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Milawa and the King Valley

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 1st Mar 2023 Finally, our holiday is coming to end. Today is our final day before returning to Sydney tomorrow. The plan is to do a bit of touring around the region taking in part of its reputation for good food and wine. Milawa is nearby and our first stop. Here we visit the Milawa Cheese Company, which is quite a large complex with a cafe, a shop selling local produce and of course, the famous cheese making activity and sales. The cheese selection is impressive and we have a guided tasting of about 15 cheeses, for which there is no upfront charge. Milawa Cheese Shop Time for a coffee Nice setting for Cafe The cheese is excellent and we stock up before moving next door to the cafe for our morning cup of coffee. It is a bit early for wine tasting, and we are looking forward to checking out some of Italian wine varietals grown extensively throughout the King Valley, so set our course for Whitfield, the main town in that area. Apparently tourists (and wine drinkers) only come out on...
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Beechworth

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 28th Feb 2023 You can tell we are near Melbourne. We wake up to a cold, damp and drizzly morning with the temperature at 15 C as we pack the car and get ready to drive to Beechworth for a couple of days on our way home. We should arrive there in the early afternoon just in time to check in to the Golden Heritage Motel. Early on the weather remains unattractive, until we reach Broadford and the skies clear and temperature is in the 20's. We stopped at a park in Wangaratta for a picnic lunch and stumbled upon a group of vintage car enthusiasts, seemingly having their own private car show. The show started to break up after a while with eventually only a few cars left. This was quickly rectified by a visit from an employee of the local council, who drove up in his ute and unceremoniously told them to get the cars off the grass. By now the temperature has risen to 30 C with bright blue skies. We only have another 30 kms or so to get to Beechworth, so arrive there just after 2 pm, go s...
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Golf at 13th Beach Links

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 27th Feb 2023 Breakfast at the golf club resort is enormous, and included in our package. It should provide us with plenty of sustenance to get around the 18 holes this morning. 13th Beach is one of Australia's top courses and the Victorian Open was played here 2 weeks ago, so it is in great condition, and it is tough. I don't think I have seen this many bunkers on a course for a very long time. It is overcast, there is a bit of drizzly rain and still enough nasties in the air to warrant taking an antihistamine before venturing out on the course. The are two full 18 hole courses here, The Beach Course (the original) and The Creek Course (built some years later). We played the Beach Course, which is the same course the Vic Open was played on. We both found it hard going, with lack of local knowledge making it a bit hard to work out where to hit to, and anything in a bunker was very problematic. Nevertheless it was another very close match with Carole leading by 2 points after n...
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Queenscliffe, Barwon Heads and the 13th Beach Golf Links

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 26th Feb 2023 After breakfast our first priority is to find a chemist and stock up on antihistamines and allergy eyedrops. Fortunately there is a shopping centre in Belmont, only a few minutes drive from our motel, The Hacienda. Across the road from the shopping centre is a Sunday Market. We are not in a hurry and cannot check in at 13th Beach till 2 pm, so have a wander over to see what is on offer. It is the usual market fare that you see anywhere.  There was a large crowd there Poppy the Fortuneteller still had her Gypsy Wagon hooked up to he car, perhaps hoping to leave early It didn't take too long to get around the market, and head back to the car to drive to Queenscliffe to fill in a bit of time. Of course it is Sunday, and Victorians are out for the day enjoying the beach and sunshine, so there is a decent crowd pretty much everywhere we go. Queenscliffe is no exception and there is a good choice of coffeee shops, restaurants and bakeries in the main street (where par...
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Spirit of Tasmania back to Geelong

25th Feb 2023 The Spirit leaves Devonport at 10.30 am and Rosevears is about an hour away. As boarding starts at 8.00 am, we plan to arrive at around 9 am, giving us plenty of time before the close of boarding at 9.45 am. We arrived at just after 9 am, to find a very long queue of cars, trucks, caravans etc all lined up waiting to get their boarding passes and enter the loading area. It took us a good 30 +  minutes to get through this process and were advised when we received our pass that the sailing was delayed due to the lkate arrival of the ship. Apparently the overnight trip was a bit rough. Eventually we were all loaded on board and departed Devonport at 11.30 am, and hour late. It is hazy with some light rain, but dead flat seas and only around 10-15 knots of breeze from NE, so a pleasant crossing is likely. The trip is uneventful, and the captain does not make up any lost time, so we ended up disembarking at around 10.30pm. The new Geelong terminal still has a bit to sort o...
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Tamar Island and Surrounds

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 24th Feb 2023 24 th  Feb 2023   This morning we can see a steady flow of people into the Bakery, so I decide to take the short walk down from our room to get some good coffee to complement our breakfast. No other breakfast items were available but the hotel serves breakfast. We just had our usual cereal in our room.   There is a highly recommended wetlands walk only a few km from our hotel, which goes our to Tamar Island in the middle of the river. It gets good reviews, so we decide to have a look.   Surprisingly we find constructed boardwalks over the swampy grasslands that edge the river provide access to this major wetland, which is teeming with birdlife. The total walk is about 3 km, 1.5km out to the island and back. A visitor centre at the commencement of the walk provides information on the area. Visitors Centre   The Tamar is a wide, shallow tidal river that completely dries in many of these  wet land areas along it shores and attracts los...
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Stanley, and drive to Rosevears

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 23rd Feb 2023 Another windy day, that appears to be the only sort of day they have here, and we pack up and head East. Out first stop is Stanley which is only just over 20 km away. It has been some years since we have been there and we look forward to seeing what has changed. The focal point of Stanley, is of Course The Nut, a dormant volcanic crater that juts out from the shoreline at the centre of town. The Nut from the Lookout approaching town, in a healthy sea hazed background Did I mention is is windy, blowing a gale would be a better description. before we take on the Nut we take a detour to the Old Cable Station, apparently a highlight. It seems at this point the underwater communications cables between the mainland and Tasmania come ashore. During WW2, some of the cables were removed, transported to QLD and used to connect PNG with FNQ to facilitate communications, leaving Tasmania with just one cable. The old cable station, which now appears to also have accommodation Chi...
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