Canberra trip - day 4 (Polkobin, last day)

Hi all

Final day in Polkobin. Being "astute" travellers, we had determined that visiting wineries before 10.00 is a waste of time as their opening time is generally at least 10 (found one later today that opens at 9.30) - so decided to go shopping at the "garden village" first and found out that NOTHING opens here before 10!! Very nice village atmosphere but completely lifeless until 10.

Should mention dinner last night - recommended we try IlCacciatore Italian restaurant so we did and had the most beautiful meal - Porcini Mushroom soup followd by scallops with bacon on a bed of cauliflower. Strange combination but absolutely beautiful. great restaurants around here and it's a bit like Greece - nearly every establishment has a chapel as the wedding industry here is huge.

So - wineries today were the ones along Hermitage Road where the scenery is quite spectacular. We visited Ironbark Hill, Tintilla (where we met James the winemaker who won most of the prizes at last year's wineshow apparently) had lunch at the Hunter Valley chocolate company and finally visited Kevin Scoles' Winery who sources all his grapes from the Hunter (most import at least some apparently).  Day done, apart from dinner at another recommended place tonight (Blaxlands). Purchased some more nice wines at each of the cellars so the stocks are looking OK

Weather has been good - very cool breeze blowing to keep the temperature below 20  most of the time but most places have fireplaces etc so nice and warm. Hopefully that continues as we set out tomorrow for Jenolan, travelling on Geoffrey's "toaster road" (family in-joke) so  looking forward to some goods walks etc at Jenolan

Cheers all