Glenelg Kayak Trip

For the March long weekend I went kayaking down the Glenelg river with several of my kayaking friends.  The trip kicked off at camp Camperdown with a lazy swim and a not so lazy run for the energetic ones amongst us.  If you haven't been to camp Camperdown before you are really missing out.  Perched on top of a hill overlooking the beautiful Lake Bullen Merri the property is perfect for a weekend of exercise and/or chilling out.  The hearty home cooked lasagne was a great way to finish the day and energise us for the paddling ahead.

Day 1 started early with breakfast followed by the three hour drive down to Moleside.  We arrived at camp one around midday had lunch, setup camp and got ready for our afternoon paddle.  For most of us the plan was to do a 10km out and back paddle upstream towards Pines Landing.  However, one of us wasn't paying too much attention at the pre departure meeting and decided to go downstream instead only to realise that he should have caught up to the group after a 1km but hadn't.  For the rest of us the paddle up to Pines Landing was an enjoyable slow paced affair.  As we took in the stunning cliffs to our right and dodged the tiger snake crossing the river we became acquainted with the craft that would take us 50km downstream to Nelson.  As we reached the turn around point we were reunited with our lost paddler.  After a short break and all paddlers accounted for we returned for home where a refreshing swim awaited us.  The return journey saw a considerable lift in the pace.   Could this pace be maintained in the following days or were we all just foolishly dreaming?

We returned to camp around 4pm where we took to the water without our crafts for a refreshing swim.  A few of us had the pleasure of witnessing the directors backside which from memory was not in the official trip notes.  The lads did however score some bragging rights when the director failed to properly exit the river via the 1 metre high jetty.  We won't let him forget about that one in a hurry.  A hearty dinner awaited the group accompanied by the remaining beers and the high quality cask goon.  The weather so far had been kind and that was too continue for the rest of the trip.  After finishing our banana and chocolate dessert we retired to the comfort of our tents for the night.

We awoke on day 2 to another beautiful morning.  After breakfast and a short trip to Nelson to drop off the trailer we started our long day in the kayaks.  The first leg would take us to Pittchards, around 10km, where we stopped for morning tea.  The fruit cake was a real hit.  Not sure if this was due to the unknown amount of alcohol present.  Accompanying the fruit cake was a stash of nuts and home grown apples from camp Camperdown picked by yours truly.  After a short stop we were back in the kayaks ready to paddle the next 8km to lunch at Georges rest.  We arrived for lunch around 1pm and had paddled 18km in around 2 1/2 hours which was pretty good going.  Another round of tuna and salad wraps was on the menu for lunch followed by a bit of stretching.  The director must have been proud.  We started our last leg for the day just after 2pm.  The 12km journey would test our strength and endurance.  It's fair to say that the standout performances of the day so far went out to the girls.  After a nasty fall on her bike earlier in the week Rachel's dogged determination and strong will was out for all to witness.  The group finally arrived together as one at Pattersons's for the predicted time of 4:12pm.  

After a long day of paddling a few us went for a swim and then took a walk up along the cliff which gave awesome views over the campsite to the river below.  So far we had eaten quite well and day three's dinner was no exception.  We had a Moroccan casserole with dehydrated vegetables, salami and cos cos.  For dessert we polished off four decks of chocolate.  We deserved it.

The start of day 3 was another pearler.  The outside temperature was just cold enough for an eary fog to develop over the river.  After packing up all the gear we took off at the scheduled time of 9am for our 3 hour journey to the finish at Nelson.  The pace was nice and steady with only a short break at the 12km mark inside South Australian territory.  With the end only 8km away we were all eager to paddle on to the finish.  With 500m to go some of us decided it was a good idea to have a race to the end while the sensible ones took the steady as she goes approach to the finish.  After packing up the gear and loading the boats it was back to camp Camperdown.

Overall, it was a great weekend spent with a great bunch of people in a beautiful part of Victoria.

Peruvian Empanadas

For my next monthly dinner I've chosen Peruvian as the cuisine.  At this stage it looks like the menu is going to be as follows.

• Lemonada (lemonade peruvian style)
• Ceviche (seasoned raw fish)
• Empanadas (see photo)
• Trout escabeche
• Alfajores (short bread with sweet filling)

So I decided to trial the empanadas first.  Empanadas are basically a short crust pastry outer with a seasoned mince filling.  I ran out of time to make the pastry myself so resorted to frozen short crust which worked out rather well in the end.  Short crust pasty is actually one of the easier pastries to prepare so didn't really need the practice.  The mince filling was onion, shallots, chilli, sweet paprika, ground cloves, cumin, olives, roughly chopped boiled egg pieces and sultanas.  As you can see by the photos the pastry pattern to close up the empanadas varied quite a bit.  I had a friend over for dinner and she definitely had more finesse when closing them up.

Stay tuned for more trials.

Monthly Dinner Report - Greek

Last weekend was the first of my monthly dinner parties. Overall I think it went reasonably well. The cuisine was Greek and my inspiration came from the cooking class I went to a couple of weeks back and a Greek cook book my sister gave me last year for xmas.

The menu was

Mains

• Olive bread
• Roasted capsicum with chorizo
• Eggplant and fetta salad
• Greek salad
• Lamb and spinach phyllo

Dessert

• Triangular chocolate cheesecake

The preparation started quite late and so I was late in preparing everything which was a little annoying.  Won't do that again.  I think I've now mastered the olive bread which is great because it seems to be a winner.  

On a tangent I went to the SBS Food Journey today and watched Gabriel Gate cook duck and crepes.  One of the things he said was important in being a good cook was to try a new dish every month and two cook the dish 3 or 4 times in order to master it.  I was rather chuffed with that comment given that that's exactly the intention behind my monthly dinners.  It's worth noting that Gabriel is a fantastic presenter and I highly recommend you go to one of his demonstrations whenever you have the chance.

The roasting of the capsicum and eggplant was better the second time around as I left them on the coals longer and so they ended up cooked all the way through.  I think I've also now gotten the hang of phyllo pastry.  The pastry for the lamb came out brown and crispy with only a little softness in the middle where the filling was concentrated.  Could have added more spinach as the filling was a not quite thick enough.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any photos which I plan to correct the next time around.  The other sad news is that this Month's dinner is going to be shifted to the first weekend in April as I've just run out of weekends in March.