Beechworth pics for GG

Friday dinner at Gigi's


Wine: Cow Hill 2006 pinot noir

For him: Double-roasted duck with beetroot and fennel relish and crispy leeks
For her: Kiewa Valley lamb shoulder ragout with potato dumplings, truffled butter and aged ricotta
Brussels sprouts with Milawa honey mustard sauce

Mashed Sebago potato with beurre d'Isigny

Saturday lunch at Pickled Sisters: wild mushroom and Milawa Bianco souffle and quince tarte tatin with chestnut ice-cream and pear puree

Saturday dinner at Wardens


Entree for him: Chargrilled cotechino with lentil puree, poached free-range chicken, apple fondant and walnut agrodolce
Entree for her: Sardinian ravioli of salmon and eel with a cauliflower puree, sultana dressing and candied ginger

Main for him: Ragu of north-east venison, flavoured with clove and cinnamon, swede mash and a beetroot relish
Main for her: Roasted fillet of beef with a red wine and garlic sausage, creamed cavolo nero and a mustard sauce
with broccoli, hazelnut dressing and aged ricotta
Wine: Castagna 'Un Segreto' sangiovese/syrah '05

Cheese: Woodside Edith ashed goats cheese with walnut toast and pickled beetroot
Wine: Pennyweight Tawny Port


Sunday dinner was venison pizza and Amulet pinot grigio at Bridge Road Brewery with the Terese, Kel, Audrey and Will and dessert/coffee/muscat at the Green Shed Bistro.

Back to Beechworth

Coming up: four blissful days in Beechworth (Ned Kelly country) for some seriously good food and wine, colonial heritage buildings in golden stone and alpine country air. We'll be sleeping and breakfasting here, noshing here and here. We'll drive rugged country roads to boutique vineyards, lavender-filled parterre gardens, old back-country pubs, pie shops and the mighty Murray River. We'll sip world-famous Rutherglen muscat, tokay, port and durif by open fires. And we'll be drinking the truly best damn wines imaginable. Don't believe me? Jancis loves Beechworth wines too.

Only 5 more sleeps until we go! Like a kid, I've already packed my weekend bag. Rainey and Graham, we'll tell you if we find the vineyard house... maybe something like this?

Exit Iraq

Here's my latest multimedia project - released to coincide with Australian combat troops pulling out of Iraq, fulfilling an election promise made by our new PM. Take a look at Exit Iraq from The Sydney Morning Herald team. It was a muy intense seven days working day and night to put this together in time once we got word of the top-secret pullout date. Finally feeling human again now that I've caught up on my sleep and am eating real food... no more Fairfax canteen chocolate cookies for this chicken!

My Eurovision pick

An ode to sparkling shiraz

Cherries and strawberries, chocolate and violets. It's my Friday night tradition: sparkling shiraz.

Milford Track

That's what I'm talking about!


The Last Supper (breakfast, actually)


Feeling tough on the boat trip


Crossing Lake Te Anau to the start of the walk


Whoops, here comes the weather


No turning back now


Lake Te Anau


First swing bridge


Walking done for the day


Vegetation around Clinton Hut


Sun sets on the first day


Watch out for keas!


Our fellow trampers


Camp cuisine


Evening entertainment


Raring to go on day two


Following the Clinton River


The sun tries to break over the mountains


They measure annual rainfall in metres around here


Demented bandicoot


Where we're headed




The road goes ever on


Many bridges to cross


Sweaty work


Hmmm, nice


The climb to Mintaro Hut


G-Man bags us the lower bunks


Kea-proofing


Day 3 -- the biggie -- started before dawn


Taking a breather on the zigzag up to Mackinnon Pass


We rock


Kings of the mountain



View from the top


Oh, yeah


OK, let's head down the other side


Gee, hope it doesn't rain!




Da boys


Nothing's gonna stop us now...


... except for our quaking legs


The G-Man walks towards Sutherland Falls


Soaked to the bone


Compound blood blisters call for drastic measures


We reach Dumpling Hut utterly buggered


Dinner of champions


The heavens opened overnight, and we were crossing crotch-deep creeks three abreast with linked arms for safety. Here's a swollen MacKay Falls


With 18km between us and the 2pm boat, it was head down and bum up. Except for this quick Whittaker's break under cover


All smiles at walk's end


The G-Man's first genuine smile in four days


Hot shower + clean clothes + champagne = priceless


Dave does Russell Crowe


Bluff oysters at Fishbone . Definitely not tramping food.


G-Man gets his hot chips


THE song of the tramp. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!