Australia Holiday - Port Fairy to Barwon Downs - Out in the Long Grass

Heading Inland - November 9th
The Elms of Camperdown
Our lunch stop in Camperdown
A Night in the Long Grass

In the Long Grass
We left Port Fairy at checkout time and headed along the coastal road past the golf links towards Warrnambool. We were now heading East and our route took us inland through superb farming country towards Camperdown, our lunch spot for today. I really like the rural towns and this was a great one. Magnificent Elm trees stand tall and shady for the whole length of the main street. Haven't seen Elm trees since school-days so it was wonderful to see them in their early summer foliage. We had lunch in a beautiful and convivial Cafe and could not resist a crumble dessert topped with coconut. Could easily have stayed on but we wanted to get a bit closer to Torquay, tomorrows destination. Colac was the next big town. Unfortunately the weather had deteriorated and every time we left the car there was a deluge. A lot of people told us about the drought in Victoria but it was pretty wet and very green while we were there. Perhaps we are the Rainmakers. Anyway, we were pushing on towards Barwon Downs and a night 'In the Long Grass'. What a nice name for a little cottage on a farm. Picture a little cream cottage set among the gum trees. A Kookaburra sits on the swing, Parrots swoop around amongst the trees, a couple of hens pick and scratch on the terrace.
Always wanted a Terrace - sadly it was a bit cold to sit out
Actually the cottage looked fairly basic on the outside although it had all the mod. cons. we needed inside. The shower enclosure was a very practical. It was lined with corrugated iron.
The owner was a nice guy. We did not meet his wife, which was a pity, as she was away in the City. He seemed a very laid back character and we had a good chat. Our little Cottage was delivered second-hand on a truck from Melbourne nearly 30 years ago. They were stopped by the Police when they spotted someone inside, probably thought it was a sitting tenant or a Granny. In fact one of the guys had climbed inside to see where a funny noise was coming from. Seems our friend was happy there and he set about building a large house just up the track. It's partly built with mud bricks and the design is a unique creation by his wife. Apparently the first batch of bricks turned back to mud in heavy rain. Bit of a worry but it looks good now anyway. A couple of days earlier the dogs had gone berserk, our host though they had found a snake when, in fact, they had found a friendly Koala on their terrace. We did not see any but we left our friend fixing his tractor and went back to cook our Tea and finish off last night's wine. TW spotted a big spider on my pillow just after I had put my head down for the night. I managed to get rid of the thing without fully waking up. Made sure I put my shoes on when going for my nocturnal wander though!
How Green is our Valley
Block Splitter or Untamed Turkey at the Forrest Brewing Company?
Nearly found the rainbows end

TW out in the sticks
In the Australia we dream about
Happy as a Parrot
Our first Kookaburra
Aussie Thrush
We were in a fairly remote area, there was shop in one direction in Barwon Downs and a Brewery in the other at Forrest. The guy running the shop was a local looking after the place while the owner was on holiday. We had a good bit of banter about football and the like, bought some Milk and then headed South towards the Brewery. The micro-brewery makes a good selection of beers. They use American Hops so the one I tried was bit of a Budweiser. They also had a very strong 9% beer, called Block Splitter. I did not try that. Stout was good. Anyway its a nice little place and worth a drive. There are a lot of Mountain Bike Routes in the area so a Pedal and a Pint with a bit of a feed is a popular pursuit.
Location: Barwon Downs VIC 3243, Australia

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