Into the Mountains – Day 17

We do not have a dedicated internet connection so there will be no photos for a couple of days.

For the first time we did have breakfast provided at our hotel, so we found a bakery about 500 metres away and had excellent coffee with fresh croissants sitting outside. We gave the Milawa cheese factory a miss, we had tried their cheddar and blue cheeses at dinner last night, and both were excellent, however cheese is not something that travels in a hot climate. Instead we headed for the small town of Rutherglen for something that does travel, wine. 

Rutherglen is a gold rush town established in the mid-nineteenth century. At the same time vines were planted and the area contains some of the oldest wineries in Australia. It is also renowned for its fortified wines. Indeed the sign at the entry into the town makes great play on that. The maitre’d at the Lake House Hotel recommended a particular vineyard, Chambers. We found it easily and were well rewarded. It was one of the best cellar door experiences that we have had. The winery was founded in 1858 and is now run by the sixth generation of the family. Their specialities are Muscat, Port, and Sherry, although of course they are not allowed to call in sherry. 

Some of the barrels that they are aging the wine in are over one hundred years old, including one that originated from Germany for exhibiting at the Great Exposition in Melbourne in the 1880’s, was taken as payment for a bad debt and emblazoned with the Australian coat of arms. The maturing process did not seem to suffer from the very hot summers that this area had experienced. We tried several of the Muscats and Sherries, they all had a rich marmaladey type complex taste. Marion fell in love, particularly with the one that was $200 for half a bottle. So we are bringing home to three bottles, just right to drink with a dessert, or served cold as an aperitif.

Before we left Rutherglen we bought some local flavoured olive oil, it is a good job that weight will not be a factor on our future flights.

We then headed towards the Snowy Mountains, Australia’s highest, bypassing the large town of Woodonga/Albury to drive beside Lake Hume. This is an artificial lake created by damming the upper reaches of the Murray River. It is a graphic illustration of the drought affecting this area of Australia. The lake has shrunk, trees that were under water are exposed, and a village that was moved fifty years ago to make way for the lake would now be on dry land.

Even though the railways in this area have been shut we found some interesting relics. The State of Victoria has been forward thinking in creating walking and bike tracks from its closed railways. We drove in parallel with the High Country Rail Tail for many miles. One interesting relic was an old trestle bridge, where the four support construction to enable the bridge to carry the heaviest weights could clearly be seen.

The Snowy Mountains are almost all in the Kosciuszko National Park, one of the few places that we have paid an entry fee for. The first part of the road passed the Murray River Power Scheme, described as one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world. After that the road climbed to over 1500 metres mostly through eucalyptus forests, which occasionally opened up into magnificent vistas across wooded valleys bathed in the late afternoon sun It was unspoilt and there was very little traffic, during the two hour drive. So we arrived at our stay for two nights after a rewarding and contrasting day.