GRAB A BEER AND A STORY AT FAIRY’S

“IT’S A PITY MICK’S not here,” laments Kristy as she pours me a beer in the bar of Wahgunyah’s Old Empire Hotel, “he’s the bloke with all the stories about this place.”

Kristy’s one of those welcoming country publicans who, when a stranger walks in, asks them what they’d like, how they are, how’s the day been and what brings them to town.

I told her I was after a drink and some stories about the place, oh, and a feed which had been dialled up on the run into this place.

For most of the final half hour of the late arvo ride up the Federation Way I’d been smelling breakfast. Then I crossed the Murray Valley Highway and hung a left and understood. That stack that’d been blowing smoke south belongs to Uncle Toby’s and it’s their centre of muesli bar and breakfast cereal production.

In 100 metres I’m up-wind, in clear air and coasting into town; past the exquisite art deco fisho and then the hotel’s on