Dear diary, nothing much happened today. Apart from drinking and eating. I didn’t get any great photos, so am interspersing 3 photos of roses from the D’VE (De’Vine Escape – our accommodation) amongst the text.

Headed off just before 10am to Yering Station Winery, billed as “Victoria’s First Vineyard”. The tasting was held in the original winery building (approx 1859). We tasted a range of wines, from a Shiraz Viogner, through Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, to a Nebbiolo Rose; and finished with two dessert style wines, being a Cold Pressed Riesling and a Cane Cut Viogner. Delightful all round, with the Cold Pressed Riesling my favourite. The gentleman behind the bar was very knowledgeable and talked us through the process of cold pressing as it occurs in Yarra Valley versus Canada, and how Cane Cut Viogner grapes are left on the cane to mature.

We then headed off to the Yarra Valley Dairy to taste cheeses. The building the shop is in was the original 100 year old milking shed. We got to try 5 different cheeses, and as I wasn’t really listening to her go on about what we were tasting, I know we tried: fresh pyramid (plain goats cheese), ashed pyramid (fresh goats cheese dusted with ash, which added a slight smokiness to the flavour); and I think we tried: Yerling (semi matured white mound goat’s milk cheese),  House Cow (fresh cow’s milk with fresh chives, parsley and garlic), and some other type of cheese. I really liked the ashed pyramid due to it’s creaminess and softness, but also the after taste of the ash.

Then we headed into town so I could do some laundry. Chris took the time to wander up the street to the Hargreaves Hill Ale House to try their beers, whilst I read the Herald Sun newspaper about how bad the youth crime rate is in Victoria, and how Australia doesn’t know how to play cricket anymore.

After heading to the fish and chip shop next  door (I had Whiting and chips, Chris had the seafood basket), I collected my laundry and we headed out to De Bertoli Wines. We tried Sauvignon, Riesling, Moscato, Cabernet Sauvignon (Missing Act brand), Pinot Noir, and 2 x Shiraz (including a Woodfire Shiraz which wasn’t on their tasting sheet). We followed up with the sweeter dessert wines of: Noble One Botrytis Semillon (Chris had, I passed as I still have 9 bottles at home), followed by the Black Noble Botrytis Semillon, followed by the Old Boys 21 Aged Tawny, and the final taste being a tasty Muscat. All in all, a great range. My favourite was a tie between the riesling and the tawny. Although the latter is problematic in the Pilbara, there aren’t that many nights where it is cold enough to drink tawny (formerly called port, until the Portuguese apparently took the name back).

We then headed off to a small winery next to the D’VE. It is called Corniola Wines, and is a very small “mum and dad” operation. The lady said that she and her husband only produce around 13,000 bottles per year. The wine tasing was held in a shed at the back of their house. They had a great range of wines, of which we tasted all bar the Cuvee. We started with a Sangiovesi, Sauvignon Blanc, Moscato, Rose, Petit Verdot, Shiraz, and finally a Dolce Rosso. This latter wine is a mix of Chardonney and Shiraz that they make themselves. The lady was a real saleswoman, and luckily some other customers came before we ended up with a carton each. The Petit Verdot was my favourite, with very sweet blackberry and blueberry flavours.

We then headed next door for the compulsory afternoon nap / rest / book reading break, before heading back to town for dinner at Hargreaves Hill Yarra Glen Ale House. I had the chilli prawn pasta (tagliatelle), and Chris had the fish pie. Mine was delicious. I had a drink of the ESB Extra Special Bitter made by the Ale House. Delicious. Then it was time to come back home and blog. I also took the photos of roses on this page. What a day. I am now so tired and looking forward to sleep.

Woke up to total quiet. The solitude is so refreshing. A fog lay over the scenery.

After breakfast at the D’VE, we headed off to the Healesville Sanctuary, one of the big 3 zoos in Victoria. It is such a great place to visit. And being the end of the school year, the place was full of running and screaming children. 😦  I’m sure I was exactly the same. We went into the parrots cage and were offered the opportunity to feed the birds. We both had a go, herewith a photo of Chris and a green bird of some description.

After the Sanctuary, we headed over to Punt Road winery for tasting. As the driver I utilised the spitoon, and I must say the wines were crisp and fruity (whites) and blackcurrent and peppery (reds). We then headed off to Napolean next door for some beer and cider sampling – Chris had 4 beers and I had 4 ciders, see the cider tasting paddle below.

We then walked all of 3 metres from the Napolean bar to the Meletos restaurant. Having learnt a little from last night, I had two entrees. The roasted baby beetroot salad was very flavoursome, and the chicken liver parfait (entree as main) was smooth and creamy. I have decided I will try growing baby beetroot next season in Karratha. I think if I set aside 2 garden raisers for that, I can try taking them out at different stages to work out the best time to pick them.

On the way back to the D’VE, we stopped at the Yarra Valley Chocolateire. I was a little concerned on the way in that there were 3 big coaches out the front (like the 9 or 10 at the Sanctuary) so hoped it wasn’t full of kids. Luckily, the buses were for seniors. I am considering moving here to retire so that my tours from the old folks home are to wineries and chocolate manufacturers. There are also pokies in every town but I can happily give them a miss.

Anyway, when I got inside, it was like heaven. There were so may flavours, types  and mixes of chocolate. And there was an icecreamery! Sheer heaven. So I bought some truffles and an icecream – buttermilk flavour. Was better than the ones I made myself. Unfortunately, I stared at the below stand for a good 5 minutes weighing the options up in my mind, before deciding maybe I just could not get through this chocolate bar in a reasonable time. Plus I didn’t thin my system would be able to handle the amount of sugar in one hit. So I took a photo instead.

Afterwards, we headed back to the D’VE and I had a good couple of hours laying on my bed and reading a book to let all the food settle. Then we headed off to the Dixon Creek Cafe Bar and Grill for  $20 Steak and Ribs Night. Chris had the Steak, I had the Ribs. They were soft inside with a crispy shell/skin, with a tasty honey BBQ sauce. Now back to base and rest in preparation for another day of wineries tomorrow!

As I head to bed, the sun is going down, the birds are chirping, and I wonder why I didn’t try this years ago. Will definitely have to hit up my friends Rob and Donna to go back to their farmstay in Mount Barker next winter.

Today we bid farewell to Kyneton and headed off on our journey to Yarra Glen. The first leg of the trip was to travel in the opposite direction to visit Bendigo. This city does have a lot of history, especially as the Goldfields in Victoria. It was quite an overcast day so most of the architecture etc. just looked grey. For a bit of brightness, herewith a quick shot of Chris with the Lotus Flower Sculpture at the Golden Dragon museum. We didn’t get to enter the museum because it was just after 9am, and as I am finding out, nothing much in Victoria opens before 10am. It would be good to come back one day and compare its history to that of the WA Goldfields.

So we headed off to Yarra Glen through a lot of country roads, and so the trip from Bendigo took over 2 hours. But that was fine, the hired Mitsubishi ASX handles the roads, cornering and speeds quite well. Our first stop when we arrived was at the Coldstream Brewery. I was somewhat thirsty by that time, and it was lunchtime, so I had the tasting paddle below (4 beers and 2 ciders) along with as lamb pizza. Delicious and I highly recommend them.

We then checked in at De’Vine Escape – a few motel style rooms in the middle of a vineyard. I thought from the outside that they were just Pilbara-style dongas in a row, but they are actually quite nice. And in a great spot. For the evening meal, we went to Rae’s Restaurant in Balgownie Estate. Another delightful spot, with tasty Asparagus Soup for entree, Crispy Salmon for the main followed by 3 styles of frozen sorbets with thin sliced dehydrated oranges. I’ll definitely try that when I get home. This was washed down with a delightful 2015 Pinot Gris. The only downside was that I could barely get out of my seat and make it to the car, I was so full. So back to the De’Vine Escape and bed with a good book.

 

 

Today was an enjoyable day. I got up at around 9am, had a deliciopus meal of home cooked bacon and eggs and prepared to travel to the Chocolate Mill which, like mostly every business here, didn’t open until 10am. The Chocolate Mill, for serious  chocoholics – definitely me. Chris and I spent around $40 on chocolates and on the way back to Kyneton, stopped at the Black Hill Nature Reserve to walk off breakfast. Luckily this is early on my trip, because I found a major flaw in my Garmin Forerunner 15 watch (which measures steps, kilometres, calories and tells the time). The walk was great, although I was very tired at the end. By that time, my watch told me that I had walked 5.3 kilometres and burnt off 1340 calories. It would be obvious to most people that walking 5km would burn off at least 2600 calories, so I have decided the watch is flawed and to fix it I just double the amount of calories that it tells me I have used up, which is much more real.

When we got back, we sat out in the back yard of the apartment we are staying at, and took photos of the flowers and insects. Below is one of them.

After lunch I lay down for a couple of hours and listened to a couple of lessons from The Great Courses collection. Then we planned to go out tonight to take photos of the Super Moon – whilst being disturbed by the major cloud cover and hoping it would go away. We ended up having dinner just down the road at a place called Mr Carsisi. The food was delicious and filling, although I hadn’t gotten over last night’s meal. My entree of stuffed vine leaves followed by a main of beef was very tender with tasty chutney, and Chris enjoyed his Haloumi, followed by roasted walnut crusted lamb cutlets. Chris had a dessert of petit fours which were actually petit fives.

Then we popped down the road a bit to find a good spot to take a photo of the moon. Sadly the clouds were very heavy, so didn’t do very well. I have included the best of a bad lot below (no photo editing, which may clean it up a bit but is not going to make it a good photo).

So back to the  apartment to update my blog and head off to bed. Before we went out, I turned on the reverse cycle split system in the rooms to heat them up whilst we were out. I had one interesting realisation. Over here, the temperature was set to 24 degrees to heat up the room. In the Pilbara, we set the temperature to 25 or 26 degrees to cool down the room. I guess it’s all relative.

Today started out as such a wonderful day, and came close to ending with devastation through the day.

Stayed at Best Western Attfield (nice room with good amenities) and then had brekky at Broadmeadows Shopping Centre. Then went back to Melbourne Airport to pick up my brother Chris. We then drove up to Kyneton, stopping off in Macedon to visit Hanging Rock. I am so glad things worked out but it was a difficult afternoon. We both decided to climb to the summit of Hanging Rock ( see photo). We stopped halfway up for a photo opportunity, with Chris popping behind a rock to take some photos, and then he didn’t come out for 4 hours. I was really worried that it was 1901 all over again (Aussies will know what I’m talking about). He cannot talk about what happened, but I’m glad to have him back.

So we then headed on to Kyneton, to stay for a couple of nights in a great two storey property with the bedrooms and lounge on the top floor and the kitchen, bathroom, laundry etc. on the ground floor. And great heating!!

So we had dinner at Pizza Verde, delicious beef and pork meatballs and potato gratin, followed up with a great Diavalo pizza, washed down with a shared bottle of Pinot Grigio and then pear cider for myself and local beer for Chris. We then went for a walk for abput half an hour and then back to the accommodation. Now watching UFC  on his mini tablet.So the first photo is the rock formation Chris went missing in, and the second is the actual Hanging Rock.

ation Chris went missing in for half the day.

 

Well, it’s arrived. My holiday. Phew, I really thought it might not happen.I’ve been asked all week whether I have packed yet. The answer has always been no. See the photo for evidence.

I don’t leave home until 8am tomorrow, so really I’ve got plenty of time. Going to crack a beer and think about what I should take with me.

Well, it’s a week to go until the longest holiday in my career (gotta love Excess Management Plans for public servants…).

And so given tomorrow and next day’s temperatures in Karratha are due to hit above 40 degrees C, I thought today would be a good day to test the website and the gear.

Not a great photo I’ll admit, but at least I am prepared for the cold!