Tues 26th
A cloudy morning, but a very peaceful nights sleep, for a change. It really is worth driving out of your way occasionally!
We make our way to the Hunter Valley and sure enough, one by one, the wineries start popping up, (all 140 of them) in what appears to be the midle of nowhere! It's really odd, you are in the middle of the countryside, then all of a sudden there is almost a 'village' of wineries.
Now, our biggest decision to date, which one do we go for? Do we go to one we have heard of? Mcwilliams is down the next road (David P!) We decide to visit the purpose built Hunter Valley Gardens, (we do not look around the gardens, as it is pouring with rain!). There are lots of very smart (and expensive) crafty shops here, we have a quick look around, avoiding the 'British Lolly' shop!
We make our way to the wine shop. This is a shop that basically sells lots wines(and beers) from different wineries. It has a good selection and the ex-pat shop assisant is very helpful and tells us if we buy 12 bottles, they are less than half price $15 to $7 (4.50p). Urmm, we think of this for all of about.... 30 seconds! We can pick and choose, I feel like I am in the pick 'n' mix in Woolies! Plus they have another offer on, so we get a free bottle too! (Although, it has to be white! Will save this for sunnier climes!). While we are there, we also try some chocolate port! (Debs, thought of you!) We resisted temptation, even though it was on offer for $15.
From here we make our way east to Hawkes Nest, a village on the coast Tim used to come to as a child. We find our free camp for the night (always a bonus, it save's us $30+ a night). The scenery has not been as pretty to day, but we have seen quite a few kangaroo's, which is always great and now the road signs are giving warnings of koala bears, yet to see one though!
We wake up to about 40 Loraquettes (not sure of the correct spelling) squaking over head. They are beautiful parrot like birds, Matt and I are having a competition to see who can get the best photo! There is really not a lot to do at Hawks Nest, so we make our way to Seal Rocks. There is a lighthouse called Sugarloaf here and at this time of year, there is a chance of spotting the migrating whales, as they make their way north. Sure enough, the rain has stopped long enough for us to see some in the distance. There must be 10 or so.
A group of 4 are closest to us, they try to navigate their way around some rocks, we watch for about 30 minutes, until they work out how to get around them!
Stop the night in Dunbagan, a small town off the highway. We wake up to see the pelicans fishing in the estuary, 10 in total. We drive most of the day. The road we are driving on, is mainly on the coast, occasionally veering inland slightly. We drive to Coffs Harbour, it's a rather 'grey' looking town, we thought, but it is raining and we have decided it is unfair to judge a town, when the weather is miserable!!
We find a 'tired' campsite ($25) out of town and decide to open one of our puchases from the wine shop, a 15% bottle of Brookhampton, very nice! The next morning we wake up, Matt opens the camper door and about 15 foot away is a kangaroo! How cool is that?! We go down to the beach for a game of ball, I know it sounds crazy, but we need to excerise when we can and what a better place than on a beautiful sandy beach!?
We then head for Grafton, a small city with some really nice late 1800's buildings, we see lots of pretty buildings on our travels, but unfortunately a lot of them have added new modern shop fronts, in place of the old, which spoils them. From here we take a slight detour to Maclean (in honour of Mags!) I have read in our bible i.e. the lonely planet, that here they have 200 telegraph poles painted tartan, and yes it was true, they do!! We actually really liked this little town.
We travel to Yamba, but can not find a free camp, so we head back to the high way and sleep in a rest area, these are generally quite good pull-ins with toilets and picnic tables and sometimes free bbqs. The roads here go on for ever, so the goverment really encourage regular breaks for drivers, some even provide free drinks for drivers. It is not the quietest night, it has to be said.
Have had the camper one week today and have done 1575kms.
