Day 2, Saturday Sept 7^th 2013 Stratford, Vic

The mist is floating on the river as the sun rises and casts a golden glow over the trees. We cook bacon and eggs for brekkie, bacon made by the local butcher and eggs from the farm just across the river from us.

We walk into town and visit a shop selling Turkish artefacts. There are colourful bowls and beautiful carpets. Turkish carpets are certainly unexpected in a tiny town in country Victoria. As we wander along the riverbank we find a small blue sculpture of an elephant and learn that it is a memorial to an elephant that was decapitated when the circus was driving under the town’s very low railway bridge back in 1950. The story goes that he was too heavy to move so they buried him by the river. One wonders what became of the circus after it lost its star attraction.

We drive to Tinamba via Maffra, the paddocks are emerald green and the roadsides are awash with yellow Cape Weed daisies, it is a perfect spring morning. The hotel is busy with a large birthday party in progress but the service is excellent. Our lunch is divine but a little on the small side. The butcher was right it is “a bit cheffie” but very good. After lunch, we explore the area around Heyfield and Glenmaggie Weir then finish up at the Briagolong pub where the boys have a beer on the log seat out on the front veranda. C and I wander across the road to a gallery that is having a somewhat depressing photographic exhibition. The sort of photos that make a statement rather than a sale, not our kind of thing.

On our return the weather threatens, we retreat to the comfort of the cabin to watch both the footy and the election results. There are similarities.

2022 Note: We passed under the Stratford rail bridge a few months ago and there is now a mural to the lost elephant.