Dodgy Dubbo

So, on Wednesday night, we stayed in the Comfort Inn Blue Lagoon in Dubbo, which is supposed to be a 4 star motel.  Let's see if I can remember all the things that were wrong with it ...

• My single bed bed head detached itself from the wall during the night and collapsed onto the floor.
• A panel from the bedside table fell off.
• There was mould in the shower.
• There was a used hair band (with hair attached) under the sheet in the double bed.
• The air conditioner was set to turn on when the room became hot and stuffy and turn off when it became freezing like a refrigerator. It was also VERY loud.
• A family checked in next door at midnight and had kids who were LOUD until about 1am.
• There were kennels attached to the motel and the one guest who had a dog let it bark all night .. I phoned to complain twice and it was about 1am when the dog stopped barking.
• The double bed was old and saggy like a hammock (not in a good way).
• The carpet was so worn that it was lifted and a trip hazard at the front door. It was also frayed and threadbare at the walls.
• The cabinet that held the bar fridge and coffee making stuff had dodgy doors that would not close.
• There was a constant drip outside the bathroom window that we could hear all night.

I think that's all. I wrote everything down and gave it to the receptionist when I paid the bill and she gave me 10% off the price. Later, while we were on the road, the receptionist phoned me to ask for my email address so that the owner could follow up.  This is the email that I received from the owner ...

Dear Roz Griffin

Thank you for your time given in advising our Receptionist Lee regarding your stay last night at The Comfort Inn Blue Lagoon.

Allow me to apologise on behalf of our motel for failing to meet your expectations regarding the following issues;

The bedhead, bedside table and crockery cupboard door need repairing and resecuring and our maintenance team have been advised.

The mould in shower has been removed and is now being monitored more closely.

The hairband found in your bed has been addressed with our laundry and housemaid team.

Your air conditioner had been set incorrectly. I am assuming by the last guest staying in your room therefore if we were notified immediately it could have been reset.

A family was checked in late last night into a room next door unfortunately they were noisy although I would have notified them to keep the noise down if I was aware.

After many attempts of trying to find which dog was barking after your first phone call. I spoke with the owner of the dog and asked him to quiet his animal.

30% of our beds on the property have been replaced by a Sleepmaker Serta Choice Elite II double sided Miracoil5 cushion top which is ranked as excellent under the Star Ratings quality guidelines. During the next 2 months we will have new beds throughout our property.

Again thank you for your time and valuable feedback. We sincerely appreciate it and hope you will give us another chance to accommodate you on your next visit to Dubbo.

Kind regards

Jodie Vella and Peter Webb
Proprietors
Comfort Inn Blue Lagoon
79-85 Cobra Street
Dubbo NSW 2830

I thanked them for the follow up and told them that I probably wouldn't stay there again, but I wished them good luck in providing a better service for their future customers.

We left there to visit the Warrumbungles. We've avoided the area for the last 3 road trips because of the severe bush fires that occurred in January 2013, but we figured that after 3 years, the regrowth would be complete and the area would look as good as it did the last time we visited.

Sadly, this was not the case. Although there is regrowth, it is barely halfway up the blackened dead stumps that were once lush trees and the damage can still be seen for hectare after hectare after hectare. It is so badly ravaged that BGWLBH and I could barely speak for an hour as we surveyed the area through our drive.

The information centre that we visited last time was obviously razed during the fire and there is just bare earth where it once stood. The signs were damaged and burnt and melted. We were left feeling sad and empty knowing that there is a little bit of history only in our memories now. 

We chose not to go on any of the walks, but we did discover the park where we ate lunch last time and it was left untouched by the fire. Except for the very loud cicadas, it was a beautiful spot to eat our lunch.

Our original plan was to stay at Coonabarabran for the night, but we had to get out of there and ended up in Tamworth for the night instead.

We had a beautiful room at Ashby House. Beautiful beds. Lovely bathroom. Quiet area. I highly recommend that one!

This morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Trinity's Coffee Lounge, although the coffee wasn't much good, and then we found a shoe warehouse and the retail therapy was enjoyable.

We discussed the option of staying in Tamworth a second night, but opted to head towards Inverell or Glenn Innes instead.

We found a back way that we've never travelled before and drove through Manilla, Barraba, Bingara and on to Inverell. We stopped for lunch at Australia Day Park in Barraba, which was lovely.

 

After we left here, we were driving along a dirt road and unexpectedly came across this ...

No idea where the other half was!

Tonight we are in the Cousins Motor Inn at Inverell. The bed feels very comfortable and I am about to sign off and get some sleep.

Just so you know .. we are having a fabulous time. The back roads are the best roads and we have discovered some real little gems while avoiding traffic and driving at a nice slow pace in order to enjoy the views.

We never decide, until we are sitting over breakfast, what direction we are going to drive for the day and it's the nicest way to do a road trip! Very relaxing and every day is a good day :)

Nite all.