Tumut

It takes you about half an hour to drive from the centre of Tumut to the restaurant’s location. You could probably do it faster, but it was raining today, sometimes quite heavily and so we drove a little more cautiously. Thankfully, there were very few cars on the road. However, there are narrow winding bits, and from time to time, there is no bitumen. We also stopped to enjoy the views.  

We were on our way to the Nimbo Fork Lodge, a place that had been recommended by a friend of Sue’s, who was planning her 60th birthday there. 

As we read about it, we decided it could have been the perfect location for some other significant life anniversaries, as well as romantic weekends away. We spotted a couple of mid-life couples enjoying lunch, and there was another couple who, in the midst of checking their mobile phones, were affectionate enough to be showing signs of being early into their relationship. But it wasn’t only couples, we also spotted a few small friendship groups.

Though we had booked in for 1.30, we arrived in Tumut much earlier than expected, and so I called ahead to see if they could bring our appointment earlier, and they were very obliging.

Along the way from Wagga to Tumut, we called in to MKS Cafe at Adelong. A friend from my early days in  Wagga had grown up in the building, and by the early 90s, the old pharmacy had become “The Old Pharmacy”, serving meals. I’d read it was still a good place to stop for coffee, and so that’s what we did.

On arriving at Tumut, we had planned to do a tour of the Tumut River Brewery, but on arrival, discovered you had to book in advance for the Sunday tours, and that only the Saturday tours ran regularly. #mybad 

So we popped over to the Tourist Centre to pick up some brochures. The woman behind the counter, wearing a National Parks & Wildlife Service uniform was extremely helpful, offering us lots of brochures and tips about the area. Clearly, she was a long-term local.

After a drive around town to acquaint ourselves with things like the location of the supermarket, the pub where we’re meeting a friend of Sue’s for dinner tomorrow night, and where to find our accommodation for the week, we headed up to the lookout.

And from there we headed out for lunch.

We each had three courses and shared a bottle of wine (well, Sue had one glass since she was driving, and I had the rest). The waiter explained the importance the restaurant places on sourcing local produce, noting the fish came from the river which was only metres away, and how they had exclusive relationships with some local producers.

“The service is good”, I said to Sue, noting there were only three waiters (one of them was in “training”) serving a room of 30-40 people. There was no urgency for us to eat our meals, which came well spaced. This is a premium experience, with mains ranging from 30-50, but it didn’t seem over-priced either.

And then came the drive back to Tumut, where we encountered even more livestock.

We are very happy with our AirBnB accommodation, offering clean modern living, and a double bed each. We struggled briefly with connecting the Wi-Fi router to the Android TV, but that was resolved once I remembered the old saying, “If you switch it off and switch it on again, it will probably work.” It did.