Homeward bound

 

Thursday 8th April, 2021. 

Lunch in Holbrook on the way to Goulburn - J&B's Gourmet Cafe for lunch, waited for ages after we ordered. Got a lamb wrap and a fish wrap, shared both. Very good. Found an interesting shop, Lady Gail's Bookshop and Curios. Spent the night in Goulburn. Owner/manager not a people person and doesn't handle stress well, but I think we won her over. 

 

 There's some sculptures in Goulburn. This one is near the big park in the middle of town.

Hold Your Head Up

Friday 9th April, 2021. 

After a nicely cooked breakfast, we headed for home. Next time I think I'll do whatever I can to avoid driving on the Hume Highway. It wasn't a pleasant experience. The truckers complain about caravanners, but we have seen some absolutely perilous driving by some truckers.

Wine tour in Rutherglen

 

Wednesday 7th April, 2021. 

Wine tour with Lil Tipsy Wine Tours. Strange, because when we were in Margaret River in WA, we did a wine tour with Tipsy Tours! 

Picked up right on time by Tiffany, along with another couple staying at our motel. Short tour around town as we collect the other passengers joining us on tour. Our first stop for the day is Andrew Buller Wines, the newest Boutique Winery and Cellar Door located at the historic property  "Cannobie" in the heart of Rutherglen.  Andrew started his own winery, branching out after the death of older members of the family, wanting to do things his way. 

 

2nd stop was Campbell's Wines, then Anderson Winery, followed by lunch at Corowa Whisky and Chocolate. 

 

There's some sort of partnership with the Junee Chocolate Factory as their chocolates were for sale. Trevor had a prawn roll and I had a Rueben sandwich, both very good. 

 

Our last stop of the day was Morris Wines. 

 

The area around Rutherglen is renowned for reds and fortified wines, and we brought home a bit of everything. Definitely feeling no pain we wandered back into town and bought a gelato from Gelatina Rutherglen.  Finally get to try the food at the Poachers Pantry Hotel, and are served with typically massive country servings. Debated whether to drive through and get home tomorrow, but decided to stop one more night on the road and booked a room in Goulburn at Lilac City Motor Inn.

Stop off in Rutherglen

 

Tuesday 6th April, 2021. 

2 nights Rutherglen, Poachers Paradise Motel, right in town. We arrived in Rutherglen and went for a walk to see what we’d have for dinner. It's a smaller town than I'd imagined. Pub 1 - dinner 7 days a week but for some reason, not tonight. Pub 2 - the ubiquitous Chinese restaurant, closed Tuesdays. Pub 3 - bistro closed Monday AND Tuesday. What’s left? A pizza shop or fish n chips. Plan F? Microwave meals from IGA. Turned out to be quite tasty and for $7.50 each, pretty good value. 

 

The beating heart of Greece in the burbs

 

Monday 5th April, 2021. 

Patrick drove us over to Glen Iris so I could collect some free passata jars from a woman on Fowlers Vacola facebook page. I had asked her for 6 but there was some confusion, she thought I wanted more, so I ended up with 20! Turns out she has a quince tree and loads me up with those too. 

 

Patrick had heard about a fantastic Greek place that he wanted to try for lunch, so off to Oakleigh we go. The place he read about was closed so we wander down the street and hit the mother lode of Greek cafes and restaurants. We ate at Mythos Gyros Bar. A place to come back to for sure! I'd always wanted to try a HSP but never have, so here I got one with a twist. An Hellenic Snack Pack! It was very good and didn't get me back later. 

 

Altona

Friday 2^nd April, 2021 Good Friday

The house we are staying in is a 1960s vintage, therefore very spacious. Wouldn't be difficult to imagine living in a house like this, just not on this block of land, it's a bit on the small side, which makes sense for a rental. There's a massive lilli pilli tree in the front yard and I wish I could have picked some to make jam, but they were up quite high. It's in Seves St, closer to Seaholme train station than Altona station but the place I wanted wasn't available, the owner being stranded overseas due to Covid.   

We spend as much time as we can with Patrick and Heidi and I didn't write much down. We did go to great places for lunch on 2 days. Mosaic in Altona and the other in Spotswood called Grazeland, right next door to Scienceworks. 

 

 

 

Garden of St Erth

 

Thursday 1^st April, 2021.

Time to leave and this time, we're very excited to be heading to Altona to see family. On the way we take a detour and visit the Diggers garden at Blackwood. It's called The Garden of St Erth and is very large and beautiful, and being in a very different climate to us, they grow things we can't. Things I've never seen in person, like medlars. 

 

 

It's usually $10 per person to enter, but I recently joined the Diggers Club, so I get in for free and April is a special promotion month - members can bring a guest for free too! We spend an hour or so exploring although we could have spent longer but are keen to get to Melbourne. We enjoy lunch at their cafe and buy some seeds. Could have gone nuts in the shop!

 

Dream run on the roads until we get close to Melbourne, where we're in bumper to bumper traffic. Very stressful...........

Eating and drinking our way

 

Wednesday  31^st March, 2021.

No rush to get going this morning. We spend a bit more time exploring town and after lunch  take a walk around Lake Daylesford. It’s a lake made by damming a river and natural springs dot the surrounds. You can pump the handle and the spring water pours out the spout. We tried the water from 2 springs and neither of them tasted particularly good, a bit fizzy and very mineral heavy. The walk around the lake is very pretty and took about an hour. 

                                                                         

I’d read about a place in Daylesford, walking distance from the cottage, that started out as a wine shop then added a deli and now serves cheese and charcuterie plates with wine, from midday till late. It’s called Winespeake and we have to give it a go. We went for a platter with 2 cheeses and 2 meats, they decide what you get, after checking dietary requirements and preferences. Trevor doesn’t like blue cheese so we mention that, not even thinking that chilli could be an issue. Yes, we get a spicy meat, some mortadella, Tassie brie and a raw milk cheddar. It’s quite an amazing sight, and we manage to find a way to deal with the spicy meat. 

Our host has quite a decent sized block of land and with it, a fantastic veggie garden. Not seen at it's best at this time of year, most summer crops are finished and it's a bit early for winter things. I'd love to see it at it's best! 

Had planned to walk across the street for Indian food for dinner. Did I mention we were staying that close to the Taj Mahal?? Something different, we order the Pani Puri for an entrée. Strange crispy balls, with some potato and chickpea filling, served with mint flavoured water. Something different indeed!! 

 

Daylesford is a lovely town

 

Tuesday 30^th March, 2021.

Took a drive up to Wombat Hill Botanic Garden, planted in the 1880s on top of an extinct volcano. Glad we didn’t decide to walk up, it’s quite a hill! At the entry, there’s a sign pointing to a ‘scenic drive’. Sounds good. We get almost all the way around and a man in hi-vis comes running towards us. He seems very frustrated! He tells us that the road is closed due to a fallen tree, which they are trying to cut up and remove, but someone keeps moving the road closed sign, and can we please reverse back until there’s room to turn around. Really!!?? Ok, start reversing! Sadly, another car drives up behind us and this driver is really shit at reversing and takes forever to get anywhere! Oh and of course, another car drives up behind us! We’re never getting out of here!! Like my dad always said “if you can’t reverse it, you shouldn’t be driving it”!!!

Pioneer Memorial Tower

View from the top of Tower

Wombat sculptures

Begonia 'house'

Chef Alla Wolf-Tasker runs the café there, Wombat Hill House, and that’s where we have lunch, because by now, it’s lunchtime! It’s busy already, just on midday, good sign. We didn’t have to wait long for our food to arrive, which was a big surprise. The kitchen must be a well oiled machine. The coffees could have been hotter though.

Robert, our host, was cleaning the other cottage and I wanted to ask him if we could pick some of his lemons. We chat to him a bit about his garden, it’s the end of the season and looks pretty rough, and I’d love to have a dig around in it! I miss my garden. He tells us the European wasps are a problem in this area too. He had a nest on the property a couple of years ago that he dealt with and hasn’t had any more since, but we see them around in other parts of the town.

We drove up and down the main street and also walked up and down to try and get oriented and check out the shops, and realise how close everything is to where we are staying. The Tourist Info have quite a few self drive loops through surrounding towns, but we’re a bit over driving. There’s a leaflet advertising ‘The Amazing Mill Markets”, sounds interesting. It’s huge!! Trevor goes to the loo and then gets lost trying to find his way back! This is where we find some small Fowlers jars, size 10s!! Very special.

Dinner tonight is at the Royal Daylesford Hotel, with 14 different parmas! Wow!! Impressive. And a short walk from our cottage.

Castlemaine and Daylesford

Monday 29^th March 2021

Tonight we sleep in Daylesford, but first we have to get there! Castlemaine is another small town full of heritage buildings, just half an hour or so south of Bendigo. 

Anticline at Castlemaine

 

We have a quick look around and hit a couple of op shops, finding a couple of Fowlers jars. Lunch was a kebab, or souvlaki as they’re called down here. Not bad. We bought it from Blue Sea Fish Shop on Mostyn Street, the first place we’ve noticed butter fish on the menu.

On the edge of town is another op shop, Vinnies, and here I score a lovely red coat for $6. There’s also a second hand shop around the corner which is a real treasure trove.

Check in time at the Airbnb at Daylesford is 2pm, so we plan to be there about then, only another half an hour south of Castlemaine. Road work and dodgy navigation slows our trip but we still only arrive a few minutes late. Jamison Cottage is lovely and we are met by our host Robert. It’s a bit cool, so first chance we get, we switch on the central heating. 

Every Victorian country town worth it's salt has a big fountain! Usually dedicated to Royalty.
 

There’s another treasure trove around the corner, the ‘Daylesford Bazaar’, so we walk around for a look once we’ve unpacked our bags. Find a few more jars.

 

Didn’t do much else as we were booked for a 7 course Japanese degustation dinner at Kadota and wanted a bit of down time. Dinner was amazing, again, just around the corner.