After the wine tasting in Mudgee we drove to the Warrumbungle National Park where we set up camp at Camp Blackman. This is a rather large camp ground with some very nice campsites and even a few powered sites. After dinner we headed to Warrumbungle Observatory where Peter Starr gave us an introductions to the stars on the night sky. I even got to take some pictures with my camera straight through the telescope.

We initially had planned to do the Breadknife – Grand High Tops walk the next day. But we had a bit of a slow start in the morning and decided to do the shorter bush walk up to Fan’s Horizon from where we enjoyed a fantastic view over some of the great features of the Warrumbungle National Park. On the way back to the camp ground we stopped into Siding Spring Observatory where we got to see the telescope and another stunning view over the Warrumbungles.

On the way back to Sydney we stopped in the Hunter Region to taste some more wine. This experience left me a bit disappointed as most of the places felt very commercial and were done up like shiny flagship store, not like working wineries… Robyn Drayton from Robyn Drayton Wines was the stand out of the day. I’m already looking forward to a special occasions to enjoy her famous white port with a slice of lime.

The start of our Easter Weekend Trip brought along Bells Line of Road us trough the nordern end of the Blue Mountain National Park where we got rewarded with some great views. We stopped at Walls lookout for lunch and enjoyed a stunning view from the edge of the canyon. Further along we turned off the main road to enjoy some 4WDing. We followed the Old Bell Line of Road to the Lost City, another great lookout with some unique rock formations. The Blackfellow Hand Trail broght us back onto the main road near Lidsdale from where we drove to Mudgee.

For the night we had booked ourselfs into a lovely Bed & Breakfast in Mudgee, Suzi’s Hideaway, where we were very well looked after. For dinner and some great beer we visited the Mudgee Brewing Company. They just celebrated the one year anniversery of the restaurant. I can highly recommend their Porter. The next day we visited a few wineries in the region. At Lowe we got to taste some fantastic organic wines and the view from the estate over the region is not to be missed either. At di Lusso Estate we did more wine tasting and eat some very tasty pizza for lunch before getting on the road again to head to the Warrumbungles.

Before leaving Australia Judith and Patrick wanted to go for one last 4WD trip. The ‘Cave to Cave’ trip in the Blue Mountains is a fantastic 4WD trip Simonand I have already done once before.

From Mittagong we enjoyed a great drive winding through the mountains before arriving in Wombeyan Caves. In Wombeyan Caves we stopped for some lunch and went for a self-guided tour through the Fig Tree Cave. As it was still early in the day we kept driving through the mountains before setting up camp at Dingo Dell. The next day we enjoyed some more great 4-wheel-driving through the mountains before arriving at Kanangra Wall. At the lookout we got to see a great view and the magnitude of the wall before going on a walk onto the plateau.

On the way home we stopped at Pulpit Rock for a last, impressive look at the Blue Mountains.

A few weeks ago I entered one of the photos from our trip around Australia into the Intrepid Travel Photography Competition and I am very pleased to announce that my picture has been selected as ‘Photo of the Month’ November.

My image is in the running for the annual grand prize! I will keep you posted.

Number Crunching

I’m already back a few weeks now but I finally got round to doing some number crunching.

In 94 days I traveled 21,351km by car and bought 2,961 litres of diesel. On average we traveled 227km a day, wheres the largest distance we traveled in a day was 615km. We spent $4,259 on fuel and on average a liter cost $1.44. Read more…