Heading to Hunter Valley - Mar 29

Penrith again

Today had the feeling that we were going home, or at least back to some familiar territory. After running up the interior for a couple of days we were headed back towards the coast and the Hunter Valley Wine area. Since we were west of the Blue mountains we had several choices of routes. We could stay west of the mountains while heading north but that would mean backtracking south to reach the Hunter Valley, after we were past the mountains. We could swing east to the coast, just south of the mountains, but that would mean battling the freeway traffic around Sydney. We decided on the third option of driving east, through the heart of the mountains, and revisiting the Katoomba area. This seemed like the most attractive and shortest of the options.

Hunter Valley campsite

Since we were passing right by Penrith we stopped in to get a bite to eat and revisit the whitewater venue. After Penrith it was highway travel up to Cessnock were we stopped in at the local information centre for info on the wineries. As usual they were very accomodating. We booked into a Caravan park and scheduled a half day winerey tour for the 30th. A great campground with a talkative attendent.

Praying Mantis, about 16 cm long!

 

After supper we sat out in their patio to read, pleasant temperature and no flys or mozzies. I did get to play with a large praying mantis and got some nice shots of a big Redback spider by the toilets.

Australian Reback. The size of a loonie.

 

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