Gippsland getaway

I honestly never heard of Gippsland prior to this trip.

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All I could recall was that several restaurants in Melbourne had sourced food from there, stating "Gippsland beef" or "Gippsland wine" on their menu.

Gippsland is a rural region in the southeastern part of the state of Victoria and I took a one-hour flight out of Melbourne to discover this region in Australia!

I went straight to lunch and had steamed Portarlington mussels with extra virgin olive oil, confit tomato and garlic, Lindenow spinach, and preserved lemon.

The food was great and I did notice that they took pride stating where all the local food was sourced.

After lunch, I experienced Ride the Koalas (IG: @ridethekoalas) in Raymond Island. This is the only tour given in this residential island across Paynesville. This island has a population of 548 people and is also inhabited by koalas (introduced to the island in 1953), kangaroos, and a lone wombat. Taking this tour allows one to ride a bike on a guided tour (by a resident) to see how these marsupials co-exist with people.

Dinner was at Sardine Dining (IG: @sardinedining) in Paynesville, reputed to be one of the best restaurants in the area. I did have an excellent meal that included freshly shucked local oysters, miso-glazed black figs with capocollo (dry cured Italian pork), and shallot crusted Gippsland beef, braised oxtail, and smoked cauliflower.

After dinner, we walked over to Mariner's Cove to catch some sleep and woke up to a wonderful view of the marina the following morning.