Hot air balloon and foggy valleys

  

Thursday 29 April

Five of us braved the 4 am cold and fog to drive into the Crown Hotel and participated in a morning hot air balloon flight. Apart from the long wait in the bus while they faffed about chasing wind direction and launch sites and the call to arms to pack up Australia’s biggest balloon at the end, the flight was interesting. Like most things, the first time is usually the best and our Mareeba flight seven years ago was more memorable and with less fog, but we enjoyed the experience.

Back home to a quick breakfast and then back on the wine trail with De Iuliis wines. A quick stop at the Lovedale Smokehouse to collect some smoked cheese and salami and we headed home to lay out the terrace table, groaning with cold cuts, pickles, cheeses and salads. 

Wines were consumed, including the second bottle of sparkling shiraz, expertly opened by Tas without the previous eruption. 

Later in the afternoon we walked up to the cellar door at Whispering Brook. This is about 50 meters from our cottage and we enjoyed an informative talk by the wine maker and a sample of seven of their boutique wines.

The chefs got busy again for dinner on the BBQ, with eye fillet beef, pork steaks and lamb chops and the remaining wines were consumed. Well, most of them anyway.