Binalong Bay - 13 September 2013

On the ABC current affairs program this morning, they interviewed Tom Denniss, an ultra marathon runner who was completing a run around the world at the Sydney Opera House this morning. He had spent 662 days running over 26,000 steps, and raising money for charity. His favourite part of the trip was running across the Nullarbor. He sounds like a very interesting guy. If you want to read more about him follow this link www.tomsnextstep.com.

We headed out this morning and out first stop was Shop in The Bush about 15 kms from St Helens. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. It sells antiques, old jewellery, books, and other stuff - odds and sods in other words. It has been operating since 1982 by the same people, so it must be doing something right.

From there we drove on to Pyengana, a few kms further down the road, to visit the Pyengana Dairy Company, where they have been making cloth bound cheddar cheese for over 100 years. It is in a beautiful valley and there are 200 Friesian cows in the dairy. They get 1,000mm of rain each year so no wonder it is green and lush looking. We took part in a cheese tasting and the cheese was delicious, so creamy. They have won many awards and it is used by many of the top chefs in the country. They have over 100,000 people go through the place each year. We bought a few of the different cheeses to take home with us and look forward to opening them. They also have their own brand of milk and also ice cream. See www.pyenganadairy.com.au.

After the cheese tasting, we decided to have morning tea at The Holy Cow Café at the Dairy. Great name for their café. They are also open for brekkie and lunch. We had a lovely Devonshire Tea with their own cream and jam. Yummy.

After morning tea, we were able to look through the window at a couple of the guys making cheese. Huge vats of cream being stirred for about 3-4 hours to make the cheese. It is bound in cloth, in the traditional method, and set aside to mature for varying lengths of time depending on the type of cheese being made.

From the Dairy we went down the road about 1 km to The Pub in the Paddock, famous due to the beer drinking pig, Pinky, that lives there as well. It doesn't really look like a pub, more like a lovely old farmhouse. The Pub is on the market for $800,000.

We headed back to St Helens then and went for a drive out to the end of St Helens Point. When we were last in St Helens, we stayed along St Helens Point in a cottage called The Beachhouse. It was a great house and we went past it today and it is still operating as a holiday rental. Out near the end of the Point, are the Peron Dunes. The Dunes are pretty extensive and would be great to slide down on a piece of cardboard!

It was back to the cottage for lunch and a relaxing afternoon, before going for a walk in the late afternoon. Thank heavens it wasn't as windy today as what it has been, although it was still cold. We walked up to the area on the hill behind where we are staying. There are quite a few houses on the market. One of them has a fabulous view and I checked the price it was selling for. $720,000 +. Not bad for an ocean view.

Bruce is happy that he is able to watch the Rugby League semi final on TV tonight live even though he is in Tassie.