2017 - Tour Down Under: Day 9: Wed 11 Jan

Fine, sunny and quite warm

Due to no tourist attractions being open until 9am we didn't leave until 8:45am, in the truck today. First stop was Woodsie's Gem Shop which was a gem of a find. We didn't expect to spend too long there, but 50 minutes later we finally left. It was a house full of all kinds of semi-precious stones in all forms. There was even an Aladdin's Cave where the owners displayed their personal collection of gems and stones. There were many temptations, for Wendy, but none were bought.

Next stop was supposed to be the best vanilla slice shop in Australia, however, we had read the blurb incorrectly, and Merbein (where we went) was simply the host to the vanilla slice competition every year, but not one bakery was found. We quickly moved onto Wentworth, the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers. On arrival we immediately sighted a bakery and investigated - they had vanilla slices. Yvonne and Gunther paid for mornos as we were driving them around today (very nice of them, despite the vanilla slice not being the best, the coffee was good - thank you Yvonne and Gunther). After mornos, we went for a wander to check out the confluence. We all thought it was a short walk; well, it was but it was a longer short walk than anticipated. However, the view was all worth it. The Darling is a muddy river starting in QLD and slower flowing, the Murray starting in the Snowy Mountains, clearer or blacker in colour and faster flowing, so much so than at the confluence, the Murray dominates and takes up most of the space.

It was then onto the Australian Inland Botanic Gardens which were not much more than a few dead gum trees and a fairly substantial rose garden. There was also a reconstructed hall where the local painters gathered each month to practice and share their paintings. Next stop was at "Orange World" where Mario met us and showed us next to nothing. Nothing to see, moving right along we decided lunch was the next order of the day. We came across the Buronga Bakery which we thought would be a great place to have lunch and it was. We both had a pre-made chicken, cheese, sundried tomato and spinach focaccia which we had toasted - yummo! It was 2:30pm, so anything would have tasted good. Our next stop was to be at the Olive place - Varapodio Estate, which looked to be much like the Orange World, so we drove straight out and onto Trentham Estate Winery. A lovely location for cellar-door tasting, with a terrace overlooking he river and a restaurant. Yvonne and Wendy tried some of the whites, including a dessert wine which, although very sweet, was very nice. Wendy ended up purchasing an SSB and a Pinto Grigio, both very nice wines.

We had all had enough by then and we headed home. Wendy collected the washing from the line and after a snooze (Greg too!) went shopping for more supplies and Greg went for a ride on his bike. Dinner was left-overs and quite yummy as it was a bit late due to pre-dinner drinks lasting longer than usual.