PIE OF THE WEEK 17 August 2021

COLAC

The Curry Pie - Ritcho's Bakery, Colac

Shortcrust bottom and puff top with a fine beef mince and British style curry flavouring. Standard commercial bakery marg pastry with pleasant filling that is no more exotic than Clive of India. But you're not here for the pie. You're here for owners Mark and Tara Ritchie who took over the historic bakery, with its terrazzo floor and rounded mid 20th century windows. When we were there the local butcher was delivering the meat for the pies and the pasties. A pleasant mid morning pie improved with sauce.

While you're here...

The Trocadero Cafe is a bastion of mid 20th century architecture.

If this building was in Melbourne it would have been hipsterfied and turned into cafes and art spaces. There are two arcades off the main drag, side by side, mostly empty except for a local community radio station and 1980s arcade games - in full working order. Above Central Chambers is an art deco Peters Colac Pty Ltd sign. The arcade under this is lined with tiny shopfronts trimmed in stainless steel. At the end is a 1960s bowling alley complete with a few of the original features. In between the two is The Trocadero Cafe, owned by Lebanese emigre Charif Eid. He's landlord and plans to open a Lebanese restaurant in the old ballroom upstairs. Meanwhile, he serves za'taar bread and cheese-filled fatayer pastries in his equally 1960s cafe, complete with crazy paving polished marble floors.

Trocadero Cafe, 90-94 Murray Street, daily, 7am-7pm, 5231 2300

Rail trail

This 46km bike trail travels through rich, undulating dairy country to the start of the Otway Ranges rainforest. It is steep in parts and there are several sections that follow local roads and not a dedicated off-road trail. V/Line train services with luggage carriages suitable for bikes depart Southern Cross for Warrnambool, stopping at Colac several times a day.

railtrails.org.au

Lakeside gardens

One of the great glories of Colac is taking a stroll through the botanic gardens planted by the shores of Lake Colac, around which this rich farming region was settled in 1837. Views out over the lake constantly appear through gaps in the foliage as one wanders the paths intersecting the gardens. This 12-hectare site was first planted in 1865, with the present layout designed by William Guilfoyle, the architect for much of Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. Many come to admire the stands of bunya pines, the cypress trees originally from Baja, California, and rare elm trees.

Colac Botanic Gardens, Fyans Street, Monday-Sunday, 10am-4pm

Lakes and volcanoes

The rounded folds of the Red Rock rise from the green flats of the dairy country below. Its summit is crowned by a mound of great red rocks - the reason for the name of this volcanic scoria cone made from ochre-coloured stone. From the lookout on the summit the view is outstanding. The great freshwater lakes, Colac and Corangamite, shimmer gold in the early summer sun. The landscape to the west is marked by dormant volcanoes, some looking like silent, kneeling elephants. Among the fields of gold and pale green are dotted little settlements, the lanes lined with hawthorn, the paddocks marked out by dry stone walls, and houses in the villages huddled together around pubs and old bluestone churches.

Corangamite Lake Road, Alvie