“Roadtrip day 11…Hunter Valley Part 1…”

We woke from a lovely sleep early as the sun rose about 530am and in the tent when the sun is up, we are up. The weather was once again in our favour as we chilled out for the morning, catching a little sun and treating ourselves to some delicious bacon rolls.We weren’t in a hurry so we took our time. I even ventured into the showers! They weren’t the best but they were free!I chose the end cubicle but the shower curtain didn’t want to fully close so I was a bit shocked when someone chose the end toilet to do their business. I think they just wanted to see me naked!! Feeling slightly more clean than before, I headed back to camp to help fend off a pesky bird that was determined to have some of our breakfast!We decided to drive sort of via/through Hunter Valley on our way up to Bundaberg and it meant it would break the drive up a bit too. Choosing to head along Bells Line of Road which we did on our way back to Sydney from the Blue Mountains, proved to be a great idea as we found Bilpin Cider offering cellar door tastings!Set just slightly off the road, we pulled into and parked before heading into the barn.It was all decked out for Christmas! I started to feel so festive! To be fair it was approaching the end of November so I think that’s allowed! There were leaflets to showcase what was on in the area, gift ideas as well as tonnes of cider. The lovely owner offered us to try some. Of course we obliged…She lined up the ciders for us to try and we worked our way through them one at a time. They were the delicious. All of them. Even the brut!! We did buy a couple to treat ourselves too!

We continued driving towards Hunter Valley and finally arrived about 430pm. All the cellar doors close at 5pm so we stopped by the visitor centre. Here we picked up leaflets and maps to tell us where the vineyards were, especially for reds! We left feeling happy we could spend the next day tasting wine all over this fabulous region. What we hadn’t got was anywhere to stay as we hadn’t any internet all day. Where better to figure things out than a pub!!First of all, instead of walking into the pub, we walked into the brewery tour room and stood like total lemons looking at what was on offer. Then we were barged out the way from those already a bit merry from the tour so we left to move on. Luckily we looked in front of us to see Potter’s Bar.It had a real country feel about it. We got a drink and sat outside making the most of WiFi and the beautiful surroundings. It was beautiful. Happy we figured out where to go we set off. The clouds started to roll in and we headed towards our campsite. When we arrived there were girls playing rugby and lots of caravans set up did the night. As I unraveled the tent and Nathan went to the toilet and then I got a call saying ‘no tents allowed.’

Bugger. We didn’t have internet so just kept driving until we found McNamara Park it was huge! Full of tents and campers we manoeuvred our way into a space and pitched the tent. Tent was up so it was time to cook dinner. The sun set and we sat chatting and looking through our Australia guidebook. It was cold so we had put jumpers and trousers on only to realise we had already been eaten alive across our ankles and elbows. I genuinely didn’t think we’d have a problem with midges and mozzies over here but they’ve come out in full force some nights!! After that it was time to itch ourselves into bed.

Until next time…