The view during our drive to Orange

Our arrival to Orange was under the cover of darkness – not deliberately so but by the time we got ourselves together and made the 4 hour drive down to Orange (and there were the obligatory stops along the way), the sky was pitch black and out in the country away from the city lights, it gets very dark indeed. It was close to 10:30pm on the Friday night when we arrived in our borrowed Toyota Prado Kakadu 4WD thanks to the nice peeps at Toyota.

Our Toyota Prado Kakadu

I’m normally rather ambivalent about 4WD’s – you see I used to live in Mosman where I am sure that 99% of the 4WD’s there had never touched a speck of country dirt but for country driving, and particularly after this drive, I’d definitely rather go in one given the gravelly dirt roads. Apart from the suspension, from an amenity standpoint, it has a cool box to keep drinks and food chilled and the sound system in it is excellent (apparently the result of their sound engineer in Japan being somewhat of a sound aficionado) and if you happen to have children, it keeps them amused with DVD screens and headphones. And then there’s the lack of rattling and rocks hitting the car when driving on country dirt roads (it was so quiet and smooth I fell asleep several times).

The Black Sheep Inn: a converted shearing shed

We arrived at the Black Sheep Inn, an award winning Inn just a few minutes outside of the city of Orange. As planned, our key was waiting for us in the door and the other guests were close to retiring. So we did the same and awoke the next morning to a lush breakfast prepared by Helen, the owner of Black Sheep Inn.

Rhubarb and strawberry compote with Greek yogurt and pine nuts

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Our last meal in Canberra was set to be a great one. If only I hadn’t made a pig of myself and succumbed to the vanilla slice winking at me from the marble table in our hotel room. Allow me to rewind a few hours if you will. Earlier that day we’d visited the Braidwood Bakery and then gone to the Old Bus Depot Markets and then settled our weary selves into Hotel Realm. Booked thanks to the lovely people at Toyota it was a toss up between the Hyatt and The Realm and they had chosen The Realm because of its modernity.

It’s modern indeed with nice touches and I take off my heels and sink my feet into some comfortable padded slippers. In the room there’s no bath, the view is of a construction site, there’s no porter to speak of and the gym and sauna is privately owned so when Mr NQN wants to use the sauna at 4pm on a Sunday like a good Finn he is told that it is shut. The positives is that the room is very nice and modern, they happen to stock Pickwick’s Earl Grey tea which I happen to love, there are complimentary Byron Bay cookie company biscuits and cable stations are great. And for dinner we don’t have to go far except for downstairs which is a winner given how exhausted we are.

So fast forward and one vanilla slice down the hatch we make our way down to the restaurant to meet with Todd from Toyota and his wife Melissa. There’s one other table dining tonight and so we have a booth to ourselves. This is their first time dining with a Foodus Bloggerus and I accepted Todd’s invitation for dinner  after asking if they would mind the whole photo taking experience.

Rigatoni with pork sausage, ham hock, tomato, garlic and chili $20.50

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