We woke up thanks to the squawking again at the lovely hour of 5:40 am. The birds were going crazy and did so until about 6 am..when they got quiet again. Go figure. We got up and started getting ready: the tent was really wet from the morning dew, so we hang out a bit longer to give it a chance to dry. By 9 am we were on the road: first pit stop would be the Wentworth Fall again since we wanted to take another quick walk. We took the Undercliff trail and, as the name says, goes under portions of the cliff side; they form cave like areas where all kinds of cool vegetation grows.
The walk took about 1 hour and we were on the road once again. The destination was the Hunter Valley for some wine and cheese tasting. Yup, lucky enough for David we were going through another wine area. The road to get there was pretty darn long and very, very twisty, and I have to say I was glad when we reached our destination (and so was my stomach..ugh, that road almost did me in).
Since we started a bit later than we wanted in the morning, we didn’t have too much time to hang out there but we still managed to go to 3 wineries so Dave could taste (and buy) some of the local wines. The funny thing is, it’s cheaper to buy wine than beer…for those who are curious, a 6-pack of beer cost $20, and we are talking local stuff, not imports. Wine, well that goes anywhere from $15 to over $200: yes Dave tasted a wine that was $100 per bottle, and the same winery had some that was $250. As far as I’m concerned, for wine to cost that much it needs to drive me around. We stopped at the Hunter Valley Cheese company where we sampled some of the locally made cheeses: there were 3 types of cheddar, 1 goat cheese, a blue cheese, a brie and a few others that now I can’t remember. We also tasted a very tasty “log” made with almonds and prunes and some fig jam that was delicious. But unfortunately we had to go: we wanted to reach the Port Stephen’s area and it was getting a bit late.
We drove, and then drove some more and about 2.5 hours later we pulled in the campground we would stay in for the night: supposedly there is a “community” of koalas that live in the area but we didn’t see any. We went for a walk on the trail appropriately named “Koala boardwalk” but it was pretty dark and we couldn’t see much (plus I was getting creeped out by the thick vegetation in the dark. Maybe we’ll try tomorrow morning.