SA Trip 2026 - Days 1 and 2

This is a different trip.

A close friend of mine's wife tragically passed away a week or so ago.  Her funeral will be on Monday, in Kadina, South Australia.

Not being a massive fan of planes, and also wanting to be there to support my friend, a road trip was the only logical option.  

The basic bones of this trip is to head to Kadina via inland and return home via the coast. Also taking the opportunity to visit a couple of clients along the way.

 Why the blog for this trip?

1. As I get older, I appreciate the effort I have gone into documenting my trips, as my memory does not improve with age. Rereading my blogs about bygone trips is fun, for me.

2. My philosophy is to appreciate the journey as much as the destination. Even with the sad circumstances of this particular destination I want to be as present as I can be in all stages of this journey. Documenting it provides me with the reason/excuse/means to do so. 

I wont be completing this on a daily basis, though will try to cover all aspects of this trip.  

 Day 1

Noradjuha was the end point of this first day's travels.

"Where is Noradjuha?" I hear you ask. 

Get to Horsham, continue on to Natimuk, and once you are getting near Mt Arapiles turn left. 

Noradjuha is the home to a long standing client family of ours, who swapped the sunny climate of the Kinglake Ranges with the sunnier climate of the Wimmera over 17 year ago.

After deciding to take this trip I made contact with them to see if they were available for a quick visit. Which then turned into a feed and overnight stay. 

 Gotta love country hospitality.

The way up included the obligatory stop for morning tea (pie review below). The sign in the male toilets had me a little confused.

Surely this is wrong. The "only" thing to be flushed is toilet paper? ...

Lunch was in Ararat. Up the road from there was Dadswell's Bridge and the obligatory stop for all aficionados of Big Things. 

 

After arriving in Noradjuha, whilst enjoying a cup of tea, I noticed this in my client's kitchen: 

"Excellent Source of Sparkles"

"Made on Equipment that Also Processes Products Containing Nuts and Squirrels"

 Dinner was not from this can.

 Day 2

The second day saw me cross the border with a pretty relaxing trip through to Hahndorf, in the Adelaide Hills.

One very noticeable thing whilst driving for most of this morning (as well as a good chunk of yesterday) was the large amounts of canola crops in flower. The fields of yellow were everywhere. (Sorry - no photos - I was driving.)

 Lunch was in Kaniva, home of the Kaniva Sheep. Readers of this blog should know that I am a sucker for art in the townships.  Sheep Art started in Kaniva back in 2010 and now includes 57 sheep, 4 lambs and 2 sheep dogs. Here is some of them:

I am also a fan of Silo Art:

Kaniva

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Coonalpyn

Hahndorf is one of my favourite places to visit, and whilst I arrived a bit too late in the day for a full exploration, I was able to have a magnificent meal at an old favourite:

 Pie Review(s)

A copped a bit of flack for my pie reviews in my last trip. They're continuing this trip.

Day 1 - Bourkie's Bakery

This was from a bakery located in Woodend. My favourite pie is a steak and mushroom, which was a good way to start these reviews:

Solid, but not spectacular 7/10

 Day 2 - Kaniva Morning Loaf Bakery

Not a lot of options available. Chose the Pepper Steak.

Unfortunately it felt as tasted as though this had been sitting there quite a while. Not the best pie I've ever had. 5.5/10

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 12 - The Way Home and Epilogue

We could have driven straight home from Foster. The total time for this trip, per Google Maps, is just over three hours. We weren't going to do that.

Today's plan was to travel to Inverloch, then on to Phillip Island.  After mucking around there for a while we would then head home. The hope was that rain would not be too much of an issue.

Inverloch was going to be the place we would stop for a pie/sausage roll however neither of were all that hungry, having cleaned up all the left over food for breakfast before we left (apples, muesli bars, ice-cream and a stray bun). So the final food review was abandoned as we continued on to Phillip Island, and Cowes.

The scenery along the coast from Inverloch is stunning.  It's known as the Bunarong Coastal Drive and features locally iconic spots such as Eagles Nest (Sandstone rock stack), Twin Reefs and The Oaks. Unfortunately it had started to rain and we were unwilling to get wet, so were content to admire the scenery we could view from the comfort of our car.

After a while we crossed the bridge at San Remo in to Phillip Island. Our lunch destination was Cowes, and an Italian restaurant overlooking the Western Port Bay, Isola di Capri.

In times gone by I used to take day trips driving down to Cowes, and I would often visit this restaurant for lunch.  I have never been disappointed here.

Nick wasn't massively hungry so we ended up sharing a pizza between us.  Their wood fired pizzas are next level stuff.

There were roadworks occurring outside the restaurant with some pretty significant streetscape improvements which will end up a) being very pedestrian/visitor friendly and b) reducing the ability to use it as a road for traffic.

Having completed lunch we had one more stop before heading home, and that was to the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory.

We skipped entry to Panny's Amazing World of Chocolate (I must do that one day, but not today), and went straight to the shop.  After stocking up on Easter Eggs and other presents for Lesley, we made our way out and headed for home, in the pouring rain. 

Final Thoughts

Back in 2021, as I was recovering from some fairly significant health issues in hospital, I had made a commitment to myself to travel more. This didn't mean backpacking across Europe or travelling around the Americas. My interest was closer to home. Australia is a big, big place and I had not seen much of it.

2023 was a road trip to Byron Bay and country NSW and 2024 was to Port Lincoln, Ceduna and Broken Hill.

2025 caused a blip in my travel plans as further surgery, and my recovery from that, caused a delay in any travel. 

This trip was me getting back on that horse and reconfirming my commitment to travel, albeit at a lesser rate (for now).  The fact that I had Nick enthusiastically on board for this trip was an added bonus.

A lot of this trip felt like a series of greatest hits from holidays gone past, and that's not a bad thing. Enjoying the Mallacoota beaches, mini golf in Lakes Entrance, the Shell Museum (also Lakes Entrance), Wild Brumby Distillery outside Jindabyne, the Star Hotel in Echuca, Lee's Take Away in Mallacoota and Isola di Capri are reinforcing why I like travelling so much. Driving on unfamiliar roads, Corowa, wrong turns, too much walking and Yarram, are the new and/or unexpected experiences that I thoroughly enjoyed and will add to the memory bank as part of this overall holiday experience.     

 Highlights:

• Watching a pod of dolphins swimming off Quarry Beach on my last morning in Mallacoota.
• Takayama Restaurant - Jindabyne
• Mini golf in Lakes Entrance

This trip was always Part 1 of my trip around Victoria. I am looking forward to completing this trip in the latter half of 2026 as I cover the Western half of the state. Nick has already put his hand up to complete this trip with me.

Food Review

Whilst there were no reviews today we come to that time of the trip when we look at which bakery "won".

When I asked Nick about his favourite sausage roll of the trip, he replied, without hesitation, that it was the first one he had at Gaffney's Pie Kitchen in Seymour.

I had rated two pies equally on 8.5, however, on a count back, my favourite pie of the trip was the Bacon and Cheese pie at the Mallacoota Bakery. 

No album for the last day of our trip - Podcasts all the way home

Kms Travelled Today - 331

Kms Travelled Total - 2,637

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 11 - The Prom

It was a bit of a late start this morning.  The plan was to visit Wilson’s Promontory today.  Rain was forecast, from about mid morning onward, however the rain radar wasn’t showing any signs of it (and didn't end up happening).

Once we reached the boundaries of the Prom there was still a fair bit of driving to do before reaching Tidal River, which is the Prom’s mecca.  School groups were everywhere, as well as a lot of casual visitors (like us).  There was also a a barrage of construction workers present.  There is a lot of construction work happening as a new Visitor’s Centre and Café are being built.  If you’ve never visited the Prom before you might want to leave it for six months to a year as they complete construction.

We had visited the Prom a couple of times for the camping experience (using a camper trailer) back before Ben had started primary school. So I’m thinking 2006 and 2007? I hadn’t been back since then. Nick had been part of a school camp here when he was in grade three (2009?).  Part of returning here was for nostalgic purposes.  The official purpose, as part of this trip, was to visit the southern most part of the state.

So, Tidal River was our first stop.  As the name would suggest, this is a river that flows out to the beach, that is affected by the tides, or something like that.  This beach is one of those where there is a lot of distance between the low tide water mark and the high tide water mark.  It appeared to be low tide as the water was a long way out.

We spent a good half hour here exploring the area.  As more school groups made their way down to the beach we left and drove to Mt Oberon.  More specifically, we drove to the car park at the base of Mt Oberon, Telegraph Saddle, and admired the view from there.  The walk to the summit was almost 7 km return, not something I wanted to do, or was able to do.

 From there we drove down to Squeaky Beach, named because the sand makes a squealing sound when you step on/through it.

At Squeaky Beach there is a walk that you can do that takes you through to Picnic Bay.  Nick took the opportunity to walk there and I met up with him at the Picnic Bay Car Park.  Whilst waiting for him I ducked quickly to the next Bay in the vain hope of finding the source of its name. I was not surprised but a bit disappointed.

Whisky Bay (it's a little blurry)

After I picked Nick up we decided we were done with the Prom.  We then headed to Foster for a late lunch (review below).

On a family recommendation tea tonight was at The Fish Creek Hotel,  Nick had fish (whiting) and chips whilst I went for the BBQ Pork Back Ribs.

We don’t normally talk a lot whilst eating however I felt our mood was particularly quiet.  I don’t know if it was because neither of us rated our tea highly (the sauce on the ribs was too sweet, and Nick thought the whiting was bland), whether we were tiring from our trip, or we were fully aware that tonight was the last night of our trip.  There comes a time in most trips when you realise that you are slowly making your way back home and that you’re either happy, or not happy, for that to happen.  I think that was where are heads were.

Food Review

The Hot Bread Shop in Foster was where we bought our lunch. (Sorry, I forgot to take a photo).

Nick bought the cheese and bacon sausage roll. He really like it, however thought that it was a bit too greasy, most likely because of the oil from the bacon and cheese.  He still rated it highly 8/10

I had a tomato and onion pie.  This was a great pie.  The pie case was solid and well cooked, the top crust was the right amount of flakiness and the filling was very tasty, with small pieces of both tomato and onion amongst the beef mince. 8.5/10

Today's Album Thriller Michael Jackson

Kms Travelled Today 160

Kms Travelled Total 2,306 

Big Trip 2026 Trip(1) Day 10 - Mini Golf and Street Art

We started the morning at a café I have been to many times before to have a cooked breakfast. 

An important public service announcement.  When you have run out of spinach to serve with your Eggs Benedict, kale is not a good replacement.  The texture of the kale does not work with the rest of the dish. Actually, kale doesnt work with any breakfast dish.  Best to avoid.

Another one of the many traditions that we have developed over the years is playing at least one game of mini golf anytime we have stayed in Lakes Entrance. The town has three mini golf courses on the main esplanade, two of which are next door to each other.  Our favourite course is the third, weird one – Footbridge Mini Golf.

We were offered professional putters. Mine was Tiger Woods and Nick had Greg Norman. 

Helpful signs were dotted throughout the course:

Nick won by two shots.

If you have read my blogs of earlier travels you will know that I’m a big fan of street art.  Lakes Entrance has 6 wood carvings of figures relating to the war. The original Monterey Cyprus pines were planted in 1924 to honour the local soldiers killed in “The Great War”.  In the 1990’s these needed to be cut down due to either disease or the forces of nature at work.  Chainsaw artist, John Brady, created these sculptures in 1998.  Here is Simpson and his donkey.

Maybe this counts as street art as well? 

There were more murals and other works of street art after we left Lakes Entrance, however I was either not quick enough, or too lazy to take some photos of these.  That changed when we hit the town of Yarram.

Heesco Khosnaran is an artist who moved to Australia from Mongolia twenty odd years ago and is known for his street art and also silo art.  After the 2020 bushfires and COVID Yarram decide to go all out to make Yarram a town of murals.   Heesco went to work and over the next 3 years or so created 24 murals.  Here are only a few of them:

I didn’t know this until I had gone to their bakery and picked up a map of all the murals in town.  It is so well known that it has won awards and the town is now marketing itself as Heesco Town – Yarram.

I could have spent a couple of hours exploring and viewing all the murals, however I had another person with me who was slightly less interested in all of this.  Maybe another time.

After another hour or so of driving we reached our destination for the night.  We are staying in a cottage midway between Foster and Fish Creek and will be looking forward to visiting Wilsons Promontory on our last full day of this trip, tomorrow.

Food Review

Yarram Bakery Cafe was our lunch time venue today.  Even through it was almost 2:00pm they still had a good range of pies and other hot food available.

Nick chose the plain sausage roll, ahead of the bacon and cheese one.  His verdict 7/10

My choice was the beef burgundy pie.  This was mostly a great pie and full of flavour however the beef was unfortunately very fatty which did lose it marks. 7/10

Today's Album The Miracle Queen

Kms Travelled Today 320

Kms Travelled Total 2,146

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 9 - Mallacoota to Lakes Entrance

I woke up and managed to get this shot of the rising sun.

 After packing everything in the car to head off, Nick wanted to take a last walk down at Quarry Beach.  Whilst I wasn’t into the full walk of the beach that he did it allowed me to sit down and enjoy the area. I’m glad I did that as I was able to see a pod of dolphins swim over and through the waves. They seemed to be heading to the township area where dolphin food beckoned.  Or maybe they were on their way from a feed. Or they were just having a nice morning swim.  I won’t know. I was looking at them for so long, I almost forgot I had a camera; however the shots I did take were hardly the evidence to prove nine or ten dolphins swimming past.

As we hadn’t had breakfast before we left, we stopped in Cann River for morning tea (food review below).  We had a very cheeky currawong(?) hop on the table where we were eating hoping for a tiny morsel of food.  We obliged, which was a big mistake, as it had a lot of mates that identified me as a soft target and also wanted their own tiny morsels.  Three or four of them were lucky birds, but the rest missed out.

Whenever we are driving between Lakes Entrance and Mallacoota, if time allows I will make a detour along the coast to Cape Conran.  Not content with limiting myself to the beaches at Mallacoota, I find the beach at Cape Conran particularly stunning.  It also has a walkway at the west end that leads out over the rocks which Nick used.  Having had a couple of heavy days of walking I was content to sit and admire the view.

 Neither of us were hungry for lunch so only stopped briefly at Orbost and then headed on to Lake Entrance.

Once we unpacked and had a break, I was on a mission from Lesley to a) visit the Shell Museum and b) procure a present for her.

The Shell Museum has been there as long as I have been travelling to Lakes Entrance.  It is not only a “museum” for shells but also features an old model railway out the back, once you walk through the largish (and also old) aquarium.  Nick used to be interested in model trains when he was much younger, so this we had visited this quite a few times in earlier years.  Now, it feels a bit kitschy.  The presents that we bought Lesley celebrate that kitschiness. 

As we walked around some of the shops, we came across a chocolate shop that had n=only been around a couple of years.  We had to go in, and I had to buy more presents.

 Tea tonight is a bit of a tradition with Nick and I when stopping in Lakes Entrance.  We go to one of the fish and chip shops – there are plenty of them.  The chocolatier had recommended Awesome Fish and Chips.  Nick ordered some local fish (gummy shark), chips and “sides” (scallops and potato cakes). I ordered a hamburger with the lot (I am not a fish eater).  A proper hamburger with the lot must include beetroot and pineapple, in addition to the standard egg, bacon, lettuce, onions, tomato, cheese (Kraft Single unfortunately) and beef patty (obviously).

Tomorrow morning will feature a game of mini golf before heading onto Foster.

Food Review

Cann River Bakery was today's chosen bakery. 

The sausage roll was OK, according to Nick 6/10

The chosen pie was a pepper steak pie. It was a very, very peppery pie, which gets bonus marks from me. It did feel a bit undercooked as the pie needed to be supported by its tin base, which is never a good sign. 7/10

Today's Album  Storm Front Billy Joel

Kms Travelled Today 240

Kms Travelled Total 1,826