G'Day!

T’was days before New Year’s and days after Xmas, And all through the eBlog Not a character was stirring, not even the mouse We can’t have this! With the exception of the very first post I’ve not added many links to points and places of interest that were mentioned in the 2003 trip to Oz (November 21 to December 13). This was mainly because I wrote using Word and then copied and pasted into the Blogger format, and didn’t want to use up time creating links. Now that the modem and wall jacks are no longer issues I’ll go back and add as many links as I can. Just a little note: I use bSTATS which allows me to check how many hits the eBlog gets and also some info on why the site was looked at. The last one was via a Google search for “best fish and chips” “san diego”. You just never know who will track you down!

Photo Update Our tour of the Swan Valley in Western Australia has been recorded by the tour operators, Swan Valley Tours. You can see the images by going here, clicking on Photo Galleries, Winery Tours and then on the tour on 9th December, 2003. Or go directly by clicking here

Ye God's, so many spelling mistakes and minor errors suggest this Blog must have been written in a hurry! Fortunately most aren’t too hard to figure out. For example goal is related to football but gaol is jail, (I don’t care what type of football you play, gaol is the correct English spelling for a jail). And Bathurst is 200 not 2000 kms from Dubbo. If I get time I’ll go back and make the needed corrections, but they won’t change the Blog very much at all. If there is any thing that you want to comment on send me a note (click “Where I get mail” in the right hand column under “Where”), or click on "comments" below each post.

Ah, the last post on the 2003 trip to Oz. What follows are the details of the last few days where we traveled from Perth to Sydney, and then back to San Diego. Thursday December 11, 2003 Last night at Miss Maud's. Yet another smorgasbord for breakfast! At least its popular, the place always seems to be packed. But if you're me and don't eat a lot for breakfast then its not necessarily great value. The airport shuttle should stop just up the street from Miss Maud's Swedish Hotel but when one goes sailing by as we stand curbside we have a few minutes apprehension until another arrives. The flight to Sydney is a little under 4 hours. We are shuttled into our hotel, The Harbour Rocks Hotel, at about 7pm. The hotel is housed in a heritage building which stands on the site of Sydney's first hospital. Below our window is a path known as Nurses Walk. Like most streets in The Rocks it winds its cobbled way down narrow lanes, alleyways and stairways filled with cafes, restaurants and all manner of tourist traps. The Rocks is the area of Sydney where the First Fleet, with its cargo of convicts, settled in 1788. We've stayed in this area before several years ago at The Russell Hotel which is not as historic and not as well appointed as The Harbour Rocks. As it's a cool, calm evening we take a stroll looking for a place for a late dinner and end up at The Gumnut Cafe, next door to the hotel! The seating is out in the open, providing a great opportunity to observe the nightlife. Miranda is particularly impressed by the 2 inch cockroaches which scurry up and down the trees and along the wall next to our table. We continue our walk along the western side of Circular Quay which houses the ocean liner passenger terminal. While it still has this function is also contains some very upmarket restaurants. We wanted to dine at one of these, The Quay, tomorrow night but as their famous Rack of Lamb is not on the menu we decide against making a reservation. One of the restaurants in The Rocks, The RockPool, has been voted one of the top ten in the world by several different gourmet magazines. Judging by the prices you need to be in the top ten financially to eat there. Its packed when we walk past! Friday December 12, 2003 I'm up at 9:30am which Miranda reminds me is 6:30am Perth time. At least that's what I think she grumbles from under the bedclothes! Definitely not a morning person, besides her head cold seems to be hanging on. So while I go looking for socks and yet another modem connection she sleeps in. I don't know why it is but each hotel we have stayed in has given me trouble connecting to the internet. I may have to dump these latest notes onto a CD and go in search of an Internet Cafe as the phone line I buy as a possible solution to the current problem does not solve anything. The only internet cafe we visit has zip drives but no CD drives! During the night there was some serious thunder and its spitting rain. What is it with Sydney's weather, we haven't had a full day of sunshine yet. Grumpy is wake and ready to eat when I return so we go for pancakes at Pancakes on the Rocks. Miranda has Pancakes Up North (pancakes with grilled pineapple and banana), and I have fish and chips! Open 24 hours it was, and probably still is, a great place to go for food after an Aussie pubcrawl. As we are leaving we find that my umbrella has gone missing from the pile left inside the doorway. I take one that looks like mine, probably repeating the same mistake that led to mine disappearing. Immediately I feel pity for whoever has mine as this one is not prone to collapsing for no apparent reason or turning inside out in even the slightest breeze. Fcuk! It's a Fcuk. I've always wanted something from Fcuk. The character who has my umbrella is probably expressing a similar sentiment! The afternoon is spent with Miranda getting some more rest and me catching up on the eBlog. We go for a walk so that Miranda can buy a book for the trip back to LA. Ted joins us in our room to exchange Xmas presents and share a bottle of 1998 Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz, one of the Hunter Valley's earthy wines. Its apparently one of Australia's greatest wines, but I'd never heard of it until this trip. We head off for a walk around the Quay which is thronged with people, some celebrating Xmas. We also see Flying Foxes (bats) wheeling and diving over the quay. They roost in Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens during the day and head out at night to feed. Later in the evening we see them wheeling over the towers of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Dinner is at Sailors Thai in The Rocks; Ted's treat. The dinner is excellent as is a bottle of Leeuwin Estate Semillion/Sauvignon Blanc from the Margaret River in WA. We continue to walk the Quay having coffee and pavlova opposite the piers where the harbour ferries dock. On the way back to the hotel Ted gets pooped on, we think by a bat. Its definitely a dangerous country; Miranda adds the flying fox to her list of Australian animals to be avoided! Saturday December 13, 2003 At last, a blue cloudless sky! An early breakfast at the Bakers Oven Cafe. The lack of service outside forces us inside where its easier to be seen to be starving for food. It is becoming pretty obvious that Australia still has a long way to go in providing prompt service. We are early for the shuttle bus driver who has also arrived early so that he can get a croissant from a nearly shop, his favorite breakfast. Ted is at the airport to see us off on our 12 hour and 40 minute return flight. The movies on this leg are better than the flight to Sydney. We have a choice of Seabiscuit, Swimming Pool, Mambo Italiano, SWAT, Freaky Friday, Finding Nemo, and American Pie: The Wedding. Seabiscuit is very good, a real tearjerker. Finding Nemo is cute, even though I didn't get to see the ending. Swimming Pool is also interesting, and although I get thumped on the arm for watching a movie with so much nudity, I convince Miranda to watch it. But even she can't explain what the ending scenes really mean, so I have to be satisfied with seeing Charlotte Rampling naked. Neither of us sleeps much on the flight and by the time we arrive back in San Diego we are ready for a long nap. That night its back to the airport for me to collect a visiting scientist who will stay with us for several days. The end result is a later than expected last posting on our trip due to getting even less sleep over the last few days than we got on the plane, but that is another story!

OK, so I'm posting this from San Diego as we arrived home about 4 hours ago. Now I have a stable and fast internet connection! What is below is the Perth portion of the trip. I'll post the last few days in Sydney and the flight back tomorrow. Then you can all turn your computer off and get on with your lives. Sunday December 7, 2003 Today is a quiet day. I wash our clothes and work on my talk while Miranda visits Fremantle and its gaol. She sees more of our fellow train travelers. We have a late a la carte lunch at Miss Maud's, a Swedish restaurant which has Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Smorgasbords. Miranda decides we have to return for a smorgasbord. Monday December 8, 2003 Today we decide to visit the Perth Mint. On the way there in the CAT, yes you guessed it, we meet more train travelers, this time it is the couple from York who are having a great time especially as their hotel suite is larger than their new flat. The Perth Mint produces a variety of collector coins and also made the medals for the Olympics held in Sydney in 2000. We see a very impressive demonstration of the manual pouring of a gold bar. Miranda sees a bracelet that she thinks would make a very nice Christmas present from me to her. Its gold plated native flora. It is the only one left. We snap it up. And who should be at the mint but the last person we wanted to see! No its not JPY. Lunch is the smorgasbord at Miss Maud's where we discover that there is also a Miss Maud's Swedish Hotel. The cost is about the same as Sullivan's, but breakfast is a free? Right, smorgasbord! We decide to change hotels. I return to Sullivan's to inform them of our decision and then go to the conference to give my talk. Miranda, overcome with the excitement of smorgasbords for the next day and a half, goes on a shopping spree and buys Christmas presents for all our little Australian relatives. The evening is spent packing our bags for tomorrow's transfer to Miss Maud's. Tuesday December 9, 2003 We check out, store our bags and wait for the shuttle to Barrack Street Jetty and the ferry (Miss Sandalford) that will take us up the Swan River for a day of wine and food. The first part of the day is a 2 hour cruise starting with coffee/tea and a muffin, followed by a cheese plate and 4 wines; 2 each from Evans and Tate, and Figtree Winery. Fortunately a slow cruise on a calm river is all that is needed to relax me. We are then bussed to Sandalford's Caversham Estate where 8 wines are laid out before us, discussed and then we are left to taste for ourselves. I reach for the first bottle but its grabbed away and a full glass is poured by someone who looks like he really does need a drink! I finally get to taste my way through the wines but Miranda is more selective. She is saving herself for the Sandalera, a dessert wine in the style of a rich Muscat that goes for $AUS90/500ml. Fortunately we only have to pay $5 for a taste but its worth it. The rest of the wines are not particularly outstanding although they are definitely a cut above the Mudgee wines. Miranda likes the Cabernet Merlot blend. My favorite is probably the Late Harvest Verdelho/Semillion. We leave the rest of the ferry crowd swaying at Sandalford and head out with a much smaller group for a more intimate road tour run by Swan Valley Tours. First stop is Jane Brook Winery (est. 1972) where Miranda and I seem to be the only ones who taste the whole lineup. Miranda likes the Sauvignon Blanc/Semillion blend while I prefer the Back Block Shiraz. The latter comes from 70 year old vines. The chardonnay is also nice. Lunch is at Jane Brook where we learn more about our follow tourists. There is Kim the tour guide, a young Swedish couple on a late honeymoon, Norma who is originally Scottish but is now looking to establish herself as tour guide, Maree an Australian who is taking the day off from the immunology conference and on vacation from Oxford, and a Philippino girl who is related to Kim and also wants to be a tour guide. To finish lunch we are given a glass of Jane Brook White Port. This is served chilled with ice and a slice of lemon. Normally I don't like to do anything that adulterates wine, but this tastes pretty good. From Jane Brook we walk next door to Garbin Estate Wines. Here we taste our way through another 10 wines. The first of these is a Chenin Blanc which is normally a dry white wine but this one is sweet due to the presence of residual sugar. Both Maree and I notice this and as we taste more of the wines it becomes obvious that Maree has a very good palate. The next stop is Swan Valley Cheese where all the cheeses are from cow's milk. After tasting several, Miranda buys some Mature Farmhouse. Hopefully it won't mature in the same way that the cheese we bought in Sydney did in the train carriage to Perth. An icecreamery is next on the tour. This business was established by an Australian army chef who found that the icecream he made for the troops was more popular than anything else he prepared. The next stop is a visit to an Aboriginal Arts and Crafts shop, Maalinup Aboriginal Gallery, where we get a didgeridoo demonstration and a talk on aboriginal weapons. The artwork is very good here and we buy several small pieces. The last stop is The Margaret River Chocolate Company in Swan Valley established because there were none in the Swan Valley, now it does a roaring trade. Then its home to Sullivan's as part of the door-to-door service of the tour. We are told to check the SVT website for pictures of the day but when we finally get to our room at Miss Maud's I find that the connection to the phone line will require me to buy yet another phone cord. So we head out for a walk and have a pizza at Villa Rustica in Northbridge. Wednesday December 10, 2003 Breakfast is, well if you don't know by now you've just been skimming this blog. Miranda appears to be coming down with head cold; probably due to all the smorgasbord! However she braves it all to buy a pair of high heel shoes to go with latest sexy outfit and then we head off to catch the ferry to the Perth Zoo. Its only a small zoo but very open, sort of like a miniature San Diego Wild Animal Park, or Dubbo's Western Plains Zoo. We lose each other at the dingo exhibit. I think she has gone on further into the Australian Wildlife Walk and go that way but she has simply gone around the corner to get a better view of the dingoes. When I return she tells how she has been communing with the male dingo. He seems very interested in her so she has been talking to him and he's been waging his tail. I think he just wants smorgasbord and is not really worried about what form it comes in! Afternoon and evening is spent resting Miranda's head (cold), catching up on this eBlog and packing for the midday flight back to Sydney tomorrow. Just before bed I notice a hidden phone connection that allows me to post the details of the train trip to the eBlog.

I apologize for the length of this update but a change in hotels in Perth has meant that things are even slower than I expected. Wednesday December 3, 2003 Today is the beginning of the big trip. Lorna and Jack (Aunt and Uncle) and Ni and Chris and their children Michaela and Zack see us off on our QANTAS flight to Sydney. A brief shuttle drive gets us to Sydney’s Central Rail Station where we have to wait for several hours before we are allowed to board the Indian Pacific for the trip to Perth. After a brief ceremony by the on-board staff on the platform we are directed to berths 7 and 8 in carriage L. Our own little cabin with toilet and washbasin (fortunately as separate bowls) that pop out from the wall of the smallest bathroom I’ve ever been in! We are surprised to learn that this is the Christmas trip of the Indian Pacific. Besides Santa Claus the train is also carrying the aging Australian Rock star John Paul Young famous for the song “Love is in the Air”. We keep looking at every face to see if we can recognize JPY. The train departs at 2:55pm and we settle into our cabin and wait for the 6:30pm reception where we get, over blue champagne, to introduce ourselves to all the other passengers in Gold Kangaroo Service who have selected the second meal seating. Our (8:00pm) dinner seating is called Moonlight and Miranda is delighted to see Heidi at (actually under) the table opposite. Heidi is Ernie’s Labrador guide dog and she is driven by an overwhelming desire for food. However Murray the head waiter makes the public announcement that we can pet her when she is not on the harness, but she must not be fed at any time. Ernie slips her titbits from time to time. The first day of train travel goes from Sydney to Parkes with a stop at Bathurst for Santa and JPY to get off and greet and sing with the local school children who line the platform and wave at us as we pass. We aren’t allowed to get off to witness the big event and no singing is heard, but expectations are high that we will see JPY later in the trip. Rain began to fall as we crossed the Blue Mountains, but appears to fade later in the evening. When I wake at around 3am the sky is starlight except for the distant horizon which glows regularly with lightening bursts. Thursday December 4, 2003 Today the train goes from Condobolin in NSW to Spenser Junction in SA. Nice clear day but the recent storms have dropped quite a lot of water. The countryside changes from red earth and scattered gumtrees to low lying scrub. It changes to rolling hills and wheat fields and some vineyards as we approach Adelaide, and then back through the spectrum to red earth and low scrub as we head towards WA. Several kangaroos and a solitary emu are spotted. Yesterday Jos (Maitre d') learnt that we are on our way to the Immunology conference in Perth and he told us that another passenger is doing the same. This morning at the 6:30am pre-breakfast snack he brings Felicity to our table. (It seems like a major aim of the staff is to bring people together during their trip – they seem to be continually making introductions.) Felicity works at Sydney’s Centenary Institute run by Tony Basten – one of the reviewers of my PhD thesis many years ago. (A little name dropping in Immunology circles doesn’t hurt.) The reason for the early snack is to fortify us for a bus trip around Broken Hill, one of Australia’s great mining towns reflected in street names like Ore and Crystal. However the train is late and we have a shortened tour (fortunately at reduced cost) the feature of which is a trip to the (Royal) Flying Doctor Service base and hangers. This is the only mode of medical attention for vast regions of the Australian outback. We learn that many places have a medical kit supplied by the Service free of charge and available to all who need it. It’s a large box that seems to be filled with everything you might need, except snake anti-venom which is about the only thing you might need. More on snakes later! Murray (Head Waiter), knowing that Miranda is a veterinarian, brings Ernie and Heidi to our table for breakfast. While Heidi spends most of her time sniffing at the napkin in my lap for crumbs, at least that’s what I think she’s doing, Ernie tells us his life story. By the time he’s finished I have drool over a good part of one trouser leg, and I didn’t feed her a thing. Ernie is English (although born in India) and trained as a blacksmith before WWII when he joined a Light Horse division, only to have it become mechanized a few months later. Because of his knowledge of Urdu (the language taught to Indians and Pakistanis soldiers so they can communicate) he is sent to Burma with the Gurkhas, wounded and sent back to England. He ended up at Woomera (rocket testing range) in the Australian outback and finally retired in Adelaide. During the meal we are joined by an Emeritus Professor of Linguistics from University of Michigan and he and Ernie briefly converse in Urdu. Yesterday evening Jos had asked whether anyone would like to give a 10 minute talk to the passengers on some interesting topic of Australian life and Miranda offers to lecture on the dangers of Australian wildlife. Titling her talk “If I was Born in Australia I’d be Dead by Now” she gives the gathered throng a humorous thumbnail sketch of various venomous species. Part of her talk is based on a report in the Flying Doctor newsletter of the efforts required to save the life of a man bitten by a King Brown snake (highly venomous) while he slept. Questions or comments are entertained at the end and a gentleman gets up to say that there are no dangerous creatures in Australia. He knows because he’s been here since 1961 and has never had any problems. I recognize him as the “true blue Aussie battler” who at yesterdays’ introductions was at great pains to make sure we all knew he is English and that England just beat Australia in the Ruby World Cup. We Australians have a name for this type of person “a Whingeing Pom” (Sorry Roger and Joyce, but some country’s do have ‘em). Immediately Murray jumps to Miranda’s defense and tells us his story of unprovoked brown snake attack, as do several others. (Note: After we reach Perth every newspaper we open up has a different story of unprovoked snake attack!) After the talk Miranda is thanked for her interesting talk by “Bruce”, an Engineer and marketing supervisor for the Canadian Railroad and a real train enthusiast. We have lunch with him and the Emeritus Linguist Professor. At some point the conversation turns to Israel and Palestine with the Professor supporting the Palestinians and “Bruce” as the son of holocaust survivors providing a somewhat different point of view. All is saved when we are asked whether we want coffee and Miranda and I turn the conversation toward short blacks, long blacks, and flat whites. Politics and racism are just not suitable topics during First Class train travel! We are given a bus tour of Adelaide later in the day. Adelaide is Australia’s only really planned city. The streets of the city proper are all straight and the city is surrounded by parkland which was to serve as a buffer to allow defense of the city in the 19th century. There are many fine old buildings and Miranda is quite taken with the place. This is not a universal feeling as at dinner we meet Anthony, a South African, who is moving himself from Adelaide to Perth. Friday December 5, 2003 Today the train travels from Bookaloo in SA to Stewart in WA. The country here is seriously flat, red and devoid of visible wildlife, except for pairs of wedgetailed eagles that spiral the open bush. There must be something down there! Later in the day we see several herds of horses, whether they are wild is hard to say as we also see cattle. Others even see wild camels which are not native but were introduced along with camel drivers from Afghanistan. At breakfast we meet a Swiss school teacher and her husband. She has been in Australia for several months. The first month was to improve her English and now they are traveling around the country. During the train trip we met several Europeans and they all are taking a month or more to tour Australia. Well, it is a big country! A highlight of this part of the trip is a visit to Cook. Inhabitants 2; the station master and his wife. There used to be a thriving railworker community here but when the line passed from public to private hands there was significant downsizing! So now almost all the houses are empty and the swimming pool is dry. The only constant is that the golf course still doesn’t have any grass. When we enter the little tourist shop it is packed and there is an in depth conversation going on. It turns out that several “journos” are taping a Q and A with the stationmaster’s wife. I doubt the poor woman sold a thing to the several hundred passengers while the train was in Cook. Sometimes journalists should be seen and not heard! I’m beginning to think that JPY isn’t providing these people with enough interest. He’s certainly not providing us with much excitement either as he is supposed to perform for us here in Cook. But we have to be satisfied with a photo of Miranda with Santa. Lunch is with a retired couple from York, England who have been visiting their children in Australia. They have been looking for kangaroos but haven’t seen any. Later in the day I watch for several hours and seen about a dozen ‘roos and numerous cattle, and also miles and miles of nothing but flat earth with the occasional scraggly bush. Conversation can bring out interesting comparisons. Now retired the York couple has moved from their bungalow to a much smaller flat and have throw away many things including family photographs, a decision they now regret. When the recent fires in Southern California were threatening us last month the first thing packed into our cars was our photographs. Oh, a comment on the food. Our lunch choice today is a Swagman’s Lunch which is a sausage, a thin slice of beef, small damper (bush bread) and some veg. Hmmm, this is supposed to be First Class isn’t it? So why are we eating such a tasteless meal? While this lunch is not typical the big disappointment of the trip is the poor quality of the food. At least the wines, such as Wynns Coonawarra Shiraz Cabernet, are very good. And I guess we aren’t as disappointed as train buff “Bruce” who arrived at Sydney’s Central Train Station for his trip across Australia in a coat and tie, only to find the carriages populated by characters like me in T-shirts and jeans! The Linguistics Professor joins us for dinner. We have a real sunset during the meal and the dining carriage is directly opposite a small mob of ‘roos when the train has to stop. During dinner we also get to quiz the head waiter, Lindley, about the whereabouts of JPY. As Lindley is part of the crew change that occurred in Adelaide he assures us that he did see JPY perform on the platform while we toured the city. When we returned we did see the small sound stage being dismantled, as we did in Broken Hill. However we remain skeptical. Toward the end of the meal Miranda checks on why Heidi is licking and nibbling at her feet and offers advice to Ernie about allegies. I diagnose it as just her usual hunger! At about 9pm we arrive at Kalgoorlie and are taken on a bus trip to see the Superpit Gold mine which is Australia’s largest open pit mine. Our female bus driver proudly tells us that the truck drivers in the pit are all women. She also takes us to see Hay Street which has 3 active, and legal, brothels, one of which is managed by one of her old school chums who used to be Harry and is now the same sex as the truck drivers. As we tour around the sky is filled with lightening flashes and it looks like we are in for rain on the way into Perth. Saturday December 6, 2003 Breakfast is with “Bruce” and a women who is on her way to live in Perth. It certainly seems to be a popular place! The track runs along the River Avon, which later turns into the Swan River. The Avon is the site of a yearly whitewater race of over 100 kms which ends just upstream of the city. We reach Perth at about 10:30am. A school Choir is there to sing Christmas carols, and presumably JPY is supposed to put in an appearance, but we have to leave in a shuttle bus to tour the city before heading to our hotel. Was JPY on the train? I guess we’ll never know. Lindley told us that JPY is a little fellow, so maybe we weren’t looking close enough to the ground. At least they gave us a poster to remember his absence by. The tour of Perth lasts several hours and covers much of the city and its surroundings including a stop at the Kings Park Botanical Gardens where Miranda buys a poster of venomous snakes; this is starting to become a little bit of an obsession! The driver drops us at our respective hotels. The most impressive stop is at St George’s College where the entrance is marked by a Flame tree which is covered in brilliant red flowers. Even though I’m not a tree person I make particular note of this as St George’s is where I’ll have to register for the conference tomorrow. Our hotel, Sullivans, is quite small although our room is quite large and offers a great view of the city skyline. Its even on the same street as St George’s, Mounts Bay Road, which turns out to be more than just a little busy with traffic. We catch the free CAT (which I believe stands for Central Area Transport) bus to downtown Perth and walk around city. I never see anyone I know when I’m out and about in San Diego but in minutes we see the couple from Switzerland and the Linguistics Professor. Maybe all the people we’re seeing in downtown Perth were on the train? Dinner that night is at Burswood Resort and Casino, but we refrain from gambling mainly because the games appear to be nothing like those is Las Vegas.

Thursday November 27, 2003 A beautiful clear Australian summer day. We check out of our room at the Best Western Blue Diamond Motel which is just one block from a house that once belonged to my grandparents and then my Uncle Leo. Now it’s part of the business district of Dubbo. Our first stop on the way to wine country is Wellington. Originally a penal settlement in 1823, it was soon occupied by pioneer farmers. Neither are in view when we stop to have lunch at the Cactus Café. Housed in a 1930’s building which has been a church and a school house, this café was opened by Mexico’s Ambassador to Australia. Two sets of concertina doors, which used to separate the single space into class rooms, now partially divide the room into the café and two areas filled with local crafts for sale. On the way to Mudgee, which is higher in altitude than Dubbo, the countryside changes from low undulating hills of red earth (Dubbo means “red earth” in aboriginal) and wheat farms to the rolling forested hills that surround Mudgee (“a nest in the hills”). As this trip is essentially unplanned we call at the Mudgee Visitor Center to see what accommodations are available, only to learn that we have arrived just before the annual weekend of music concerts. We are saved by “Barb” who is visiting the staff of the Visitor Center and runs several B and B’s. Soon we have the keys to “Bellmore”, a renovated house built in the 1920-1930’s in a style reminiscent of Arts and Crafts houses of California. Miranda and I get the front bedroom with a bed that occupies 80% of the room and is about 4 feet off the floor – fortunately each side of the bed has a set of steps. As we only have a few hours of the day left we decide to drive to the Blue Wren Vineyard to make reservations at their restaurant as Chris has been told the food is “excellent”. Of course we taste their wines – all of them! I come away hoping that the food will be better. We have time for one more vineyard so we do down the road to Pieter van Gent’s where we also taste all the wines. This is no small achievement as the wines range from dry red and whites to fortified wines and several specialty wines, one of which flavored with vermouth. A number of the wines are very good and we purchase some dry sherry and port for the trip to Perth and some others for relatives in Dubbo. However we don’t find anything suitable for the evening meal and scour a Mudgee wine shop, buying an additional 6 bottles. Upon returning to Bellmore we find that Barb has stocked the little house with everything needed for a hearty Australian breakfast, as well as a bottle of Andrew Harris Verdelho. This is immediately consumed with cheese, crackers and olives. Dinner at the Blue Wren is very good and even though Karlyn won’t approve when she reads this my meal consists of Thumper (Rillettes of wild rabbit with pickled onions and cucumbers served with crusty bread) and Bambi (Melrose Park (Mudgee) Venison, with a warm bean, hazelnut and radicchio salad). However each dish is accompanied by a vegetarian side dish, Tempus Two Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2003 with the rabbit and Henschke Keyneton Estate Shiraz/Cabernet/Merlot 2000 with the venison. Deciding to make use of the shuttle to take us to and from the restaurant turns out to be a wise choice. Friday November 28, 2003 Breakfast consists of pretty much anything you want. Miranda makes scrambled eggs in bacon fat with lemon myrtle in an attempt to reproduce some of the excellent eggs we had in Sydney. She succeeds! The day is filled with wine tasting, although its unlikely we will visit all 29 cellar doors. The first vineyard is Botobolar and their organic wines. Pleasant wines that are not my style but we spend an enjoyable hour talking with the owner who is a transplant from Chicago. Subsequently we taste at Huntington, known for their shiraz but we find the best sweet white of the visit. Abercorn has award wining wines which are quite good – their top Shiraz Cabernet is the only wine which you must pay to taste but the only available bottle has been open for 10 days, so we get a free taste and its still a quality wine. Miranda is more impressed that the only other visitors have a black standard poodle but it is so harassed by the vineyard dogs that they leave. Maybe they were visiting because they too had noticed that the vineyard advertising has a white poodle in it. Unfortunately its away with the owners. Peterson’s vineyard has one of the few zinfandels in the region and a taste tells us why. Lunch is out in the open at Poet’s Corner (formerly Craigmoor Vineyards). This is followed by a visit to Red Clay Vineyards which is the smallest vineyard in the Mudgee area. The wines here are made using a basket press as the grape yields are too small for more modern techniques. The new wine maker for Andrew Harris vineyards who has just come from several years with Kendall-Jackson in Napa is at Red Clay tasting their wines. Like most Mudgee wines they are well made but without real distinction. The next stop is a diversion from wines as we visit Figtree Retreat Olives to taste their produce and get a small tour of the farm and discuss their biodynamic (sustainable) agriculture. Its certainly rustic as upon arrival we find the owner using natures’ toilet off his verandah! Miranda buys the Fig and Olive Tapenade and the rock salt cured (tsassos) olives. The last vineyard is Andrew Harris where we again taste all the range and again the reds all taste very similar to me. Some of the whites like the verdelho are much more distinctive and well structured. Dinner that night is in Mudgee in the courtyard of The Wineglass Café. More Bambi is consumed, this time in the form of sausages. Saturday November 29, 2003 After an early breakfast we head back to Dubbo the see Ni and Chris’s son Zac play schoolboy cricket where his team wins a little too convincingly - 168 to 5!! The rest of the day is spent walking around downtown Dubbo. Sunday November 30, 2003 Today we visit the Western Plains Zoo where we take a self guided walking tour to burn off the excesses of the previous few days. Like sensible Australians the kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and dingos are all resting in the shade. Everyone else seems to be active, except for the Maned Wolf. Later we visit the Red Earth Winery, one of the 4 local wineries. They might sell more wine here if they actually gave you a reasonable amount to taste. As it is the few milliliters we get leaves a negative impression except for the wines we are shown from another winery bottled under the “Naked Lady” label. Miranda remains unconvinced that it’s the wine I appreciate! In the afternoon we visit my mother’s grave site where I see her grave stone for the first time. We leave fresh flowers at her graveside and at her brother Don’s graveside. That evening we BBQ beef, pork and chicken sausages and the last of my mother’s chutney at Ni and Chris’s farm outside Dubbo. Bottles of Shiraz from Botobolar and Abercorn are compared and leave me hoping that the wines of Western Australia will satisfy the palate more. Monday December 1, 2003 Today Miranda and I take my aunt Lorna to visit her sister Leone in a nursing home in nearby Narromine. Dementia is slowly taking her memory and she takes a few minutes to recognize me, however she knows Miranda even though they have only met once before. Underneath her disease she still retains her sense of humor We return to Dubbo for lunch at the Olive Garden Café and Nursery. This is followed by shopping at Grace Bros where the lady helping Miranda tells her how much she loves her accent. Miranda buys a “sophisticated” black and white chiffon dress over a black and white polka dot slip. That evening we dine at Jules Café where the waitress is unsure whether we can share a meal of crepes. Its not the sort of service we are used to receiving and when we discover that the table we have near the front door is actually holding the door open we are ready to leave. However we tough it out and finally receive a single plate of two crepes and two empty plates that allows us to share what is a meal that neither of us could have eaten alone. The serving sizes of meals in Australia appear to following the trend in the US, where the increasing obesity is being blamed, in part, on the increasing size of meals. Tuesday December 2, 2003 Another day of traveling. This time we take Lorna to Bathurst (about 200 kms southwest of Dubbo) to see some the homes lived in by my mother’s family. Bathurst is Australia’s oldest inland city and boasts many fine buildings. Lorna shows us my great grandfather’s house which is apparently heritage listed it appears close to collapse. We also visit with my Aunt Joyce who is enjoying life in a very pleasant retirement home. Lunch is at the Crowded House Café where the sausages are burnt to perfection. As usual Miranda is disgusted! After we returned to Dubbo we visit the Returned Soldiers League (RSL) where gambling has long been legal in many Australian cities. This brief visit is followed by a very good dinner at the Thai Restaurant. Asian food in Australia is very good and restaurants very common.