First an interesting issue with the cattle. A tree branch had fallen across one of the lower fences, allowing cows & calves to step over into a bush bog at the bottom of the property. Eventually I got a chainsaw started and restored the fence with minimum attention required.
I got my exercise quota this morning.....
After a good clean up I did a small local tour around Emerald, Cockatoo and Gembrook. All very pretty, with Gembrook the end of the line for the Puffing Billy Steam Train that runs during the Winter months.
The station is surrounded by old shady oak trees. Very pretty.
Gembrook Station. End of the line for Puffing Billy.
The Independent Restaurant and Bar in Gembrook. Highly recommended by Sandra Elliott and also Trip Adviser, but unfortunately closed over Christmas and New Year.
Had a great drive back to the farm through the back roads and Kurth Kiln Picnic Ground in the National Park. Very spectacular countryside and I only got a little lost.
Tried to start the caravan air con as the day had become quite hot, but it was dead as a door nail. Asked a few questions on Bushtracker and Facebook forums and despite the efforts of fellow owner Davo, was unable to fix the issue. I was very lucky to find a (fairly nearby) agent for the Truma Aircon that was open during Xmas & New Year. Not a caravan repair company of course as they were all closed. The Commercial and Marine agent I found agreed to fit me in at their workshop in Rowville (Melbourne suburb) the next morning early before the techs went on the road for any callouts.
Thursday 28 December
I was apprehensive about the early drive with the van on hilly and then possibly very busy roads, but it turned out well. Traffic was very light because of the holiday period and I was able to take it easy and arrive (very) early. FridgeAir Pty Ltd was just great. They diagnosed the problem, a fuse blown in the internal electronics module of the unit, replaced it quickly and efficiently and checked the unit performance which was all good. I was most relieved and very happy to have a working aircon again after a 23 deg C minimum night.
Occasionally when you have a problem you get lucky, unlike my previous fridge / freezer saga earlier this year...
Friday 29 December
Today I am back on track as it was quite a big touring day, with lots of photos. I set out from Yellingbo along the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road. How is that for a name that just rolls off the tongue.
Yellingbo Roadhouse Old
Yellingbo Roadhouse "new".
The settlement is tiny with only few houses, a Telstra exchange and a closed down primary school. Almost makes Gidgegannup look big.
A very pleasant country drive by the back road to Healesville, which is a pretty, shady town, but a focal point for the many tourists and visitors to the Yarra Valley.
Lots of old shady oaks with cafes and shops filling the main drag. There are also a couple of large attractions; Innocent Bystander, Giant Steps and Beechworth Bakery on the edge of town. More wineries just outside the township.
I had a pleasant walk around and a coffee at a cafe recommended by the lady in the caravan park at Lilydale. Bit of a shame but it was pretty ordinary, which just goes to show how different our expectations may be.
Just outside Healesville, on the Maroondah Highway towards Marysville is the beautiful Maroondah Reservoir, which is part of Melbourne's water supply.
Just stunning on a cloudy morning.
I continued my exploration through to Yarra Glen, with a visit to the nearby Yering Station Winery.
The old winery building dates from around 1859.
New Restaurant at Yering Station
Stunning new architecture in the new public buildings.
Impressive arches
Some interesting art works,
and a beautiful walk through the Elms.
The winery area was very busy, particularly the Cellar Door that was full of tourists. Many International visitors and a range including some very expensive wines.
Whilst I was visiting, a helicopter landed on the manicured lawns with a group arriving for lunch at the Restaurant. Very upmarket.
Meantime PJ took a trip further North on the Melba Highway to Dixons Creek for some lunch. Sandra Elliott and Trip Adviser, both recommended The Dixons Creek Bar and Restaurant for good value and good food.
I agree, food was excellent and by the time I left the restaurant was full of Friday lunch diners.
Saturday 30 December 2017
Today I decided to do a trip up into the Yarra Ranges. It was an interesting outing & couple of days ago I spent about 1.1/2 hours writing it up and adding a series of photos, right through to the end of this chapter. Then I had a quirk in blogger where it would not let me Preview this entry before publishing. After a bit of troubleshooting, I eventually shut it down to see if that would fix the problem. Despite saving the input many times, when I restarted I was missing 90 minutes of work. I was so pissed off, it has taken quite a few days before I felt like I would do it all over again.......Bummer.
Here we go again.......
I set off North via Woori Yallock to the (Warburton) Highway and then East through Launching Place and Yarra Junction to Warburton. It is a pretty town in a river valley and was busy on a Saturday morning with many visitors. Lots of quirky shops and quite a few cafes and restaurants. The bakery was doing a roaring trade and I can recommend the coffee and pasties. PJ's good healthy diet continues.
Quite a cool and overcast morning in Warburton with many pretty old buildings along the main drag.
I can't say the modern Information Centre with water wheel captured my imagination, but it certainly attracted tourist attention.
Just near Warburton was the turn off up into the Ranges for the Donna Buang Rainforest and Mountain lookout. It appeared that it was a busy weekend visiting spot as the traffic declined significantly as I continued to the North East through Warburton East and McMahons Creek. Near Reefton and turned off to the East to have a look at the Upper Yarra Reservoir. Another part of Melbourne's extensive water catchment and supply.
The reservoir was large and had plenty of water in storage, unlike the declining catchments around metropolitan Perth in Western Australia.
I continued the climb up into the Ranges on a narrow winding road, fortunately little traffic and only a few crazy motorcyclists and cyclists on a weekend outing.
The Ranges become increasingly more rugged heading North,
forming a Southern part of the Eastern Great Dividing Range. The sign was not far from the turn off to Lake Mountain.
Closer to Maryville you can still see hillsides of dead or scorched trees remaining from the Black Saturday Bushfires of Feb 2009 which resulted in the death of 174 people in Victoria over a few days of Catastrophic fire conditions.
Significant regrowth has happened, but the dead trees are still clearly visible nine years after the event.
Marysville was busy with many visitors and yet again, the Bakery (which I believe was one of the few surviving buildings) was doing a good trade.
Surprisingly many of the shady old oak trees in town also survived the fires.
The main street was still quiet enough to allow a group of riders make their way through town.
Most of the town was rebuilt and today seems to be doing well as tourist destination, not too far from the Yarra Valley and Melbourne. 39 died in Maryville during the fires.
After a walk around, I started my return journey via the Maroondah Highway and Healesville back to the farm. An easier, albeit busier road.
Sunday and Monday were quiet for me, although I think I did a trip or two into Lilydale and as far as Chirnside for some shopping errands. On New Year's Eve I went to sleep on the bed and woke up in time to see the last of the Sydney Harbour fireworks being unleashed. These days I would normally be in bed, well before midnight.
Tuesday 2 January 2018
My time in the Yarra Valley was running out so today I did quite a big touring day (well, afternoon at least).
Coldstream Hills is a reasonably large producer of Pinot and other cooler climate wines. I was expecting it to be very busy but was pleasantly surprised that I was the only one in the Cellar Door.
Joys of being a little off the beaten track in the Country, which thins out the tourist traffic rapidly. I enjoyed tasting a number of their single vineyard Pinot Noirs.
In contrast, Chandon (or Domain Chandon) is on the Maroondah Highway and was full on busy with international visitors attracted in swarms.
The grounds and surrounds at Chandon are very impressive. It is well set up for large numbers of visitors and has many facilities including a self guided winery tour. The picture is of the original homestead, but there are many modern buildings including the Celllar Door, (expensive) Restaurant and function areas.
Inside the winery there are many large processing and storage stainless tanks as they are a big producer.
I didn't do any tasting as it was just too busy for me and was glad to move on to Healesville again. On the Eastern edge of town is a complex that includes Giant Steps, Innocent Bystander and the Beechworth Bakery, also sharing access and parking.
Not sure where the name comes from, but it works for me.
Giant Steps was recommended to me by John Jens, who is a wine critic and importer in Perth, and Partner with Kate Lamont in Lamonts Cottesloe. The wines were excellent and new vintages often sell out quickly. I enjoyed a tasting, then had an extremely good chocolate indulgence and coffee on the verandah during the (slightly quieter) time between lunch and dinner service.
The chocolate tart with raisins and Pedro Ximenez was an excellent treat.
I also bought a few bottles of wine and a heavy seeded sourdough loaf for later.
Innocent Bystander, next door is built on a similar theme to Giant Steps. Both were created by Phil Sexton. A brewer and winemaker of some note.
Sexton has a long history of successful enterprises including Matilda Bay Brewery, The Sail & Anchor Pub in Fremantle, Devils Lair Winery in Margaret River and the very successful Little Creatures and White Rabbit Breweries. Little Creatures was an investment success for me as the shares performed very well and then the business was bought by the very large Lion Brewery for a large premium. Still a shame from my perspective as large companies seldom retain the inventiveness of craft beers and I wish I still had the excellent income stream.
Just to finish off the day I returned to the other edge of Healesville for a visit to Four Pillars Gin Distillery, which had been recommended by Geoff and Sandra Elliott.
It was very busy, but from what they told me there is no quiet time for them. I signed up for a $10 structured tasting experience, which was just wonderful. Elton, pictured below left was full of enthusiasm, knowledge and fun. We had a great time and he is worth his weight in gold to the business. They add a number of unusual and some uniquely Australian ingredients to some of their gins, which include a "Bloody Shiraz Gin" that is way out of the ordinary and very popular. By the way, you get your $10 back on any retail purchase, if you remember by then......
The large German made still is one of 3 on site with another on order. Their sales are still growing rapidly and I hope the success continues for their niche product.
During the alcohol distillation process they use oranges, which the distillate passed through. These are later made into an upmarket marmalade, which of course they also sell. Waste not, want not.
It was a big day for PJ and I was just settling down after dinner in the caravan when Geoff (the property owner) arrived back from a big driving day from the Murray River near Robinvale. We shared some Pinot Noir and gossip for a couple of hours before I eventually let him have some dinner and I was ready for bed.
On Wednesday morning I wished Jean a very Happy Birthday and pottered around for most of the day, while Geoff started preparing for another short fishing trip with the family planned for the coming Saturday. After dark, he took me for a "spot lighting" trip of the farm to see what wildlife we could find. Unfortunately it was a big full moon and as a result we only ran across a couple of wombats and a fox in the trees. Often there are deer around as well, but I was happy.
Thursday 4 January 2018.
A big day for the Elliott family. Sandra and the kids arrived and it was all hands on deck for cleaning up the Bushtracker and the Ski boat, then preparing Geoff's Dad's old boat for fishing, as well as moving the cattle for yarding and insemination on Friday. I tried to get my act together, gave them some minor help and had my unsuccessful attempt at finishing this blog post (fingers crossed this time).
In the evening, we all went to the pub in nearby Ranges Hotel in Gembrook for a meal out. It has been renovated recently and the food and company was great.
I most grateful to Geoff and Sandra for their hospitality and the pleasure of staying at their beautiful farm whilst they had a holiday. Hopefully we will meet and an they are currently likely to be in WA for Wedding later in the year.
On Friday morning I packed up and drove South to San Remo, which is located right next to the bridge over to Phillip Island. The day had a few surpises, but that will be in the next post. Phew......finally an end. Will it work this time?
Meantime PJ took a trip further North on the Melba Highway to Dixons Creek for some lunch. Sandra Elliott and Trip Adviser, both recommended The Dixons Creek Bar and Restaurant for good value and good food.
I agree, food was excellent and by the time I left the restaurant was full of Friday lunch diners.
Saturday 30 December 2017
Today I decided to do a trip up into the Yarra Ranges. It was an interesting outing & couple of days ago I spent about 1.1/2 hours writing it up and adding a series of photos, right through to the end of this chapter. Then I had a quirk in blogger where it would not let me Preview this entry before publishing. After a bit of troubleshooting, I eventually shut it down to see if that would fix the problem. Despite saving the input many times, when I restarted I was missing 90 minutes of work. I was so pissed off, it has taken quite a few days before I felt like I would do it all over again.......Bummer.
Here we go again.......
I set off North via Woori Yallock to the (Warburton) Highway and then East through Launching Place and Yarra Junction to Warburton. It is a pretty town in a river valley and was busy on a Saturday morning with many visitors. Lots of quirky shops and quite a few cafes and restaurants. The bakery was doing a roaring trade and I can recommend the coffee and pasties. PJ's good healthy diet continues.
Quite a cool and overcast morning in Warburton with many pretty old buildings along the main drag.
I can't say the modern Information Centre with water wheel captured my imagination, but it certainly attracted tourist attention.
Just near Warburton was the turn off up into the Ranges for the Donna Buang Rainforest and Mountain lookout. It appeared that it was a busy weekend visiting spot as the traffic declined significantly as I continued to the North East through Warburton East and McMahons Creek. Near Reefton and turned off to the East to have a look at the Upper Yarra Reservoir. Another part of Melbourne's extensive water catchment and supply.
I continued the climb up into the Ranges on a narrow winding road, fortunately little traffic and only a few crazy motorcyclists and cyclists on a weekend outing.
The Ranges become increasingly more rugged heading North,
forming a Southern part of the Eastern Great Dividing Range. The sign was not far from the turn off to Lake Mountain.
Closer to Maryville you can still see hillsides of dead or scorched trees remaining from the Black Saturday Bushfires of Feb 2009 which resulted in the death of 174 people in Victoria over a few days of Catastrophic fire conditions.
Significant regrowth has happened, but the dead trees are still clearly visible nine years after the event.
Marysville was busy with many visitors and yet again, the Bakery (which I believe was one of the few surviving buildings) was doing a good trade.
Surprisingly many of the shady old oak trees in town also survived the fires.
The main street was still quiet enough to allow a group of riders make their way through town.
Most of the town was rebuilt and today seems to be doing well as tourist destination, not too far from the Yarra Valley and Melbourne. 39 died in Maryville during the fires.
After a walk around, I started my return journey via the Maroondah Highway and Healesville back to the farm. An easier, albeit busier road.
Sunday and Monday were quiet for me, although I think I did a trip or two into Lilydale and as far as Chirnside for some shopping errands. On New Year's Eve I went to sleep on the bed and woke up in time to see the last of the Sydney Harbour fireworks being unleashed. These days I would normally be in bed, well before midnight.
The cows & calves enjoyed their New Year and had a restful morning.
Tuesday 2 January 2018
My time in the Yarra Valley was running out so today I did quite a big touring day (well, afternoon at least).
Coldstream Hills is a reasonably large producer of Pinot and other cooler climate wines. I was expecting it to be very busy but was pleasantly surprised that I was the only one in the Cellar Door.
Joys of being a little off the beaten track in the Country, which thins out the tourist traffic rapidly. I enjoyed tasting a number of their single vineyard Pinot Noirs.
In contrast, Chandon (or Domain Chandon) is on the Maroondah Highway and was full on busy with international visitors attracted in swarms.
The grounds and surrounds at Chandon are very impressive. It is well set up for large numbers of visitors and has many facilities including a self guided winery tour. The picture is of the original homestead, but there are many modern buildings including the Celllar Door, (expensive) Restaurant and function areas.
Inside the winery there are many large processing and storage stainless tanks as they are a big producer.
I didn't do any tasting as it was just too busy for me and was glad to move on to Healesville again. On the Eastern edge of town is a complex that includes Giant Steps, Innocent Bystander and the Beechworth Bakery, also sharing access and parking.
Not sure where the name comes from, but it works for me.
The chocolate tart with raisins and Pedro Ximenez was an excellent treat.
I also bought a few bottles of wine and a heavy seeded sourdough loaf for later.
Innocent Bystander, next door is built on a similar theme to Giant Steps. Both were created by Phil Sexton. A brewer and winemaker of some note.
Sexton has a long history of successful enterprises including Matilda Bay Brewery, The Sail & Anchor Pub in Fremantle, Devils Lair Winery in Margaret River and the very successful Little Creatures and White Rabbit Breweries. Little Creatures was an investment success for me as the shares performed very well and then the business was bought by the very large Lion Brewery for a large premium. Still a shame from my perspective as large companies seldom retain the inventiveness of craft beers and I wish I still had the excellent income stream.
Just to finish off the day I returned to the other edge of Healesville for a visit to Four Pillars Gin Distillery, which had been recommended by Geoff and Sandra Elliott.
The large German made still is one of 3 on site with another on order. Their sales are still growing rapidly and I hope the success continues for their niche product.
During the alcohol distillation process they use oranges, which the distillate passed through. These are later made into an upmarket marmalade, which of course they also sell. Waste not, want not.
It was a big day for PJ and I was just settling down after dinner in the caravan when Geoff (the property owner) arrived back from a big driving day from the Murray River near Robinvale. We shared some Pinot Noir and gossip for a couple of hours before I eventually let him have some dinner and I was ready for bed.
On Wednesday morning I wished Jean a very Happy Birthday and pottered around for most of the day, while Geoff started preparing for another short fishing trip with the family planned for the coming Saturday. After dark, he took me for a "spot lighting" trip of the farm to see what wildlife we could find. Unfortunately it was a big full moon and as a result we only ran across a couple of wombats and a fox in the trees. Often there are deer around as well, but I was happy.
Thursday 4 January 2018.
A big day for the Elliott family. Sandra and the kids arrived and it was all hands on deck for cleaning up the Bushtracker and the Ski boat, then preparing Geoff's Dad's old boat for fishing, as well as moving the cattle for yarding and insemination on Friday. I tried to get my act together, gave them some minor help and had my unsuccessful attempt at finishing this blog post (fingers crossed this time).
In the evening, we all went to the pub in nearby Ranges Hotel in Gembrook for a meal out. It has been renovated recently and the food and company was great.
On Friday morning I packed up and drove South to San Remo, which is located right next to the bridge over to Phillip Island. The day had a few surpises, but that will be in the next post. Phew......finally an end. Will it work this time?
Im surprised you even knew where to find the sour Doh after all those bottles of Giant Steps!! Blogger will do that.... if you loose your internet connection. I usually copy my blog onto notes or somewhere if it tells me it cant save ...or wont preview.... In fact I usualy write it in Pages... then past it in and add the pics Lovely country side and the south coast looks amazing. Ive been round lots of Os but never the Great Ocean Road... Shame!!! hsve fun keep up the blogging..
ReplyDelete