Today is going to be a blast, today I am going on a winery tour of the Yarra Valley with a company called Cafe Bus. I Trip Advisored it and it said it was a fun trip so I hoped this wasn't going to be one of those trips where everyone on it was over 50 and we'd talk about corkage and decanting all day long, not that I wouldn't like to learn but I don't want to be bored stupid!

It was a great start to the day, I got up at the crack of dawn (6am on a Melbourne Sunday...) and we started to pick up everyone else from random points in the city. Not amused that we were running an hour late due to a group of people but Campbell our guide seemed to take it in his stride. Being one of the only lone travellers there I got to sit up front with Campbell and occasionally take on the duties of co-pilot by fiddling with the stereo or microphone wires whilst he was driving lol. We stopped off in a little town before reaching our first destination and I went to get some breakfast as drinking wine on an empty stomach is not a good idea because as everyone knows, it only invites bad Sarah out to play!

Our first official stop of the day was at the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie. Very similar to the Margaret River chocolate factory where you get to go inside, walk round and taste some samples. Except in this one you could see them working on the chocolate through the display window. I don't mind saying that there's some very strange chocolate out there. I bought a truffle which was apple cider flavour...lets hope it tastes good! After watching many people take 'selfies' all over the chocolate factory we got back onto the bus and headed for the first winery of the day. By god...drinking at 10.30 am...

The first place we went to was called Coombe Farm. It was a lovely little place with two ladies working as the Semiliers. (Excuse my spelling!) The ladies were very informative and they let us try a variety of wines and one sparkling. Which is good since I was keeping an eye out for something to bring home for Nicholas wedding. I was also pleased that the owners are from the UK and the ladies were kind enough to give me a piece of paper so I could contact them and have some of their wine sent to me from their UK contacts if I chose to. I did feel kind of sorry for them though, some of the people were kind of rude and were only interested in getting drunk and taking selfies. You could see that and Campbell knew that as well. Can't be helped though.

Our next visit was to the Yarra Valley Dairy. My god...Bea can contest to this as well...I love Cheese! Apparently it is a bit hit and miss with the staff here, sometimes they can be quite informative and other times ignore the visitors. We had a nice young lady who was very informative but again some of the group were really not interested and walked off while she was talking. Some of the cheese though was wonderful, it's a shame I'm leaving to be honest. I did buy some things from here and then took a few pictures before we left.

Now I really did have a lot of fun at the next winery. It was called Punt road and I also got a little excited because they do cider! The Cider was incredible, not dry or too sweet and a very light yellow in colour. Pressed by winemakers seems to make a difference. I bought a bottle and thought I might take it home to the UK if I didn't drink it in the next couple of days. I took my glass of red outside (not a massive red fan) and went over to Campbell who was about to start playing Boules with someone else. I asked if I could play and ended up winning 3 games straight! It was at this point I said I had to announce my retirement before it became embarrassing for Australia to lose at yet another sport against the English *wink*. (They'd just lost at the Rugby to us and we had retained the Ashes as well - they'll get their chance in December lol). Campbell said it was unfair that I had run away without giving them a chance for a comeback! I took my first selfie of the day before we got back on the bus.

BTW Campbell makes a nice Latte even if the cafe bus machine is so dodgy! We then went for lunch in a little town (name escapes me at the moment) and took a walk around the market stalls. It was more like a car booty but to be honest no one seems to know what one of those is in Australia...

Some of the other patrons had fallen asleep before we got to the next winery. The name of this one escapes me as well but it was beautiful and they had a gorgeous dog there, so gentle, I think she was a lab but then again memory failing me here and I am not even drunk! The last winery of the day was the Killara estate. Set amongst some beautiful hills we got to try a few more wines (really nice and light breakfast wine which I bought) and sit down for some tapas before getting back onto the bus to return to Melbourne. Campbell made his usual round of coffees before we got back on route and I resumed my co-pilot duties of twiddling with his dodgy microphone wire and pressing play on certain songs on someone's phone...

I had a really great day today despite going on this tour by myself and I would recommend it to anyone to be honest - only if they get Campbell as a guide...although that's a little unfair to say but the guide does help make the tour! I did have a good laugh with him though, he put some music on and when I said I knew the song it called into question how old I was, bless he thought I was younger! Score! Getting back though I was so tired that I pretty much just monged watching some TV. Tomorrow I have to go to work and it will be my last week at the cafe before flying home. I'm going to miss them so much, they've been so nice to me.

Oh I ate the cider chocolate...not completely horrible but probably not something I would buy again!