Hunter Valley
(03/23)
Again, we had a pretty smooth pack-down at Old Bar. We did get a bit of a shower overnight of course! I love Old Bar and hope to go back again for a leisurely break.
I am starting to think that bed flys are a waste of time and space! We can have the whole van packed down (or up) ready for wine o'clock in about 20 minutes. If we are putting up the bed flys it can take an extra half an hour - by the time all the ropes are put on, the centre pole in place (FFS isn't that a pain). Then we have to worry about tripping over the ropes at night. I think I'd rather risk some dampness than all the angst involved in bed flys!
OK, enough of bed flys! We took the Pacific Highway to the Hunter Valley, turning off just before Newcastle. I must say, it was a pretty good road and NSW have plenty of nice rest areas to pull over. We checked into our caravan park just outside of Cessnock (Nukaba) - Wine Country Tourist Park. We had a very small site with no room for the dam bed flys (Woohoo!). The park was only a few kilometres out of Cessnock, had pretty good amenities and a great laundry (it even had baskets and pegs and stain remover - perhaps to get rid of all those red wine stains!) There was a swimming pool and fantastic camp kitchen - even had a big TV.
Cessnock was a much bigger town than we expected with a really long main street and lots of little cafes and shops. Certainly worth a wander.
A quick update on my electric bike - it is still stuffed! We took it to a bike shop in Cessnock but, unfortunately, it needed a spare part from Melbourne and there was no guarantee it would get there in time! That being said, our planned cycling around the wineries had to be cancelled and we took a mini-bus trip instead. In hindsight, I am so glad we did. The roads were a bit rough and I think it would be a bit hilly on the bike, especially with bottles of wine on board. Also, it was bloody hot. We managed to squeeze in 6 wineries throughout the day with a lunch stop at Harrigans Irish Pub. Some of the wineries we visited were Tinkler Wines, Polkobin Estate, Ben Ean, Piggs Peake winery, McGuigan Wines and my favourite, Peacock Hill Vineyard. Silvi, who was our host at Peacock Hill was fantastic. She was knowledgeable, passionate and funny. Needless to say, I left there with a few bottles! One of my favourites was an easy-drinking white, "Absent Friends" (we opened a bottle last night to enjoy in the hot weather). It is an easy drinking fruity white blend with pear and apple notes. I sound like a wine-snob! (Ha Ha) To be honest, I have to admit that I am not really a big fan of Semillon which the Hunter Valley is famous for but Steve did enjoy the Shiraz on offer so we did bring back a number of bottles. I hope we weren't overweight in the van with the extra wine bottles!
They also had a sparkling, 2019 Godfather Sparkling which I loved. Here is an extract from their website:
The wine is pale straw in colour, displaying fine, persistent bead which caresses and surprises the palate. The subtle toasty, yeasty nose is followed by Granny Smith apple and citrus on the palate, finishing tantalisingly fresh and dry.
I have a bottle that I am saving for a special occasion! Perhaps when we remove our camping L plates! Maybe not, it could go off before that happens!
We were both "wined out" after our tasting day so we took some time to visit some of the smaller villages around the area. We found a little village called Wollombi that had a fabulous museum and a quirky antique shop and some great coffee. We also tried plenty of cheese - we loved the Hunter Belle Cheese Room Pokolbin. I still have some of the caramelised onion flavoured cheese which I am eating sparingly to save it.
After four nights in the area, we packed up pretty quickly because we didn't have bed flys up and headed to Tamworth. #traineegreynomads
