Australia Road Trip: Bobbin Head to Hunter Valley then Blue Mountain Day 1-4

Hi All,

We did indeed make it out of the marina last Monday but we certainly had to work for it. I ended up spending all day Sunday with a pesky watermaker issue and we did not get finished until close to midnight Sunday. Then it was up early Monday am, finished packing, some last minute discussions with some of the marine techs for items to do while we are gone and we were off by 10:30am and having our 1st glass of wine by 1:30pm!!!!

We actually had a very good beginning….we made it out of the Bobbin Head/Sydney area w/o getting lost. If you recall we started the NZ roadtrip by getting terribly lost in Auckland and having to cross a bridge the wrong way in order to make a U-turn. This year Google Map, affectionately known as Gigi, continues to be our most dear friend!!!

Hunter Valley: This is one of the premiere wine regions in Australia, although as we are learning, it may not be THE premier region as many of the wineries source their grapes from regions further south where the climate is cooler. The first afternoon we made it to Gartelmann’s where we had a delicious lunch and some great wines (I had pulled pork over mashed and veges done Aussie bbq style and Kathy had pork belly spring rolls…yummers). We also made it to Brokenwood, were we met a lady named Jess and proceeded to have a great discussion about ice cream. Jess introduced us to Golden Gaytime ice cream: “The first Gaytime took Australia by storm in 1959, and it soon became a staple of the Swinging Sixties. The combination of a toffee and vanilla-flavoured centre, dipped in a scrumptious choc coating and covered in delicious biscuit pieces, has proved to be truly timeless”. It is indeed delicious and I will be having several more varieties!!! Oh, the wines were some of the best also!!!

The 2nd day we made it to Pepper Tree, McGuigan, Audrey’s and Tyrrell’s…..all were excellent, bought several bottle each place, some to bring back to the house and cellar!!! The views at Audrey’s were excellent and we had a nice picnic on their veranda!!

Of course, for us, good wines means good food. We ate the 2nd night at il Cacciatore, the award winning restaurant at the Hermitage Lodge….whoa, some of the best homemade pasta we have ever had!! I had the spaghetti with pork, fennel, sage and apple meatballs with a fresh tomato sugo sauce….oh, Bad Bob would have loved those meatballs…..and Kathy had linguine with sautèed prawns, asparagus, capers, and lemon-chilli butter sauce….a very rich and killer dish!!!

The next day we took the scenic drive to Blue Mountains. “The Blue Mountains is densely populated by oil bearing Eucalyptus trees. The atmosphere is filled with finely dispersed droplets of oil, which, in combination with dust particles and water vapour, scatter short-wave length rays of light which are predominantly blue in color”. They remind us of the Appalachians…the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and the Carolinas!!

One of the unique rock formations is called The Three Sisters: “The Three Sisters is the Blue Mountains’ most spectacular landmark. Located at Echo Point Katoomba, around 2.5 kilometres from the Great Western Highway, this iconic visitor attraction is experienced by millions of people each year. The Three Sisters is essentially an unusual rock formation representing three sisters who according to Aboriginal legend were turned to stone.

The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, ‘Meehni’, ‘Wimlah’ and Gunnedoo’ lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come”.

The 2nd day we woke up to miserable weather…..temps in the 50’s, cold, rainy and windy….ugh!!! But as cruisers, we just donned our rain gear and kept a positive attitude and went out for the day. First we started at the Aboriginal center at the Three Sisters center. Wow….we have not spent much time learning abou the Aboriginal history and found it fascinating. We saw a 30 minute show that was a great introduction and we look forward to learning more!!

We then went to the Scenic Center where we took the world’s steepest train down to the rainforest. The Railway experience descends 310 metres @ 52 degrees through a cliff-side tunnel, emerging into ancient rainforest at the Jamison Valley floor. A very sort e-ticket ride!!! We then spent the next 3 hours walking in the rainforest…..well over 5 miles!! It was great….the weather kept the crowds away and we had many quiet moments listening to the forest and the various birdsong. We even saw our first lyre bird….whoa!!

That night we ate at the Echoes restaurant…..has a gorgeous view but the weather was still dark and stormy so not much of a sunset. But, we had a great meal and some fine wine:
Kathy: Char-grilled Hunter Valley Angus tenderloin, onion jam, Parklands baby vegetables &
Red wine glaze
John: Cashew nut crumbed grass fed Riverina lamb racks with parsnip Skordalia, Swiss
chard, pencil leek and lemon thyme jus

Boat Stuff: So the Sunday before we left…..we still had not packed for the road trip…..we just kept getting further and further behind. On Sat I discovered the fresh water flush pump for the watermaker kept running, would not shut off and was not pumping any water….not good….we had friends over that night so it was a Sunday job…..I got up early and got some other things done and got to the flush around 9am……well, by 9pm with a 3 hour break to go pack we had successfully pickled the watermaker……what an absolute cluster. I guess when the flush pump shot craps the Spectra feed pump ran dry and crapped too. I hooked up a garden hose from the dock to the inlet of the charcoal filter and initially no flush. Traced we had water all the way to the infeed pump by taking things apart and the infeed pump was running but no water coming out…..2 hours later after changing the pump, the watermaker made water, did 2 flushes and then successfully pickled!!! We both had a couple of wee drams and some Advil and collapsed in bed!!!!

Stats:
Traveled: 100 miles, ~2 hours to Hunter and 150 miles, ~4 hours to Blue Mountains; 250 miles total
Wrong turns: Zero….luv Gigi!!!
Kangaroo/”Roos”/Skippy count: only 3 so far, a bit disappointing
Skippy roadside signs: 20+, more warning signs that animals….hmmm!!!!
One Way bridges: 5, can you believe that, thought we were done with all that in NZ!!!!
Hotels: Hermitage Lodge at Hunter, had a spa tub for our very sore bones:))) Echoes Boutique Hotel in Blue Mountain…the view was excellent!!!!
Food: Great meals as described above; we also did room service the first night and had the pizza….whoa, the thin crust was too die for!!!

LIG!!!!

John
Mystic Moon