On the trip over to Stawell we had a couple of stops. The first was in Avoca right at morning tea time. Afterwards we strolled down to the Chinese Gardens for a wonder.

We then drove through Ararat and parked for a stroll on the main street. In the local information centre and gallery there was a small textile exhibit. The spotlight lighting doesn’t really work for photography. Interesting pieces and it seemed to not have a theme.

At Great Western we arranged to take the underground cellar tour at Seppelt Winery. The tour guide talked about the history of the three kilometres of hand dug cellars that are the largest in Australia and how the tunnels are no longer used to store current vintages. The scale of the winery now demands modern above ground storage facilities.

From there we went to Best’s Winery and also did a walk down to the cellars and had a tasting. The colour of the leaves on the vines is still a vibrant red.

Both of these wineries began growing grapes back in the 1860’s when gold mining was flourishing in the area….every man needed to have a drink after a hard day on the mine fields.

Needless to say we had to bring home a couple of bottle to have along the way on these chilly evenings.