Cows ain't cows at Bega (Part One 4/3/14)

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We left Merrimbula Lake today and set off for Bermagui via Bega (to see the Bega Cheese Factory). Unfortunately, visitors can no longer go around the factory because of the Health and Safety Regulations regarding food preparation. We had to be content with watching a video about it, instead. They do have a Historical Display upstairs which shows a lot of the old equipment, like butter churns, milk separators, cheese rakes etc, and the original bark hut where the Bega Cheese was first made (complete and also upstairs!). The funniest things were the full sized cow replicas. Two had lovely rural scenes painted all over them, including one gum tree following the swishy line of one cow’s tail. The third was coloured like a Jersey cow and looked quite normal until you went round the side and found it had three udders and eight legs!! There were also some Second World War posters encouraging farmers to produce more milk for the troops and to send to England – one had a cow looking shocked and saying “Who ME?”

Barry saw a clock at the Gift Shop (I'd have loved to take a picture but it wouldn't be allowed). All the upper numbers except the 12 had tumbled off the correct place and were lying scattered across the bottom of the face above the 5,6,7 which were still OK. In their usual places at the top was an inscription saying something like "I'm retired - who cares what the time is?" We thought it was great!

We sampled the cheeses, some of which were too mild for us, some I buy already, like their Tasty and the Strong and Bitey and a couple we haven’t had before. I don’t usually buy soft processed and individually wrapped slices of cheese as they taste like rubber but they had two flavours of them that were quite nice and would be good in sandwiches – the Black Pepper and the Smokey Bacon- so I got a small packet of each.

We continued on to Bermagui and settled into the Wallaga Lake Holiday Park about 7km outside the town, where we found ourselves parked next to a couple we had met in Genoa. I think this is going to keep happening as we travel. I’ll have to start making a note of the names and places of the people we meet as I have a forgettery these days, especially for names.

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Photos

Bega Cheese Factory
Colourful cow with swishy "tree" tail

Bega Cheese Factory
This one should have a good yield!

Bega Cheese Factory
Not everyone wants to help the war effort

Bega's Original Cheese Factory
The complete bark hut was upstairs in the museum