So, as promised, I want to continue some of what we did before our arrival in Perth, as it was great and it shouldn't be ignored. These backtracks are for our own benefit as much as anything so if you're not interested in stuff we did last year, then stop reading now. When we last rewound, we detailed you with tails of sandwich-stealing seagulls and snuffly wombats and all the majesty that is Wilson's Promontory National Park. Cue flashback:
The drive from Tidal River to Warburton was rather long and once again we found ourselves having to battle with vague maps and poor signage. We hadn't had breakfast and our hopes of making up for it in Fish Creek were dashed as the decent looking cafe was closed. The next town along, Leongatha had a better offering (one that was open!) and we were able to get an eggy fix as well as a good amount of caffeine.
We drove through beautiful forests to Warburton, a lovely town on the edge of the Yarra Valley, you guessed it, one of Australia's most famous wine regions. We called in to Chandon, the Australian outpost of the famous Moet Chandon company. They have a beautiful winery and cellar door and even offer self-guided tours around parts of the winery with explanatory panels for each stage of the winemaking process. We also visited a brewery (makes a change!), this was White Rabbit the sister brewery to Little Creatures based in WA. Next door (conveniently) was Giant Steps winery, not as welcoming as some we've been to, but still some decent wines and we came away with a couple of bottles.
From the Yarra Valley we drove along winding roads through Healesville and Marysville, both devastated by bush fires in 2009 when 34 people lost their lives. Signs of the fires still remain but they are thriving and creative communities nonetheless and continuing to rebuild. We made for Alexandra and a decent free camp just outside of the town. We were finally enjoying some sunshine, our drive North was spurred by hopes of sun and we found it, for now at least. Alexandra is a lovely little town and we were thrilled to find Redgate Espresso, a lovely cafe with free WiFi and free iPads on which to surf! How very modern! We spent two nights here owing to the fact that the Melbourne cup was on which meant bank holiday, which meant crowds everywhere. Thankfully the crowds failed to materialise in our little pocket of Alexandra and we were rather pleased about that.
From Alexandra we took a slightly indirect route to Bendigo. We had to stop by the brilliantly named village of Break O Day and we stopped for lunch at Flowerdale. Somewhere on the way Annie was struck by the realisation that her shoes which had been safely stowed under the car, were probably still there. Only the car had moved and the shoes were still at the campsite, they could still be there now! We headed to Flowerdale, not only because Annie's name is Flower, but because the local hotel (and by hotel they mean pub) had won best Parmigiana in 2012 as awarded by The Hotelier's Association of Australia. We had one for lunch (to share as they are generally huge) and it was truly excellent. We have explained the beauty of the Aussie classic Parmy once before but as a refresher it is: a crumbed chicken breast, topped with a slice of leg ham, covered in napolitana sauce and topped with melted cheese. Phwoar.
On the road, we also discovered one of our favourite wineries, Rees Miller. He only had Pinot Noir for tasting (like we care) but it was all organic and it was delicious. He was a very interesting person to chat to as well and even sold us a copy of his self sufficiency magazine! We spent the night at Greater Bendigo National Park which was a bit of an arse to get to but free which was all we needed. The next day when visiting Bendigo town centre, we pulled up outside the information centre to collect some leaflets. On our exit from the building, we saw a huge pool of oil coming from our car. Rather than move it, we called Roadside Assistance (a 12 month membership had been included when we bought the car). We scrambled to get a few things out from the car before they took it away and we stayed in a cabin at a nearby caravan park. Unfortunately the garage wasn't open that day, being a Saturday so we had to wait a couple of days in Bendigo until it could be fixed, but the important thing was that it got fixed!
Bendigo is a real gold rush town and it shows in the magnificent buildings. During our time there, we visited the Central Deborah Goldmine and took a tour down below which was fantastic. Wearing hard hats and lights we went down into the mine as though we were a mining crew, our guide was our boss. We had a drilling demonstration and inspected the operations as our boss determined whether we were up to the job of miner, invariably we were not. The mine was worked on 17 levels and is no longer operating other than for tourist purposes. In its time it removed over 1000kg of gold.
Gold was first discovered at nearby Ravenswood in 1851 and by the 1860s diggers were no longer tripping over surface nuggets so the deep mining began. Many mines operated in the town and ripumour has it you can walk from one end of town to the other completely underground.
We also visited the excellent Regional Art Gallery and the Golden Dragon Museum and Gardens. The museum is home to two impressive imperial dragons, Old Loong is the oldest in the world and Sun Loong which is the longest in the world at over 100m long. Old Long is retired but Sun Loong still makes an appearance now and then. The museum also details the life and inevitable hardship of immigrant workers in the mines during the gold rush.
When we were finally reunited with the car, we continued North toward the border of New South Wales. More on that next time.
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