End of Blue Mountains - to the Hunter valley

I left the Blue Mountains Wednesday morning (5am !) with Karen a girl who had been staying in the hostel. The last couple of days in the Blue mountains were really good. the last night in the Blue mountains the owner of the farm threw a leaving BBQ for me and another WWOOFer as well as offering me a permanent position (not sure giving up England for the life of a cow girl is really too sensible - but strangely tempting!)

The train down from teh Blue Mountains was really pretty, we had a fantastic view of the sun rising over the mountains and then saw some of the Sydney sky line bathed in a glorious orange. Unfortunately the early hour of my waking meant that the coach journey up the the Hunter was lost to sleep... Upon arriving at the hostel we had just enough time to drop off our bags and get a cup of tea before setting out for a tour of the local wineries. We started at the Draytons family winery which is the oldest the the Hunter Valley (and used to fill the whole valley before it was split up amongst various family members). The Cellar door is quite famous due to an explosion in 2008 which killed 2 people and blew the whole front of hte property off when someone welding one of the fermentation vats didn't account for an excess of gas given off during the process. the property has now been repaired but it still had that new paint smell... The Hunter Valley is mainly famous for the its semmilon grapes as well as some chardonnays (red wines do grow here but apparently not as well), so we tasted lots of lovely white wines and a couple of really nice sparkling ones. Next stop was the Lindemans/Rosemount winery (one of the big Australian exporters to the UK) - I wasn't expecting much as these brands in the UK are not always that great - however the none-export stuff was actually quite nice! We visited a further 2 wineries and then a cheese factory (bought some lovely soft blue cheese : ) before heading back to the hostel.

The original plan was to stay the night and then go back to Sydney Thursday morning - however I am still here! Wednesday night we met a lot of glider pilots who had come up to fly in the Hunter valley at Cessnock airfield. One of the boys was flying P2 on Thursday and after a quick look at my log book he offered me his glider to fly a lead and follow. So yesterday I had a beautiful flight over the hunter valley and soaring the edge of the western mountains before landing out about 20km from home (220km flown) in a rain storm! I was however able to land in a vineyard which is an experience to remember... The retrieve took quite awhile as everyone except the 2 seater had landed out. All in all it was quite a good flight and some lovely views.

Today I will catch the coach back to Sydney, but will probably hire a bike in the morning as the views are lovely and the coach doesn't leave until 4:45.