Hunter Valley vineyards drive-by (Apr. 15/09 - Belmont, Australia, mileage 238km)

There was about an hour worth of pretty country roads between us and the Hunter Valley this morning, so we savoured the peace of the backroads before suddenly being faced with civilization again at the big town of Maitland. Without much of a game plan for the day, we decided to drive around the vineyards for a while and decide later if we wanted to visit any one inparticular. The countryside, as expected, was beautiful. Gently rolling fields were striped with grape vines, with ponds, homesteads, and distilleries sprinkled across the landscape. Much like the Stellenbosch wine valley we toured way back in South Africa, some of the wineries had massive, sprawling display buildings, all boasting unique architecture and obviously expensive products, including boutique hotel accommodation and exclusive restaurants in addition to the wine itself! It was fun to drive around and actually recognize some of the names we've enjoyed on our dinner table at home.


For a better vantage point, we followed a narrow little road up past some beautiful homes to a ridge that overlooked the entire valley and the countryside all the way to the coast. It was a quiet and breezy spot for a picnic lunch, and we even dug out our chairs and read for an hour or so - because we can! We weren't feeling the desire to see inside any of the wineries, so we drove back down and followed the road back to the coast. Hoping for a campsite on the beach, we had to try three different places before finding one that didn't charge a ridiculous price. The third one was doable, so we set up and went for a walk down to Nine Mile Beach to watch the surfers do their thing until the sun went down.