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Published: October 25th 2007
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What a weekend we have just had! I’m writing this at 11pm on Sunday night and my head is still spinning, but it was well worth it!
Claire and I met a bloke from Holland, Michiel at the flower bombing thing the other week. He invited us to join him and his wife, Mandi, and about 20 others on their annual trip to a country race meet in a tiny town called Avoca in the Australian Pyrenees Mountains. We were promised a “rural Australian experience” (which broadly translates to an all day drinking session) - so we couldn't resist. And everyone at work goes on roadtrips every weekend - so it was about time we got out of Melbourne for a night!
Avoca is about a two and a quarter hour drive north west of Melbourne - way up past Ballarat. We headed off at 8am (was it 8am by the time you were ready Claire??!) and soon we were out of the city and driving past warning signs for Kangaroo's crossing for the next 500 meters! The drive up there has given us a taste of what Australia has to offer! The land is very dry and flat,
Picnic in the park
Spot the strawberries & cream?! desert like almost.
We were staying at the Summerfield Winery, which is in Moonambel, about 10 mins from the town of Avoca, where the Race meet was. As were drove closer to Avoca, the temperature was getting hotter and hotter. By the time we arrived it was over 30 degrees!
We arrived, met Michiel who had sorted out our room, dumped our bags and headed back into Moonambel “town centre” to catch the bus to the races. I had forgotten my sunhat - which was seriously annoying as I am always forgetting it and always end up needing to buy one wherever we go! Anyway - I tried to add a Moonambel sunhat to my collection, but the village general store owner just laughed when I asked for one, and told me to put a newspaper over my head. Was really bizarre - this tiny shop in the middle of the mountains seemed to have everything, including an introduction to making your own sushi kit - but no sun hats!
We arrived at the races and Claire made it her first task to find me a sunhat, if I found her a cold stubby - I didn’t
have to look too far, and the afternoon of downing stubbies and eating strawberries and cream began (incidentally I left the pub early to arrange the picnic while Claire was at work on Friday night!).
The first race was at 12.30 or something. I put a $10 bet on a random horse which had fairly good odds - and probably the worst thing that could have happened actually happened - it won, and I got $70 back. Why the worst thing? Well, I wrongly assumed that every other bet I would place would also win - just like what happened at the casino a few weeks back (actually - I don’t think we have put a blog on about the casino yet which I will need to do!). Of course, not every other bet came up - not even half of them, but we reckon we didn’t loose too much - that said, we didn’t actually count it up!
What a day anyway - great weather, great company, great food and booze and we were sitting right beside the finishing line. Was perfect really!
We left the races at about 6pm - and headed straight for Moonambel’s
sole pub - the name of which escapes me the now - oh, no - its called the Commercial Inn I think. Anyway - class pub. Its like what I imagine a rural Australian outback pub would be like - an outdoor wooden veranda type entrance, a big open bar and a jukebox playing cheesy tunes in the corner. Claire reckons it was just like being back in the Corner House in New Stevenson.
The pub had put on a buffet roast for us which was fab. It was also seriously cheap - beers were about half the price of what they are in the city.
After dinner they turned the jukebox up, cleared the dinner tables away - and all 20ish of us had a total pi*** up with the locals until we staggered back to the winery. What a night!!!
Next morning Claire was ill - like seriously hungover ill. I don’t think she’ll ever learn to be honest! I stopped in at the winery shop next morning to buy a token bottle of Summerfield wine as I’d heard it was about the best one in the region. Of course, it’s the done thing to
try the wines before deciding on what one to buy - and they pore you like half a glass of each! I took a glass out to Claire who was waiting in the car - you can imagine her reaction!
Anyway - I thought the wine was awesome, and they had something for every occasion. In the end I went for the cheapest, unlabeled “sitting in on a Friday night with a pizza” (as the sales woman put it) bottle. It was totally drinkable - and cost about ₤30 for 12 bottles- unreal!
We got back to Melbourne at about 2pm on Sunday afternoon and slept till about 4! Poor Claire was working at 6 - I have no idea how she managed to go! Even at 8pm, it was in the 30s in Melbourne - so I sat out on the balcony with a beer and some Thai take-away - was hard getting up on Monday morning after such a crackin weekend!
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