A visit to Tarndwarncoort Homestead

Hello lovely people!

During the four weeks we spent in Australia (oh how fast these flew by...), the husband and I traveled the Great Ocean Road for two weeks. One day when it was pretty cloudy and rainy in Apollo Bay, we decided to drive past the mountains as the forecast promised better weather on the other side and guess what! The forecast was right for once!

We discovered the Tarndie farm in a little leaflet about the Otway Harvest trail and as there was yarn mentioned, I just had to go there! After having possible the best pizza ever at the Meating Place Café (pumpkin and goat cheese - oh my god, it was soo amazing!), we drove down to the farm. It was a bit tricky to find and at some point we were close to giving up but in the end we made it.

The Tarndie farm / Tarndwarncoort Homestead is a sheep farm and is owned by the Dennis family. It is also the place were the Polwarth wool (or rather the Polwarth sheep) origin from. As pure merino sheep weren't made to survive in the Otway climate/landscape well, these sheep were breed in the 1880s - they are 3/4 merino and 1/4 lincoln and next to that they are really cute, they can survive the climate and land in the Otway very well!

At the farm we were greeted my the owners and I was told so much about their yarn and I got to spent as much time in their little shop as I wanted too (the husband got to spend time in the sun with lemonade - so win-win!). Tom and Wendy were very kind and answered all my questions!

 I would have loved to try all their yarn but in the end I bought around 400 grams of white and grayish yarn. I think I will make a sheep (amigurumi) with it - kinda fitting, don't you think?

We got to wander around the farm a bit and man, it is a beautiful place. Best thing: we got to meet some of their sheep who were very friendly (I am pretty sure they are hoping for food). It was just two weeks before the annual shearing, so they were packed with wool.

How I wished we could have stayed longer! They have a little cottage where one can stay for holidays. If I had known before, we would have certainly stayed there. Did you know they have yarn retreats? How wonderful would it be to stay on a sheep farm for a yarn retreat?! Well, I guess, I have to return to Australia soonish, doesn't it? 

Take care

Anne