I got up nice and early and gave you my previous post talking about the Taronga Zoo, then I headed into the valley. The area has like 100 vineyards (according to the first one I went to) and I went to like 5 of them and mixed in a choclate company and the BlueTongue Brewery. The wines were amazing (I bought a couple bottles, but I wanted to buy one from every place I went). I even tried some red sparkling wines which were quite good and different. The people were pretty awesome too, very conversational. These are small time operations. For most of them, they only sell their wines at their cellar door. It was a great day and it just felt great driving through the vineyards. It's exactly like I'd expected it would be, and it was just one winery after another. Crazy.
Next thing I knew it was 5PM and needless to say I was didn't think it was going to take THAT long to get around to these wineries. So I headed straight north to my next stop, Port Macquarie. It was a few hour drive and not very scenic (and not very light too since I was traveling after sundown). I saw my first rain since being here. It rained pretty hard in spots. I managed to use the correct stick on the steering wheel to operate my wipers. Upon arrival here, I headed down to an Irish pub to grab a late bite to eat and enjoy a couple of brews. Turns out a group from Switzerland that was here for WYD is also in town. I definately didn't expect to see anyone else heading up this way. The bartenders were quite amused by them and we all had some laughs with them trying to understand what the Swiss were saying.
All in all a great day. As for me, I'm going to get some sleep. The plan is to wake up tomorrow morning EARLY and head out to possibly see some dolphins going up the town's river and check out the beaches before taking the scenic route up to Byron Bay.
Here are the pictures!
The Pepper Tree Winery
BlueTongue Brewery...They brew an interesting Ginger Beer
Piggs Peake, my last stop on the day
A view of the vineyard of the Mount View Estate
The simple entrance to Mount View
A great view of the Hunter Valley from a mountain lookout
Ivanhoe Wines with the Chambourcin grape rows in the foreground
Sparkling wine and chocolate...Mmmmm
2 comments:
how are the brews in Australia? Anything worth writing home about? What about Fosters, do they have it?
The brews are great, even the so-called cheap brews. And they have a pretty wide selection too. I've been keeping track of the names of all of them as I have them and I'll make sure to share with you when I get home.
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