Last night I snuggled a hot water bottle, slept with tracksuit pants and a long sleeve top on. Before going to bed we heated up the van with the gas ducted heater. Ray had long pants and jumper on again and I was wrapped in a blanket on the bed while watching TV. Such a strong contrast to a few weeks ago. The overnight low as 6 degrees, single digits, but we woke to a lovely sunny morning. There was a slight bite in the air but the sun certainly warmed us up as we sat in the sun in downtown Wangaratta at Pre-Vue Cafe for our morning coffee.

This place was pumping. The staff were friendly and efficient and once again The Captain ruled the crowd. The owner of the business (a man in his sixties) asked for permission for one of his staff to put Henry on their Instagram stories. I can’t say Henry smiled in the photo, or they got his good side, because I’ve seen better pics of him but we were.pretty amused by the request.

We were happy to see a Target in town because I was responsible for losing Henry’s $6 travel water bottle and leaving it on the floor at Oma’s cafe in Coff’s Harbour. We also needed some doggie poo bags. The water bottle that we use is so handy and Henry can drink straight from it. We’ve been asked by other travelers where we got it from as it is such a simple design and very clever. (Target didn’t have one but the Reject Shop had an identical one which was $3 dearer.)

We decided that our newest family star deserved a bit of off lead time so Ray googled a bit and found a local park that wasn’t too far away. Ray spent some time trying to get Henry to retrieve a stick which was hilarious because he just thought it was a lot more fun to run around Ray in circles with it and run to the shade of a tree and chew on it. I think Ray did more retrieving than Henry did!

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Henry loves being off lead and now that his knee has fully healed from his luxating patella operation, he runs very well. We probably need to work on his stamina now which will be a new goal when we get home.

Milawa was a town close by so we went for a visit. We popped by the cheese factory because when in town you just have to! The autumn colours are just spectacular around the region and autumn leaves fell as we took a look around.

Ray saw a sign for a winery advertising Port. He doesn’t mind a tiddle of Port so we stopped by. Dogs aren’t welcome for wine tastings so Henry and I waited in the car. After a little while, Ray emerged with a box under his arm. Let’s be clear here, when I emerge from a store with a bag (or two, or three) I’m never questioned by Ray as to my shopping habits so I refrained from any comments and let my eyebrows do the talking, raising them as high as they would go. He got the message responding with, “I really like Port and this one reminded me of the one I had in Adelaide that time. The girl was so nice too,”

Uhhh…Gotcha! Sure Ray.

We were starting to feel a bit hungry so we started to look for something to eat. We passed through the tiny town of Oxley, Ray commenting that , “This place is not famous for anything.” He went to the bakery looking for a pie but returned to the car disappointed. We then pulled up at the King River Cafe.

We were seated in the garden amongst falling autumn leaves, the sun streaming through the trees. It truly was out of a book. The food on offer read like a restaurant menu, yet the prices were reasonable. We were in for a treat.

We decided on a glass of wine to celebrate our last day of our trip, I ordered the pumpkins and coconut soup and Ray had the lasagne. At the last minute Ray added the prawns as an entree.

The Captain was demanding a paw stretch and when I came back, Ray was tucking into the prawns. He saved Henry and I one. Now, we’ve been eating prawns this whole trip. It’s one dish that both of us (actually all three of us) love to eat, but these prawns topped the lot. The flavours were amazing. We soaked up the bread in the leftover dregs instead of the oil it came with to continue tasting the flavours. I know we will be thinking about these prawns for a long time to come. (Is three hours too long a drive for a future weekend lunch?) The rest of our lunch was amazing and we finished it off with their homemade lemon tart. I had another glass of wine but Ray couldn’t because he had already enjoyed Port tastings and had to drive.

We used our lunch time to reflect on our trip. What were our highlights? What would we have done differently? What will we change for the next trip? What will we leave at home or bring?

It was a fabulous lunch and we let the owner know that we enjoyed it so much and it was the perfect culinary top off to end our trip.

We ventured back to the caravan to start packing up. It seemed like so much hard work though. We had a fiddle around and when the afternoon sun became too tempting, we poured another glass of wine (me) and grabbed a beer (Ray), threw together a cheese platter and enjoyed the last evening of this trip until it got too cold outside.