Autumn in North East Victoria
It’s now been about three months since we relocated from Sydney to Albury and since moving here, we have experienced a ‘proper’ autumn in our neighbourhood and also along the north eastern Victorian countryside which we have explored through several day trips.
One of our first day trips was to the small town of Beechworth which has a great historical feel to it with its many old buildings. We started our day here by visiting the Beechworth Honey Experience where Xander got to see live bees, look through some microscopes at ‘not so’ alive bees and where we got to sample all sorts of different flavours of honey (imagine chocolate honey if you can). For lunch we stopped at the Bridge Road Brewers where they serve great Pizzas and even better beer. We (well I) tried out their 10 beer tasting paddle containing such greatness as a Pale Ale and an Indian Pale Ale (Yes, they are the favorites). One extra plus with this brewery was that they also have a kids playground located inside their courtyard….
On our way back home (after we visited the local lolly shop) we ensured that we stopped at the local Strawberry farm where we could pick our own berries. Suz and Xander picked some berries while I was carrying Eloise and showed her what goodies were hiding underneath the green leaves. Once she found out about the berries she was in heaven… lots and lots of strawberries for her!!
A few weeks later we received some visitors when Karen, Shane and the kids came down to visit and stayed for a few days. While they were here we decided to visit the Wine Region of Rutherglen in Victoria. This region is famous for its Muscat and Topaque wines and I for one was very keen on trying out some of their fortified wines. We started our day with a farmers market in town where we were able to stock up on some great local fresh produce such as cheeses, breads and jams. After a great picnic in the park where the kids could have a play we headed out to All Saints Winery Estate which contains a beautiful building which almost looks like a castle. There were some great wines to try out here and as per the norm we started with the whites, moved over to the rosé and reds and ended up on the fortified ones! And they were just as good as what we had been looking forward to!
After our sampling we moved over to the park area behind the main building. Here the kids were able to play around the duck pond and run alongside the wine grape vines. As we were heading back towards home we decided to stop at another winery as well. However, as we arrived at Morris Wines we realised that they closed at 16.00…. time was now 15.55. I guess if we hadn’t spent so long at the previous winery we would have had the time to visit a second one. Ah well, there will be other opportunities! At least we had plenty of nice wines and food for us for that evening!
Another few weeks later and Suz, the kids and I decided to do a trip to Bright in Victoria as we had heard it’s a beautiful place during autumn. It didn’t take us long to see that the stories about it were true. Although we were still a way off Bright itself the colours of the leaves around us were just beautiful. We were able to see a lot of different shades of yellow, orange and red among those leaves.
Upon reaching Bright we stopped at a great park in the area where Xander enjoyed running around and playing with the fallen leaves. We followed this up with a visit to Bright Chocolate and a visit to the local brewery, Bright Brewery, where we stopped for lunch and another tasting paddle (yum yum). After lunch we got back into our car and drove towards the Tawonga Gap lookout which offers great views over Mount Beauty.
Later we also did additional day trips to Rutherglen (yes more wineries) and also to Beechworth as these are two placed which we really enjoy visiting.
Our first few months in the area have been great and we can’t wait until winter comes in order to take Xander and Eloise to the snow fields as none of them have previously experience snow (not much of that in Sydney).
