2013 Trip Blog,

March

Friday March 8, Mullengandra, NSW.

(speedo 173951 klm) We have finally made it 'out the gate'.

March1 With our house on the market and traveling as light as possible we turned our attention to our journey ahead and the next chapter in our lives and headed North up the Hume.

It was still extremely hot when we decided to call it a day about half an hour North of Albury about 6pm, choosing a spot beside the Mullengandra river (dry) to spend our first night on our way to Sydney. Just a basic rest spot.

Not a very interesting first blog but as it's our first night on the road in the next chapter of our lives, we felt compelled to write something.

Tuesday March 12, Rose Bay, NSW.

Happy birthday Rob!

Unfortunately a sadness in the family has put a pause to celebrations. Our love and thoughts to Geri, Kirk, Danny, PJ & their families.

We will be spending the next couple of weeks in Sydney with family before hitting the road again and heading North, depending on the weather. As much as we love to be on the road, its certainly not hard to sit on the balcony over-looking Sydney Harbour reflecting on just about nothing at all. The varied activity on the water, the sea planes, the helicopters and the Harbour Bridge itself conjure up many reasons to justify the hours spent idle, feet up, just enjoying the view.

Day or night, Sydney Harbour is indeed an amazingly beautiful place.

Saturday, March 30th, Nulkaba, NSW

We finally hit the road after an extremely enjoyable time in Sydney with Rob and Sophie. What an amazing place to blow off any remaining cobwebs, always plenty to do and see. Wonderful cafe's, restaurants and beaches, playgrounds, small coves with secluded sandy beaches that belie the fact that you are right in the middle of the busiest city in Australia, handy shopping centres, a beautiful harbour, amazing views and much, much more. Sydney is so much more than just a big city with a harbour. Looking after Sophie was the icing on the cake…….a big thank you to Rob, Kirk and Sophie, we really enjoyed our stay with you and were extremely pleased that we could support you through this time.

With Rob's help it was easy to navigate our way through Sydney, across the bridge and heading North. We waved madly and shouted our Goodbyes as Rob turned off the Freeway, on his way to the Easter Show with Sophie. Their smiling faces were a nice image to take with us as we said Goodbye to Sydney and headed North for Newcastle.

Discussions further up the freeway lead to a decision to head for the Hunter Valley instead of Newcastle, so here we are, spending our first night at the Wine Country Caravan Park, Nulkaba (Cessnock) in the Hunter Valley, where we will chill out for a day or two before deciding which direction to take next. The Park seems nice and quiet and close to quite a few interesting places that we might take a look at tomorrow.

Sunday 31st March, Nulkaba, NSW

A bit slow to get started today as Don is suffering badly from pollen allergies and has had to resort to antibiotics to stop any chest infection as has happened in the past. He is anxious to move away from the East Coast and into less humidity. Therefore we will head NNW tomorrow, not sure where to at this stage, depends on how much rain there has been up North.

Today was overcast but warm and quite pleasant. We headed into Cessnock for a look around, being Easter Sunday there were only one or two places open. After a quick drive through the town we headed to Pokolbin, about a 10 min drive in the heart of the Hunter Valley. Coming from the Yarra Valley we were interested to see another wine growing region. We weren't disappointed, it is quite well laid out and very easy to navigate around.

We had lunch at 'Taste of the Country' Cafe located within the Shopping Village at the Hunter Valley Gardens which are situated amongst the foothills of the Brokenback Ranges. The Shopping Village is located at the entrance to the gardens which boasts 60 acres of display gardens, including 10 international feature gardens. These are said to be the largest display gardens in the southern hemisphere.

We went to the gardens but had to decline the guided train tour as driving around in amongst pollen laden flowers and trees is not exactly the ideal spot for Don to be at the moment but walking around the shops, having lunch and ambling about the parkland was really nice. There is also a beautifully designed Chapel within the village complex which is well worth a look.

We enjoyed our stay here but are keen to move on tomorrow.