Travelling through inland Australia: Day 2 Holbrook to Yarrawonga

Thursday, 21 May

A very easy day today. We left Holbrook at about 9.00 am after saying goodbye to the Blacks and tootled down the Hume Highway at a very sedate pace. We experienced some fog but nothing to worry about and that cleared up quickly into a fine morning.

After about an hour the time came for us to turn right off this beautiful, two lane divided highway and join the much more basic Murray Valley Highway. I shouldn't complain too much. After all, it has a good surface (mostly; a bit rough in patches) and it is mostly straight with plenty of opportunities for traffic to pass us elderly caravan drivers.

About 20 kms down the track we pulled into Rutherglen. Rutherglen likes to consider itself the capital of northern Victorian wine country. With wineries such as Campbells and Morris just to name two, it is well justified in making this claim. But let's not forget the competition from the Millawa people.

We spent a very pleasant hour or so wandering up and down the main street taking a few photos. Naturally, we had a coffee at Parker Pies. You must have coffee and something to eat at Parker Pies if ever you come to Rutherglen. What we didn't do was to give in to the temptation to visit the antiques shop. Another time perhaps.

Now, I have to recount a small disaster that befell me while we were here. Rutherglen is home to a very good lolly shop. For my overseas readers, that means they sell candy or sweets. I bought my usual bag of Aniseed Rings, probably the best I have ever tasted on my travels. I also bought another bag of chocolate-coated Aniseed Rings. It was only after we were almost to Yarrawonga that I realised that I had left them on the counter of a hardware shop we had visited to by some screwdrivers and a food thermos. Thankfully I remembered to bring with me the bottle of Morris' Durif that I had bought at the Information Centre. This is something else that you do when you come to this town. Durif is a very unusual red wine for which the Victorian north-central vineyards are justly famous.

So we came to Yarrawonga and here we will stay the night. Yarrawonga and its twin town of Mulwala sits on the Murray River and Lake Mulwala. This is a man-made lake created as a source of irrigation water but building a weir across the river.

This town is a major tourist attraction for Victorians who flock here in their thousands during the school holidays. Among other things, Yarrawonga is supposed to be the sunniest place in Australia. The twin towns are full of accommodation options, very attractive eateries and sporting venues, among which is a 45 hole golf course. We recently spent a week here and were fully occupied for the whole time with the various tourist attractions that exist in and around the two towns.