As part of my return trip with Y this year to Perth, we planned to take a fun day trip out on the Sunday that we had, as we thought it’s pretty darn boring to stay in Perth on a Sunday. When AW was giving us a few choices for day trips, we all kinda blacked out on the other choices after we heard “truffle”, so yes this was quickly decided. CT, Y and I were just dreaming up all all the black truffle products we could eat and buy at the farm.. yummy yummy.
JG mucking around with extra “bear ears” behind me.
Armed with McDonald’s breakfast in our laps, we headed out rather early in the morning for a 3.5 hour drive down to Manjimup thanks to our dear drivers – CT and AW. The Wine and Truffle Farm Manjimup has been located there since 1997 and is famous for their black perigord black truffle.
Lots of big white fluffy clouds in Manjimup and acres and acres of land with cows grazing.
I thought this was a real funny sign… because we were going the right way.
When I thought my poor legs were gonna fall off from lack of stretching and ventilation, we finally reached the truffle farm. Yeah!!
Entrance to the Wine and Truffle Farm
In front of the entrance to the Wine and Truffle Farm shop and cafe
A very informative poster on the world of truffles
Smelling and seeing all the various black truffle products and their wines really got me excited. We decided to sample some products, head to the cafe to try out the food, and have a think about what to buy while enjoying our lunch in the cafe.
Selection of wines, truffle mustard and other produce for sale.
To be honest, I would say the food is kinda average, just made nicer with the truffle products. We started with some salmon and rillette accompanied with truffle aioli. For the main dishes, we shared 2 porttions of the gnocchi pasta with shaved black truffle and the beef pie served with a truffle mash. I think the beef pie was the yummiest of the whole lot. I loved the sweet wine we chose – “Half Dry Riesling 2011”, that was the highlight for the lunch. Of course, we had to have some brie cheese served with their truffle honey and jam, which was a nice end to the lunch.
A definite must buy for dessert wine lovers – this Truffle Hill Riesling was my fav in the entire lunch.
After lunch, I headed back to the shop with CT and Y and we grabbed a lot of things, below are our purchases in the bags. The black truffles were really not expensive. For all the things I bought (see below) I spent around 200 over AUD which I thought was a pretty good deal, as compared to buying the same truffles in the gourmet supermarkets which mark them up a few times up.
My shopping ‘damage’.
My goodies taken after I had unpacked back home in Singapore. I bought a Truffle shaver, 2 pieces of black Perigord truffle, truffle mustard, truffle butter, truffle oil, hazelnuts in truffle honey, dessert wine
Taking a snapshot by the river which the truffle farm overlooks.
After eating lunch and buying goodies at the shop, we decided to make a trip to see the Diamond Tree in Manjimup, why not since we were in the area.
CT holding the map figuring how to make our way to Diamond Tree
On the way to the Diamond Tree, lo and behold, we spotted a RAINBOW!!! Oh my gosh, I miss these rainbows, haven’t seen them in a while since I moved to Singapore. As you know, us Care Bears used to see, live and breathe these, but in a urbanised city like Singapore, seeing them are a rarity. I was so happy that I had to run out and take these shots!
Somewhere over the rainbow…
Any carebears sliding down the rainbow by any chance?
Finally at the Diamond Tree…There was just something in the air, like a forest with spirits if you know what I mean, and could be a bit creepy I imagine if the rest of the gals weren’t with me. I was having images of Blair Witch Project playing out in my furry mind. Otherwise, it had a rather calming feeling just being amidst the trees. Just don’t feel such similar greenery in Singapore, perhaps the cool weather had something to do with it too.
Attempting to climb the ladder up the Diamond Tree. I am a bit scared of heights, so didn’t climb up too high.
On our way back to Perth City, we drove through this really quiet town that had a old train in the middle of nowhere, I think it’s part of the attractions one can look out for in Majimup area. I took a seat on this bench titled “LUNN”, I wonder if it’s named after a ‘dead’ person… hmmm.
Took a walk into the train, was really dirty and grimy, but it’s an eye opener seeing how it looks on the inside.
I think the best part of this trip was coming back home with some truffle goodies and seeing the rainbow. On hind sight, I think it would have been less tiring if we had stayed somewhere nearby and drove back the next day. So that would be my tip for anyone planning to go down to Manjimup from Perth City, unless you have some game drivers that don’t mind driving like a maniac.
