Mozzeenet

Had a lovely day yesterday on a day trip to the Yarra Valley which is North-east of Melbourne. It’s winery country so we had a lot of fun vineyard-hopping doing wine tastings. We went to about 5 wineries all with different outlooks and atmosphere. Some were large commercial ones like De Bortoli and others small.

Acacia Ridge is an example of a small winery at the end of a dirt road with a cute little wooden cottage and a log fire. We were offered a platter of cheese and antipasto along with our tastings by the lady there - we were the only ones there although another group left just as we arrived and we ended up seeing them at the other wineries too! When we arrived we were greeted by two large and very friendly labradors who offered us gifts of logs of wood. I was a little scared at first and made Andrew get out of the car before me. They didn’t jump up though so I ventured out.

At de Bortoli, they do cheese tastings for a $2 donation each of a range of ‘out of this world’ cheese mainly from Europe including washed rind, sheep’s milk and goat, blues, cheddar and parmesan. I loved them all and we decided to buy a small slice of a delicious French smelly cheese and a hard goat’s cheese. We were high on cheese all day because they were in the back of the car and the smell wafted through. Anyone else would have probably run a mile if they attempted to get into the car.

We bought a couple of bottles and after we were done at the wineries, we headed to Healesville, a town nearby for lunch at a cafe. I was already pretty full of cheese so just had a small lunch while Andrew enjoyed a huge breakfast (even though it was 3pm). We were lucky because even though it was chilly, it was sunny (today was raining so wouldn’t have been as good). It’s lovely countryside all around.

At the end of the day, we drove up winding roads through lush rainforest amongst tall, straight trees to a place called Marysville which is a delightful town in the mountains. There were trees with fiery foliage lining the streets, fallen leaves everywhere and we drove up to see Steavenson’s Falls. It was brisk near the falls but lovely and peaceful and the sun was going down. The pink in the sky was lovely against the hills and foliage.

We also found a place in Marysville which we’re planning to go back and stay at. It’s a lodge with a great outlook onto green gardens and woodland. The price for the night includes 4 course dinner and breakfast as well. There are ski hire places all over the town because it snows up there at Lake Mountain. We might just do some walking though then go back to the lodge and enjoy the dinner and the log fires.

Check out Andrew’s photos and the rest of my photos on Flickr…