Geelong weekend

We're in Geelong for the weekend, enjoying the opportunity to catch up with our Ros and Pete and see more of this beautiful part of the world. Ros always plans great things for us to do and see, and lovely places to eat! We got here Friday night and celebrated by watching the Geelong Cats narrowly beat the Brisbane Lions (on TV - not at Kardinia Park, although the Park is pretty close to where Ros and Pete live!) - we almost felt like Victorians we got so involved in the game.

Lunch yesterday was at  Nicol's Paddock, a small, family run Winery and Restaurant on the outskirts of Geelong. It looked beautiful on this sunny early Autumn day.

And our hearty, delicious lunch there set us up for the rest of the day (the weekend in fact)!

Next stop was the Geelong Gallery in Little Malop Street (in the CBD) where we were really excited to see the amazing RONE in Geelong exhibition. Rone was born in Geelong and started out as a street artist, but he's built a mainstream reputation now for his realistic, large scale works and installations. A large part of this unusual exhibition was set out as "room scapes"- and maybe "fantasy film set" is a better description? ........

The exhibition was extra interesting for us because our friends Sanaz and Damien commissioned Rone to paint a mural on the front of their house in suburban Canberra. Teresa, the model for their mural was based on the same model Rone used for his Omega project (shown above in the green toned picture). The picture below of Damien in front of their house was taken by a Canberra Times photographer (J Toderas).

The pictures below were taken in the largest gallery space set up as a "Light and Dark" fantasy film type setting. We were able to walk amongst everything. Rone's work follows his street art philosophy and is designed to be ephemeral. The photographic record is everything!

Aside from dining and wining and enjoying art we love our morning walks here together. The Barwon River winds its way with great beauty through this part of the city, and Ros and Pete have found many different paths and bridges around it to add a bit of variety to the morning walk routine. We walked over 8klm both mornings this weekend and it was so great Pete could join us now too, on his bike.

We walked as far as Fyansford this morning, a tiny township on the western edge of Geelong, located at the junction of the Barwon and Moorabool rivers. We were amazed to see this historic hotel (built 1854-55) so close to where Ros and Pete live in modern day Geelong.

Ros had booked lunch for us today at Ocean Grove on the south coast, near the entry to Port Phillip Bay. But Pete took us sight seeing first, to check out the beautiful coastline near Torquay, looking SW to Jan Juc and Bells Beach.......just a stunning view from here! 

Lunch was a long leisurely affair at The Dunes, Ocean Grove, in a spectacular building in an equally spectacular setting overlooking Bass Strait. We were lucky enough to have special family guests for lunch today .........

Lili and Sam are wonderful, entertaining company and very happy to socialise with us and join in some games after the food was done. We enjoyed our time with them (and Erin!) so much today. Another good reason for us to keep our visits to Geelong regular.

The Dunes is in a spectacular setting ...........

And what about this for a view? ................

Mintaro and Burra

We were both looking forward to our visit to historic Martindale Hall near Mintaro this morning. It's a living museum these days, allowing visitors a peek into what it was like in the days of gracious living on a large pastoral estate in the late 1800's to early 1900's (Martingdale Hall boasted 24 servants on staff, a polo ground, a racecourse, a boating lake and a cricket pitch where the English 11 played at least once, back in the day).

But Martindale Hall is most familiar to us because it was used as the "Appleyard Girls School" set in the iconic 1975 Peter Weir film "Picnic at Hanging Rock".

So we were all ready for our visit this morning...........

Only to be met with this ........ #!*#@

Even the kangaroos in the paddocks across the road looked like they felt sorry for us ........

The only alternative activity offered was a walk along a section of the Lavender Trail, back to the village of Mintaro - but taking the scenic walking trail meant  9.5 klm of walking (return)!

So we got back in the car and made our way back to Mintaro by road. This is what the surrounding landscape is like after early Autumn crops have been harvested ......... they call it dry land farming around here!

Our friend Wayne has a strong connection with the Magpie and Stump Hotel in Mintaro. His family ran the hotel  for a period over its long history (the pub was established in 1851).  We could see the hotel would have been in a great location back in the day - on one of the main carriage routes - as the colony was spreading northwards from Adelaide, seeking new grazing land and the promise of mining wealth.

Mintaro is an interesting historic village with great community spirit obviously. we strolled around its streets for a while admiring the old buildings. These buildings along Burra St date back to the 1850s. They would have been small shops in those days.

This one has been a carpenter's business, telegraph station (opened 1873), Post Office and general store - now in great need of repair!

We loved the way this old stone cottage in Young St is being renewed ..... especially the contemporary take on the traditional slate fence. There is a slate quarry very near the township (believed to be the oldest continuous operated slate quarry in SA, possibly Australia).

And the extension being constructed at the rear of the cottage using reclaimed timber .....

Further along Young Street there is a concentration of old churches (and schools). This little cottage was an "Anglican House & Chapel" back in the day (1856).

And this building was used as a licensed school from 1853 - 1872 ...........

And the larger of these two buildings was Australia's first United Methodist Church - it dominated religious life in the regional parish in its hey day.............

We ended off our walk around Mintaro with a wine tasting at Reillys Cellar Door opposite the Magpie and Stump Hotel. The winemaker is proud of his gentle, traditional winemaking processes using grapes from their proudly dry grown estate vineyards.............

We were very impressed with the Reillys 2011 Museum Riesling and the Old Bush Vine Grenache and bought a few bottles to add to our Clare Valley stash.

We drove about 35klm NE of Mintaro then on to historic Burra. This town began as a company mining (copper) township in 1851. Today it is a centre for its surrounding farming communities (grazing, wheat and vines) and is one of the best preserved towns from the Victorian era in Australia. Perhaps this is why quite a few Burra locations were used in the filming of the 1980 Bruce Beresford film "Breaker Morant".

We spent some time looking at the historic photographic collection in the beautifully maintained Burra Town Hall. 

Rob's pastoral heritage always shows when he sees anything to do with sheep, wool, shearers and outback dust! The Burra region was famous for its high quality merino wool right up until the mid 1900s when fine wool became a little less popular with the masses. There was a lot about the history of the merino in the Burra Town Hall collection.

The Burra Regional Art Gallery ......

This was the sweetest, best maintained railway station in north Burra (near the old mine). It no longer has trains (last train stopped here in 1992) but has been restored as a Visitor Centre and B&B.

Rob was very taken with the original tile work on these shops in Burra's main street....

So it was getting close to 3.00pm by the time we got back to our fave Watervale Hotel for another superb dining experience - to end off another lovely day in the Clare Valley.

This is what half a crisp skin chicken looks like on roasted kale and beetroot with herb butter (I couldn't finish it)... served with our now favourite Skillogalee Shiraz (flavours of plum and dark chocolate yum).

The owner of the Waterfall Hotel has a very strong background in South Australia's wine industry. There is a very serious wine list for diners to choose from. This is just one page from the wine list with just the Clare Valley rieslings on offer! 

We head back to Mildura tomorrow after a wonderful stay in the Clare Valley. Highlights for us have been staying in our beautiful lodge in Penwortham, having so many excellent food and wine experiences, seeing this amazing dry, tough but beautiful landscape and learning more about the settler history of the region.

A day in the Clare Valley

We had a few hits and misses today exploring all that this part of the Clare Valley has to offer. We started the day very well, enjoying great coffee and a perfect bowl of oats at Cafe 1871 on Main N Rd in the township of Clare. Afterwards we decided to check out the Gleeson Wetlands just to the NE of the centre of town - a joint venture between volunteers from the Lions Club and the Council to maintain the long term health of the wetlands. However today, with it being so dry and warm in the district, the wetlands looked very depleted to us and very lacking in evident birdlife. Full marks to all the volunteers however who have worked so hard to get the area restored to its current state.

Still looking for somewhere to walk in amongst this amazing countryside we set out for the Spring Gully Conservation Park about 6klms south of Clare township (closer to where we're staying at Penwortham), hoping to do a 40min hike around the ridge top. But despite our efforts in finding the park (through narrow dirt tracks and lots of dust) we were unsuccessful today - the park was closed!!!! and no reasons given!!

Oh well, luckily the beautiful Skillogalee vineyards and cellar door were close by - very nice for a reviving visit and fun to buy a few bottles of their tasty Shiraz and Riesling.

Next stop was the Mr Mick Cellar Door and Kitchen, closer to Clare township. Unfortunately our favourite Clare Valley vineyards (Grosset and Mount Horrocks) aren't open this week so we're visiting winemakers like Mr Mick who aren't on our preferred list - its a very pretty place to visit and I'd hoped to find local produce available here (but it wasn't to be!). Anyway, Mr Mick certainly delivered in the pretty place to visit department.

The Riesling Trail runs very close to Mr Mick so we were able to go for a long awaited walk at least to end off our morning in the Valley. We walked for about 3 klm along the track but it's obvious that the trail is better suited to cycling as the vineyards are a L-O-N-G way apart - and we weren't up for a 7 hour walk in the hot midday sun.

Instead we did a little bit more dirt road bush bashing in the car and ended up at Pikes Wines and Brewery on Polish Hill Road east of Sevenhill. We regard Pikes Rieslings as a great stand by (but not too special) so we weren't interested in doing a tasting or buying today - so we had a Pikes IPA beer from the adjacent brewery instead. We thought it nice and fruity, yet with a distinct bitterness (nice and toasty).

Pikes is a very commercial operation with miles and miles of vines - but the cellar door and brewery are in a beautiful setting - very quiet today on a Tuesday!

Nothing is better at the end of a day in the Clare Valley looking out over the vineyard (while pretending its your own vineyard) with a glass of local (Skillogalee) Riesling in hand......