June 14, 2016. Another wine region!

LOCATION:  Housesitting near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

WEATHER:  Cool and sunny. High about 50

Today, we drove about 30 minutes to a town called Beaufort.   Nice day for a drive, through farms dotted with sheep and their baby lambs.  So cute!

Beaufort is on the Great Western Highway which goes to Adelaide (500 kms) and points west.  There were a lot of campervans. There are a lot of signs on the highway to remind drivers to keep alert.  It is a long stretch to drive.   Perhaps the campervans  were folks returning to Melbourne after the long Queen's Burthday Weekend, or perhaps they were Grey Nomads, like us.  That is what Australians call people like us who follow the weather and camp all around the country.

In any case, Beaufort was lovely.  Our first stop was a winery that our homeowners had recommended.    The tasting room (called cellar door) is a massive building where the wine is stored and where the winemaker works.  They were cleaning up after an extremely busy Queen's Birthday Weekend Sale.  Lucky us, the sale was still in progress.  The server gave us wine glasses, and encouraged us to roam around the cellar, tasting from any open bottle.  It was like a kid in a candy shop!  

Here, the winemaker is talking to some customers.

We bought a few bottles...

The clerk suggested a cafe for us for lunch in town.  One of the things I'm going to miss in Australia are the fabulous cafés in small towns.  They usually serve gourmet coffee, local wines and unusual gourmet food.  We had a delightful bowl of pumpkin soup and a sausage roll filled with a pork/fennel combo. And a glass of wine from the region.  Wow!

We strolled around the town, and bought bread from the bakery (something else I will miss).  

Another thing that Australians do brilliantly is to provide excellent bathrooms.  All the restaurants/cafés/pubs we have visited have super clean, very modern, ample toilet paper-equipped bathrooms. Also, clean public bathrooms are readily available, like this one in Beaufort.

I love how the Aussies call them toilets, rather than skirting the issue with names like rest rooms (does one rest in one?), or bathrooms (bathe there?) or ladies'/men's room.  They call them what they are....toilets!  Call a spade a spade!

I must be getting nostalgic about leaving.  We only have about 2 more weeks in this great country. :-( 

Back home, it was cool and sunny.  We did some yard work, which was good exercise.  

DINNER:  Grilled hamburgers.  Tasty!  A nice change of pace.