Packing up the van after camping is always a challenge for me. I like things to be packed in the most practical order, and to slot into their chosen spot perfectly. I can’t handle things just heaped on top of each other without purpose. This becomes a challenge when one tries to pack together: a campsite, camp kitchen (including mortar and pestle,) a bike, 2 chairs (1 full recliner), an espresso machine, a market stall, clothes for 4 months, a 75L ice box, 240V inverter with batteries, cook books and chef uniforms. I think I almost happy, this being the 5^th configuration.

I headed from Port Fairy due North to Dunkeld, at the bottom of the Grampians. I had heard very good things about a hotel up there called the Royal Mail and planned to indulge. I booked in at a local airbnb called Cloud Mountain.I discovered on arriving a good friend of mine from farmers market days, Daniel Lutz, was managing the local sheep dairy – Grampians Pure. I headed over for a tour and a taste. Daniel is one of the most genuine and passionate people I know. He is very excitable and on arrival was shaking all over in anticipation of showing me the farm. It’s a great little set up and the products were delicious. Sheep’s milk is definitely an underrated commodity. Daniel explained to me that the lactose structure is completely different to that of cow’s milk and is a lot more easily digestible, therefore suitable for a lot of lactose intolerant folk. The milk itself was similar tasting to cow’s milk, with an added nuttiness and complex sweetness. I imagined that it would have that same unpleasant ‘lanolin’ like flavour of goat’s milk, but this wasn’t the case at all. I tried the yoghurts, lemon being my favourite, pecorino and feta. The cheeses were pleasant enough but could go with a little more work and balance of salt.

The Royal Mail is a highly awarded destination fine dining restaurant in the middle of nowhere. There is luxury accommodation on site and they run extensive gardens to supply their kitchen. They offers tours and guides to the nearby Grampians. Great idea, I was excited. On arriving the building itself looked a bit out of place, bit like a city based function centre. From there I headed to the front bar for a beer. It was brewed by the chefs at a local brewery, perfumed with house grown Lemon Verbena. Not wow but I could definitely settle back with a few of them on a sunny afternoon. I headed into the restaurant which was located behind the bar. It had a similar feel to the exterior, a bit stark and boring. A big open kitchen was on display with a number of chefs standing around waiting for the orders to come in. It worries me when chefs aren’t continuously busy as in my experience, there is never an end to jobs in a kitchen, plus you do your best work when you’re busy.

First was snacks and champagne. It was a gorgeous plate of crisps, crackling and canapés. Straight away the flavours were full on, miso butter, artichoke, heavy sauces and lots of salt. I proceeded to order the five course with matched wine. As the dishes came out there just didn’t seem to be balance or harmony. Either the dish was a little bland (pine mushrooms & pumpkin gnocchi) or too strong in flavours (the wagyu steak with pea puree and miso jus), or just plain bad (roasted feijoa (skin on and underripe) with Sabayon.) There was no clever pastry work in the desserts and the bread was beautifully presented but rather average. Why is restaurant baked bread always the same? It always seems rushed. Dense, salty and oily. They served the bread with a strong mustard butter. This just didn’t make sense to me, as it was just another over the top flavour that had to compete with the food. And once again where the fuck are the vegetables?

Mind you the wine matching was very clever and thoughtful. A dirty red/brown pinot noir that smelled of under ripe orchard fruit was served with the duck and quince dish, and a carefully oxidised Tokaji with a certain minerality to it was served with the mandarin dessert. The service was nice, formal but a little stiff. I much prefer a professional but fun and friendly host, especially when dining by myself. $224 later I left feeling disappointed. Compared to meals I’ve had at Hentley Farm and Bistro Dom, this didn’t even start to compare in quality, excitement or value.

26th May 2015

As it turned out Paul and Pauline, the owners of the airbnb I was booked into, were in a similar state of recovery to me. 2 years previously, they had bought the local bakery. At that time it was an out of action, old country bakery, with a big old wood oven. Paul and Pauline aren’t bakers or even foodies but it seemed like a lovely romantic idea at the time; retire to the country, buy a little old bakery, happy days. Soon enough though, they were working 7 days a week, 12-14 hour days, running farmer’s market stalls all over the state, running wholesale deliveries and were caught in the viscous cycle of a small food business. They burnt out and sold the business. Thus, we bonded.

After a breakfast of porridge and prunes I drove up into the Grampians. I haven’t been to the Grampians since I was about 10 years old. It was just as exciting as I remember it, I would definitely be keen to return to Halls Gap for some serious bush walking and rock climbing. I hit up the Pinnacle walk and it was well worth the hype. The people who design the walks and install the infrastructure do a fantastic job of making the walks as fun as possible. It starts at the ‘Wonderland’ Carpark, winds through the stunning ‘Grand Canyon’and then ‘Silent’ Street before finishing at the stunning views of the ‘Pinnacle.’ After a great burger for lunch I headed off to check out the MacKenzie waterfall, which was absolutely stunning. I met a few backpackers along the way who recommended heading up Mt William at Sunrise, so the following morning, this is what I did, and it was beautiful. Saying goodbye to the Grampians I headed down the great ocean road towards The Otways.

On the whole, I have been very lucky with the weather on this trip so far. Every day there has been sunshine and little wind. The nights haven’t been that cold, yet! I headed south east from Little Dip. I came down out of the national park to a closed gate that doesn’t say no entry but doesn’t tell you much about what is beyond. You can see a few shacks and hear the waves so I opened the gate and ventured in. It turns out, it’s a very cute ‘Private Settlement’ Called Nora Criena. This is the sort of place real shacks exist. Slap dash, handmade ones using whatever was available at the time. Now they are rusted out, falling down and sort of patched up. On the town message board there was much discussion in relation to the closed gate, the local council wanting it gone. The number one rule of Nora Creina as set by the owners is that the gate must be shut at all times. Also push bikes aren’t allowed as there is too high a risk of injury.

From Nora Creina I took the dirt roads down to Port MacDonnell. I passed a water hole called the Little Blue Lake, It looked very deep with 3-5m cliffs surrounding it. Perfect for a good bit of bombing on a hot summer day. Out of Beachport I discovered the Woakwine Cutting. In the 1950’s two gentlemen decided to turn 450 hectares peat swamp into prime farming land. Over 3 years using a tractor they cut a 1Km long 28m deep drainage creek through the hills. The resulting farm land looks extremely furtile.

It was Port Mac Donnell for lunch. Overpriced burger and undercooked chips. Then a drive down to the Piccaninnie Ponds and the most southeastern point of South Australia. The Piccaninnie Ponds are an incredibly crystal clear serious of ponds. They go down to a depth of 100m with vision up to 40m. If I ever get into diving, I’ll be heading here for sure.

I headed inland to find a campsite for the night. I came upon a beautiful little spot called the Princess Margaret Rose Caves. It was a very well cared for camp area in the Lower Glenelg River Conservation Park. I met Kim the camp manager on arriving to booked in for the night. At the beginning of our conversation it was going to be $24 for the night plus I had to buy firewood if I wanted a fire. But we talked and I listened to her problems: people bringing chainsaws with them camping (it must be a thing,) motorbikes in the park, and she’d dropped $120 somewhere (it turned up.) So in the end she charged me $12 and brought a whole stack of firewood down to my camp. Finally, it got cold. The thermals came out the first night and it was 5 layers the second night with my doona on top of my sleeping bag. Good practice for Tasmania. I woke to frozen tea towels.

24^th May 2015

I crossed the border into Victoria and headed for Port Fairy. Port Fairy is a beautiful little town full of B&B’s, cafes, restaurants, pubs and hotels. I booked in at the local caravan park. It’s incredibly quiet everywhere I’ve been and it’s no exception in Port Fairy. I had dinner at Portofino after just about everywhere else I looked was shut. I had a set 3 course which was very delicious. House preserved Tuna Arancini, Lamb Neck Rissotto and I think a Blueberry Panna Cotta. All were very well executed but where are the vegetables? It’s so hard to eat out and get a decent intake of vegetables as most restaurants load the plate with meat and starch. Supposedly they grew all the vegetables for the restaurant on the family farm, but that couldn’t have been hard as there were so few in the food. The meal was very tasty and generous and with the wine and coffee only cost $66, so I was happy.

25^th May 2015

This morning I headed out for a bike ride along the old rail trail. It was a spectacular day for May. Not a could in the sky, 20 degrees and I was in shorts and a t-shirt. It was a very straight ride up a dirt track for the first 20Km, through picturesque farming land with lots of cows around, to Koroit. At this point I was starting to feel my thigh joints as I really haven’t done that much riding. The second 20Km to Warrnambool was a lot more interesting. It went through scrub land and up into the sand dunes. Awesome looking beaches and the surfers were out and about. I was definitely due for lunch when I arrived at the lovely Pavillion Bar & Cafe. Great spot overlooking the Marina, good food, friendly service. I definitely started to struggle on ride home, I don’t think I’ve ever ridden much over 20Km before and this was a good 70Km round trip. Good training for some rides up in the Grampians later this week. Leftover Spaghetti Bolognaise, Roast Potatoes and a few glasses of Samuel Gorge Mouvedre and that was that.

17^th/18^th May 2015

With my first campsite set up just behind Wangolina’s Cellar Door, I tucked into some leftover osso bucco and braised cabbage before bunkering down for my first night in my new tent. 13 hours later I arose to beautiful  sunshine and made myself a double shot latte. I then tucked down to a big bowl of porridge for some serious blogging followed by a bottle of Sauv Blanc. My new friend Sarah from Wangolina had kindly enough invited me to dinner that evening at the Robe Hotel. But before that was to happen I had to do some serious wine drinking with John. He brought down “some of the good stuff” to the cellar door, aka the Wangolina Syrah 2013, currently unreleased. It was completely different from the 2012. A dark purple opaque red – my favourite colour in Shiraz. It was sweeter, richer, smoother and more complex. We talked wine smack for a while, finishing that bottle, then one of the 2012, then a bottle of Samuel Gorge Grenache, at which point John disappeared with another bottle of the 2013, leaving Sarah to drive me to dinner.

The Robe Hotel is an old school South Australian hotel. It’s big, comfortable and warm. Sarah new both the other patrons and the service staff, as you do in small communities. We started with more wine, some squid and some brisket. Nothing special but both were garnished with snow pea tendrils – clearly the latest thing to hit Robe. Next to come were a rump steak for her and some beef cheek for me. The beef was beautifully cooked and the mash was smooth and creamy. Once again both were garnished with snow pea tendrils. There were different ways in which they used them. They draped them over the squid, picked them over the brisket, twirled them up on top of the steack and piled them high on the beef cheek. Wait until micro herbs hit Robe, it’ll be chaos. Heading back to camp we got stuck into some more wine before the rain and wind set in. We called it a night.

19^th May 2015

The next day after a good snooze I went out for a ride to work off the wine. I rode for an hour in one direction and the scenery didn’t change. Farm land with a few lamb or grape vines. All very green, very flat and rather boring. Nice easy ride though. It was another beautiful sunny afternoon so I decided to cook up a shoulder of lamb for Sarah and I. I purchased the meat from the Kingston butcher. Great butcher, very clean and very helpful.

This recipe is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe from The Return of The Naked Chef. This was my first real cook book, I was given it for Christmas when I was 11 years old. For the shoulder of Lamb; warm up a large casserole and added a good glug of olive oil. Season the lamb generously and fry on all sides until browning, put to one side. Then add a sliced onion, a head of peeled garlic cloves, a bunch of thyme and 3 leeks, sliced into 3cm batons. Cook these until softened then add the lamb with a bottle of Pinot Gris. Once at the boil, reduce the heat to very low and let it tick away for 3-5 hours. Turning every hour or so and topping up with water as necessary. Then make a Parsnip Puree, which is my favourite flavour of late. Into a pot of cold salted water add 3 peeled parsnips and 1 small peeled potato, all cut into chunks. Bring to boil and cook until very soft, about 15 min. Drain and mouli back into the same pan and add a good 60g butter and beat until smooth, season to taste. Once the lamb is tender and beginning to fall apart, remove from the pan along with the leeks. Remove as much fat from the remaining sauce as possible and season to taste. Tear the lamb into pieces, serve with the parsnip puree, some of the braised leeks and a good spoonful of the sauce.

It got very wet and windy that evening. We huddled in the back of the van, trying to stay dry and trying to eat our lamb before it went cold. Failing on both counts. Halfway through the night I woke to a big bang. The wind had increased significantly and my gazebo had pulled itself free of its pegs and flipped over in the wind, basically destroying itself. I was planning to move on the next day but my camp set up was slightly amiss. I spent the morning trying to get everything dried out and packed up. In the end I stayed an extra night, this time inside at Anitas place. She was heading back from Adelaide the next day and I could get her to bring down my other gazebo with her.

20^th May 2015

That afternoon I headed to Robe.  I went for a walk out to the Obelisk and and along the beach then visited Mahalia Coffee Roasters. They have a great little café/shop just out of Robe centre, that’s connected to their roasterie. The coffee was absolutely fantastic and the croissant pudding I ordered was delicious. The coffee machine is gorgeous and the shop is full of an eclectic and very extensive mix of coffee and tea accessories. That evening it was scotch fillet, leftover parsnip puree, kale, hughsli beetroot relish and an early night.

21^st My 2015

Once Anita returned in the afternoon I could finally get underway. For breakfast I cooked up blueberry, bacon and hazelnut pancakes and stocked up my sandwich supply for the road using the left over roast lamb.

Roast lamb sangas my way. Butter slices of bread generously on the outside. Shred roast lamb, mix with home-made mayo and some watercress (or when in Robe snow pea tendrils.) Place a good dollop of hughsli beetroot relish on a slice of bread followed by a handful of lamb mix, sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella. Place another slice of bread on top and fry over low heat in a small fry pan. As bits fall out, let them fry away. Turn the sandwich once golden, then remove once golden on the other side. Open one side, add the left over fried bits from the pan and a couple of leaves of cos. Done. These have now become a staple of the trip. As it turns out a 2.4Kg Lamb Shoulder makes a lot of sandwiches.

I finally left Wangolina late that afternoon after a quick catch up with Anita. I headed for the Little Dip Conservation Park, which is 15Km out of Robe. I pulled in at Long Valley where there was a group of campers with blaring heavy metal, a huge fire and chainsaws roaring. I thought I best move on.  I moved onto a lovely camp site under the trees next to Old Man Lake. I knocked back another roast lamb sandwich and that was that.

In the last six weeks I wrapped our Market Stalls up with two spectacular half price days, I’ve been out to see all my wholesale customers and topped their supplies up, caught up with lots of old friends and cemented as many relationships as possible. I have been madly tidying up the kitchen (which happens to be in my fathers house,) eating lots of good food and drinking far too much wine.

Finally today everything was done and all that was left to do was pack my life into my van and get out of town. It ended up being quite the excessive array of paraphernalia that got packed. A few dozen jars of chutneys and jams for a pop-up stall here and there were thrown in along with a large collection of cookbooks, a portable kitchen including an extensive larder, camp stove, magi-mix, mortar and pestle and knife collection, the mountain bike, skateboard, tent, marquee and of course my beautiful ‘Giotto’ espresso machine. The espresso machine actually hooks up to a 2000W inverter connected to a set of golf cart batteries, that can be charged from my Vans 12V outlet, which means I can brew a perfect latte whenever and wherever I feel like. Its the Hughsli way.

So finally at just after 6pm today I headed off into the unknown for an adventure of a life time. I only made it as far as Reynella before stopping in at a Hotel for the night, the St Francis Winery. The food and wine were of no distinction at dinner time but the spa made up for any short comings. Its going to be an early night tonight and then its off to Wangolina Winery and the South East tomorrow.