Day 6 – Yackandandah, Winton Wetlands, Yarra Glen

 

Gee we have been lucky with the weather! Once again we awoke to blue skies; perfect for a travel day. By 9am we were all packed up and on our way to meet at Yackandandah, less than half an hour from Albury. We found a cute town with quite a few cafes and curiosity-type shops. Gaz found an ex- Novocastrian in the Newsagency to have a chat to, Maz found some brochures at the Tourist Info centre, Kev found a great spot for a coffee, and I found an art gallery and recognised one of the prints as being at our Airbnb in Albury. The lady in the gallery said she remembered selling it to the young woman who owns the house and was chuffed I remembered it. While we sat having coffee (well, the boys were anyway), we watched a procession of vintage type cars go down the main street – there must have been a gathering of enthusiasts nearby.

 

Kev and Maz had decided on a route to Yarra Glen that included travelling along something called the Black Spur, allegedly the prettiest drive in Australia. Gaz had vetoed following any route that included the name “spur” and so we were looking at Maz’s brochure to ascertain an alternate route. With a bit of googling thrown in we decided to travel via Benalla and Yea but with a detour to the Winton Wetlands near Benalla. What a great choice! The route did admittedly have a road with the term “gap” thrown in – really, I think a gap is only one step below a spur – but Gaz was happy enough and there was only one and a half kilometres of dirt road. The wetlands were fabulous, and we had lunch at a really lovely café there – shared a toastie and lemon tart – yum!

 

After lunch Gaz even agreed to a short stroll along the ‘Woodland Walk’ a short loop of less than a kilometre through the bush. He did bang a huge stick the whole way to deter snakes though I wondered if they might come our just to see who was making so much noise! It was pretty warm – about 31 degrees – so a short walk was enough and then we were back on the road listening to the Rosie Effect audio book again. This was stalled after an hour or so as Gaz became upset at the way the book was progressing and insisted I turn it off as it was giving him ‘the shits’. Wow, that’s a first! For our next drive I’ll have to remind him I’ve read the book before and it all ends well … there’s a 3^rd book in the series after all called The Rosie Result which we also have downloaded to listen to – that give the ending of this one away a bit, don’t you think?

 

We made it to our destination before Kev and Maz, and were almost unpacked by the time they arrived. They had a great day too, visiting a sculptor named Bruno and, of course, travelling the Black Spur which was by all accounts very pretty. After unpacking, we set off for ‘town’ and found an IGA, a couple of shops, a pub, and two fish and chip shops. We decided on fish and chips for dinner along with some home made salads. It was fabulous.

 

After dinner activities included Finska on the front pebble drive and Euchre. In a shocking development Kev/Maz v Gaz/Pen resulted in a 2-0 win to Kev & Maz … but it came down to the wire and was very close.

 

The house here is quite nice but has some quirky features, the greatest being that it has two bathrooms but only one with a shower. Very bizarre! It is Maz’s birthday tomorrow so we told her it the Festival of Maz and she gets to decide everything we do … let’s hope the power doesn’t go to her head lol.