on the ocean’s edge, like Lakeside where I stayed in Mallacoota, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s situated on a very busy junction as you enter Geelong and as I type this the traffic is constantly stopping at and then roaring away from the traffic lights outside my room.

My first impressions of the motel were bad and my second and third even worse. I thought that the first room I was put in at the Ibis Budget Hotel in Sydney was awful but this place beats it by a country mile.

It’s claimed to be 3* on Agoda but that’s totally false as in reality it’s a tip. My room smells and not in a nice way. It’s filthy and much of the wooden ‘furniture’ in it is damaged or broken. I wouldn’t dare touch the telephone for fear of picking up an incurable communicable disease and after walking around on the carpet I’ll have to wipe my feet before getting back into my hire car.

I’m washing everything, like the cup and spoon I’ve used to make my first cup of tea and I’ve noticed things on the floor against the wall under the shelf I’ve got my laptop on that I’m in no way going to get close to to find out what they are. Seriously, if this place was in the UK it would have been closed down long ago by the Public Health Inspector.

The room offers some special features as shown in the following pictures. Note the hole on the seat of the chair, the light fitting with no lamp cover in what’s laughingly referred to as the bathroom and the smoke detector hanging off the ceiling above the television

When I climbed the metal staircase up to my room I noticed another ‘guest’ standing outside smoking on the other landing. He looked like a homeless person who’d come in off the street for a shower and it had me thinking who the main clients of this place are. To be honest, if I hadn’t prepaid I’d have left as soon as I saw the room but as I’m only staying for one night I’ll grin and bear it as this trip was supposed to be a bit of an adventure. However, this is a bit beyond even my limits and I just hope that I don’t leave here tomorrow with a dreadful disease.