Friday 17th November and Saturday 18th November 2017
Trip # 2 to Melbourne and the main purpose of this trip was to take the train out to Bacchus Marsh for the annual Strawberry and Cherry Picking Festival which starts off on Friday night with a fireworks display followed by a weekend of markets activities exhibitions and of course strawberry and cherry picking. I am not really interested in strawberry picking just the cherry picking. I usually go early on Saturday morning - picking starts at 9 am on selected pick your own farms such as Nutraripe and Paynes Orchards and not all farms have both fruits to pick. Sime farms such as Jeff Jones don't do pick your own at all - they are a produce market under a shed.
No time to waste down again after work on Friday on the overnight XPT train Sydney to Melbourne arriving around 7.30 am at Southern Cross Station - don't rely on this being on time it is always late. Not enough time to get the connecting 8.16 am train to Ballarat via Bacchus Marsh arriving around 9.15 am therefore caught the next hourly service at 9.16 am which gave me time to do another online early check in, dump my bag and have a shower at Melbourne YHA.
Turns out there is trackwork only on Saturday on the Ballarat line therefore coach replacement service however it was just as efficient and the 9.16 am service got me to Bacchus Marsh Station by 10.16 am connecting to the next free event shuttle bus across the road waiting. Very efficient this year. Same coming back to Southern Cross connecting event shuttle to Coach replacement back to Southern Cross around 3.00 pm gave us enough time to tap on at the station getting us back to Southern Cross Station by 4 pm.
Very hot day (28 degrees celcius felt like 30+ - water hat sunglasses and sunscreen a must) out at Bacchus Marsh and I gave up cherry picking after a few hours and hardly collected in my 5 kg capacity bucket 1.4 kg of cherries in all that time. I tried to pick some yellow orange coloured cherries that weren't so ripe as they had to make it back to Sydney but was told off so ended up picking cherries that were far too ripe. A lot of the cherries had been damaged by rain the previous day. Not a good weekend as forecast was thunderstorms later that afternoon and sure enough around 3.30pm as per weather forecast it started to rain upon approach to Southern Cross Station then came the huge thunder storm. I was luckily under cover when the coach arrived at Southern Cross Station and sought refuge at the Spencer Street Outlet Centre until it was almost over before making my way with my bag of cherries and other groceries I picked up at Coles just next door to Spencer Street Outlet Centre back to Melbourne Central YHA. Made myself dinner, a quick shower and off to bed - no Night Noodle Markets again!!!! Bed early - 10.30 pm after packing and thinking about whether to head out to the Melbourne showgrounds to the Sweet Expo tomorrow.
Rating 7/10 - pick you own stops when all fruit has been picked. Usually by 12 noon. As soon as I left the gates of Paynes Orchards with my bag of cherries a sign was placed over the carpark entrance with CLOSED and this was around 12 noon. The cherry picking quota was exhausted for Saturday. We are allowed to taste the cherries we were picking however a large amount of cherries seemed to have been consumed by pickers rather then end up in their buckets and many of the cherries picked ended up in the ground as they were rain damaged or rotten or had been infested with insects or consumed by birds although nets covered the cherry trees.
Photos attached
Main Street Bacchus Marsh - lots to see and do above.
Jeff Jones
One of several places of accommodation along The Avenue of Honour
What's that in the cherry trees below? Is that (my) possum? Possums do love fruit!
Paynes Orchards - my cherry picking destination for 2017. Photos above.
There were also peach trees in the orchards at Paynes but what did the sign say? "No Picking" - this was a strawberry and cherry picking festival not a peach picking festival. The peaches on the trees were almost ripe but we could not touch them only photograph them up close below .
Sunday 19th November and Monday 20th November 2017 - Sweet Expo Melbourne 2017
A last minute decision to travel out to Melbourne Showground for this event on Sunday before travelling back to Sydney. There was a lot of people who attended this Sweet Expo but was it worth the $24 entry fee? I guess if you have nothing better to do on Sunday and want to go somewhere out of the heat of Melbourne - yes it was boiling hot on Sunday! - then it was worth it but I didn't think so. Again it is a trek to get out to the showground - with no direct train service from Southern Cross Station, it was 2 tram rides - the first any tram from Spencer Street to Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street then onto the # 57 tram to stop # 32.
The Sweet Expo was located in #1 Exhibition Pavillion a short walk from the tram stop from gate # 1A to the showground.
This is now the second show organised by Sweet Magazine. If you remember how badly organised it was at the Sydney Sweet Expo, it was just as disappointing this time round with the organisation. The pavillion was only half full of vendor stalls however it was easier to located where things were with a small number of food trucks located outside of the exhibition hall.
Some interesting food stalls such as
The Cheese Wheel Speghetti and Risotto Balls.
The rest of the stalls giant fairy floss fudge various donuts scrolls flavoured pop corn
etc etc same old things.
No major sponsors such as kitchenaid or cusinart products but heaps of silicone moulds for flower making and heaps of stencils cookie cutters and gum past and butter cream. There were 2 major fondant suppliers Renshaw and Fontastic both with a range of cake decorating displays.
There was a great Christmas themed sugar sculpture on show and I picked up a few tips and techniques on how to use different piping tips - 2D and 1M with buttercream for example on cupcakes however the cakes from the cake decorating competition were almost non existent (all of 4 cakes on display) - maybe they had disintegrated from the changing weather conditions over thr 3 day event - it did go from boiling hot to thunderstorms over the weekend which fondant does not tolerate. Maybe there wasn't a cake decorating competition at the Melbourne Sweet Expo for 2017.
No big sponsors were present at the show and showbags were $15 instead of $10 with different products in them - free with subscriptions of Sweet Magazine - at least yiu could log into their site this time round!
I am unsure if I am going to purchase anything decided to purchase a block of Chocit modelling chocolate in ivory no silicon moulds though as the stand's eftpos machine had broken down and only took cash which I had run out of.
A toilet break and some food then back on the tram to the city. It is close to 2 pm but I only arrived at 11.30 am or so - NO no food although a cold drink was tempting.
I think people attended the Sweet Expo more for the expensive high tea food trucks and frozen cocktails available for purchase. There was definitely an ample communal dining area set up in the centre of the exhibition hall
Running out of charge on my phone. Good time to conclude my visit and catch up with blogging and recharge my phone. Tram straight back to Melbourne Central YHA to pick up my bags and recharge my phone then organise some snacks for another 12 hour XPT economy train trip back to Sydney
Rating 5/10 - Sydney Sweet Expo was better despite its lack of organisation.
This sugar art centre piece with a Christmas theme was one of the few highlights if the Sweet Expo in Melbourne
The exhibition hall entrance to the Sweet Expo at Melbourne Showgrounds
Inside the exhibition hall too large for the event where about 1/2 of it was cordoned off as unused space inside and outside in the courtyard housing all of 3 food trucks
A mess of activity amongst flowers in vases where you could create unexciting pom poms - great for kids not so enticing for adults.
Outside the exhibition hall where an underused courtyard cordoned off housed all of 3 or 4 food trucks
Still no visit to the Night Noodle Markets in Melbourne! Last chance next Friday night - final trip down to Melbourne!
We were over 2 hours late arriving back into Sydney Central - first was the incident of a run away train enthusiast then there was the major signal failure in the middle of the night at Albury. Both incidents were supoose to be sorted out in a short amount of time. The young man who was the train enthusiast was known to train officals and removed after he tried to latch onto the train and would not let go. He had tried to run away from home on several occassions. You could deel the train slowly departing Southern Cross Station platform before stopping completely before the train completelt left it. The signal failure however was suppose to take 5 minutes to fix by the electrician but the train sat at Albury for what seemed for hours in the middle of the night.
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