Hello Darling! and Hello Darling again!

The Darling River at Kinchega National Park -

With the ethereal Menindee Lakes close by -

And the superb 135 year old Kinchega Woolshed -

Then the Darling River at Wilcannia -

where we camped at Warrawong on the Darling -

complete with curious neighbouring emu -

The past glory of Wilcannia

"Do not stay in Wilcannia!" they said....
but we didn't listen or we were just plain disobedient.

There are a few things to recommend Wilcannia.
We had a lovely morning walking around and as you know I love old buildings....

At one time Wilcannia was the third largest port in NSW.
The wide streets and grand buildings are witness to the town's past glory.

A few years ago the were problems with the crime and the local indigenous population, and this has tainted opinions of the town. Sure there are vertiges of this with the barred doors and windows of the local supermarket and other places, but the locals reckon there is nothing to fear. And from what we saw we can only agree with them.

There are a couple of ace coffee shops making this a worthwhile stopover on the way to Broken Hill and all points west.
Plus you can check out some of the great old houses.

Tastings on the Hastings

Food? Tastings?
Locally?
Yes please!

The Sunday before last the centre of Port Macquarie was packed with food and drink stalls, foodies, sunshine and tastings!
How good is that?
It was a fabulous showcase of the boutique producers in the mid north coast region.
And a great opportunity for us newbies to explore what is available locally without driving for a bazzillion miles.
Plus there was a lovely fun atmosphere. It seems that this once a year event attracts a lot of interest.
And rightly so - it was very well organised, most of the stalls were a delight to look at with gorgeous styling, friendly smiling faces and yummy stuff.

The alcoholic drinks were all in a separate are near the riverfront, with wineries, boutique breweries and distilleries. Not many free tastings here but we'll be sure to search out some of these places for a road trip sometime.

It was hard to go past the Black Duck Brewery, with a tipple called "Proper Gander" (I love a good pun!)

Here is David from Red Dirt Distillery - see what a good time he is having.

How attractive are his handcrafted flavoured vodkas?

You can find Red Dirt in Dorrigo which is a lovely place to visit.

Another Port based brewery is The Little Brewing Company, their Mad Abbot (not Tony I hope!) and Wicked Elf ales are well worth exploring.

Say "cheese!"

It was hard to choose just one of Comboyne Culture's handcrafted cheeses - but the Bluembert, a blue rind soft cheese was a great pick.
You can find them at some Sydney markets as well - check out their website.

Near River had the most attractive booth, some great preserves and also have a farm shopyou can visit for ethically raised pork and eggs as well as field-grown veggies.
We bought some smokey harissa from Near River.

I'd love to have had some room to fit in these organic donuts.....next time!

You could have a free tasting of Grumpy's ginger beer and it is very attractively packaged just perfect for a gift.

We had a good tasting of Granny Mel's chilli relishes and settled for some Sweet Mango and Chilli Sauce, but I was rather taken with the chilli and chocolate cupcakes made by Mel's daughter - how cute!

We settled on the grass with a gazillion others to graze on mini quiche, Laotian spring roles, cheese platter from Cassegrain wines along with a glass of white for T, red for G.
Pastries and cakes from K'pane who we had already discovered at Coffs Harbour. The.best.pastries!

We went home with bags bulging with Lime Caramalised balsamic from Wilmaria Olives, fresh tomatoes and strawberry and rhubarb jam from Riccardoes Tomatoes, bread from local Bels bakery, organic macadamias from Hand 'N' Hoe.

Such a wonderful event. Well done Port Macquarie!