Adelaide Autumn Dispatch - Sunday, 7th April 2024

 
Poor Snoopy!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday, and Morse didn't miss the Daylesford Market at all. Around 9am we drove to Vaughan Springs, stopping first at the cemetery to look for the graves of friends - Danny Spooner & Gael Shannon - see photos, and secondly to find some of Wes's ancestors, the Greenwoods - no luck.

from the top - Danny & Gael's bush grave; their headstone; a plaque commemorating those without markers; Wes opening the door to the portal & seeing himself inside

We then drove to Vaughan Springs itself, admiring all the wonders of this little hamlet - the Chinese cemetery, the model railway line, the long slide, the balancing rock, the houses made from train carriages, and the foundation stone of Ball & Welch. We parked by the water and gave Morse the chance to retrieve, which he hasn't done since Lewis died. Amazingly, he got the hang of it, and enjoyed getting wet while retrieving sticks. 

On the way back, we stopped at Glenluce Mineral Springs, which is definitely off the beaten track. I have very happy memories of walking there with 3 other members of the Daylesford Bushwalking Group, including my dear friend, Annie Smith, who died in October 2020. It was hot & dry there and the mineral spring was out of order - very different from that first visit many years ago which was cool, shady & the mineral water was abundant. 

Wes reading the Glenluce signage while Morse potters, and the refurbished mineral spring area

That afternoon we watched Richmond unexpectedly beat Sydney in an exciting & close game at the MCG. Dinner was toasted tomato & cheese sandwiches done in the Sunbeam frypan - we can't bear to part with it! But, as usually happens when you are about to go away, something went wrong that night after a lovely day. The dishwasher refused to work. I emptied it out and tried again, but to no avail. In the morning we unscrewed the hose pipe and found a small piece of bone wedged in the opening, once it was removed, everything went back to normal.

On Monday, it seemed strange not to be going to Coles Supermarket, stocking up with scrolls and bread at Baker's Delight or doing School. Instead, we started packing after a lovely walk around Lake Daylesford, and Morse got a worried look on his face. 

Latest knitting for the Salvos Op Shop

Wes took Morse to Eureka Kennels on Tuesday morning, where he was delighted to be put next to another lab.  He is really very comfortable as we take one of his beds from home, as well as a pillow, some friends, and plenty of apples as rewards after his daily walks. We got away ourselves around 10.30am with the plan of driving to Dimboola and having a late lunch at the General Store. Sadly, when we arrived there, we discovered it had changed hands and the two bored young females working there could offer us nothing for lunch except a bacon butty! Fortunately I had packed ANZAC biscuits and filled a thermos with Jasmine tea, so we fortified ourselves until we got to Robe, checked into our AirBnB and had fish & chips for dinner.

On Wednesday, we had a late breakfast at Drift, our favourite Robe cafe, before driving to Beachport, where we got the last good-sized lobster. The woman serving remembered us from our last visit and dressed our lobster beautifully, even including two packs of ice to get us back to Robe safely. We picked up a Heathcote sparkling red and enjoyed a lovely meal that night.

Post Office rock, Beachport

The next morning, Wes got up early to start the Jackson Group Zoom and once that was up and running, we went for a lovely coastal walk and ended up back at Drift for granola and fresh fruit, before we made our way back to our holiday accommodation via the beautiful Robe cemetery, which is well-laid out and has an index of all the graves in the historic section. 

After a break, we headed off to Cape Jaffa winery, which had been recommended. Sadly we had a bad experience with very young staff run off their feet, and didn't enjoy our time there. We bought a bottle of sav blanc to recoup our tasting fees, and headed to Wangolina Winery, where we had the perfect introduction to their range of interesting white wines. We ended up ordering 2 dozen to be shipped to Daylesford, joined their wine club and promised to return in December to taste their reds. On our way back, we stopped at the Vietnamese cafe in Robe for a late lunch.

That night, we went early to the Black Swan wine bar, a favourite haunt, where I had a couple of Wangolina proseccos and Wes tried their rose and then a very rich local sav blanc. We indulged in a plate of parmesan chips before heading home to watch the footy.

The next morning, after another walk and breakfast at Drift, we packed our bags and drove to Adelaide, where we spent 20 minutes trying to find our unit in St Peter's. The fence is charcoal grey and so is the number, and we thought it was part of the next door property. Eventually we made our way in, and got settled. Later we went for a walk along the River Torrens and enjoyed the amazing bird life in this very pretty area.

I hope you can spot the flock of ibis in the trees

That night we walked to Chef Dong, about 10 minutes away and had a stunning meal - Wes enjoyed Peking style steak and I had the salt & pepper whitebait. We also had a dish of mushrooms & bok choi, which was to die for. They had Shaw & Smith Sauvignon Blanc on the their wine list, which was the perfect accompaniement to our meal. We hope to get back there again tomorrow night.

Yesterday, we had breakfast at The Flying Fig, our favourite North Adelaide cafe, which specialises in Jewish cuisine. The owner remembered us from our previous visits, and we had a good chat. Wes had a bagel with cucumber & avocado, but I couldn't go past the baked eggs. Then we went to Rundle Mall to soak up the footy atmosphere, bought a few things in Myer, did a walk around the Adelaide Central Market, and came back here to have a rest before the footy.

We loved the footy experience at the Adelaide Oval - lots of families, supporters of all teams wearing their colours and a carnival atmosphere. We could have done without the incessant loud noise from the ground announcers & DJ, but we realise our age group isn't their target market. Carlton & Freo played a very exciting close game that the Blues only won in the last few minutes - Never in Doubt as Wes would say. 

After the game finished, we went upstairs to the top level where there were fewer patrons & much less noise and debriefed over a glass of shiraz - we're in Adelaide so it wasn't a rough red, but an extremely palatable drop! We stayed until half-time of the second match, which was also exciting & close between Geelong & the Western Bulldogs and arrived home in time to see the last quarter, where the Cats hung on by 4 points.