Hunter Valley to Port Stephens

Friday, 2 June 2017

Hawkesbury River Bridge

Too much wine tasting or a wonky cup?

Double Chocolate and Caramel Wave (GF so must be healthy)

Red Velvet & Summer Berry Cheesecake

Happy Cat

Waterfront at caravan park

Other direction

There was a nice frost dusting the grass at Katoomba yesterday as we left to head further north and some warmer weather, hopefully.  The long descent down the Blue Mountains to Sydney certainly did wonders for our daily average fuel consumption!  We used the motorways and apart from the short section through Pennant Hills, it was easy driving in the traffic.  We stopped at a rest area immediately after crossing the Hawkesbury River (motorways send kidneys into overdrive!) before continuing to Cessnock in the Hunter Valley.  We booked into the Wine Country Tourist Park at Nulkaba, a small caravan park in need of some love and care.  The manager was very nice and friendly but our site was just dirt and clay, as were the roads.  A few sites had some grass and the majority of sites were occupied by permanents.  Also, the main highway was separated from our site by a tin fence and an airstrip was only a short distance away; the continuous landing\taking off of light planes until 10.00 pm and heavy traffic from 5.00 am did not make for a peaceful night.

During the afternoon, we visited a few wineries and the Pokolbin Village.  As the Hunter Valley becomes very upmarket and trendy, the prices of cellar door wines increases dramatically and the restaurants become very gourmet and expensive.  However, we did find some nice wines at Hungerford Hills and an even better dessert bar at Sabors!  With about 50 desserts to select from, decisions were not easy but well worth the stress.  It was also nice to enjoy some warmer weather and leave the coat in the car.

This morning we had a relatively short drive east (one and a quarter hours) to Lemon Tree Passage in the Port Stephens region.  Not far from here is the Williamstown RAAF Base and we had three fighter jets fly low across our path as they came into land.  We are staying at the Big4 Koala Shores Holiday Park, which is right on the waterfront and surrounded by koala habitat.  If the scats on our slab are any indication, the koalas are frequent nocturnal visitors.  Fingers crossed ..

As we are here for two nights, I decided to restock the cake tin after lunch and that is when the drama started.  Discovered water in the bottom of the cupboard and after removing all the contents from the front end kitchen cupboards and Himself crawling into the corner when the hot water cylinder is located, he discovered a large crack in the cylinder and a small fountain.  Not really the ideal place for a water feature.  A few telephone calls later, and we have the caravan booked in for a replacement hot water cylinder at Coffs Harbour on Wednesday morning.  Unfortunately, this means no running hot water in the caravan, which means no showers in the caravan!!!  This meant a trip to the local El Cheapo style shop and some thong purchases so that we can use the showers in the amenities blocks.  Hopefully it wont be too cold or wet before Wednesday night.