Our choice of sunrise activity today was The Drip, a relatively easy 3km round trip about 30 minutes out of Mudgee. We were initially somewhat perplexed by the wide ranging times reported by various sources, and soon discovered the pace would be determined by how many times you stop to take photos. There was plenty to take photos of and so our trip out to The Drip was double the time of our trip back to the carpark. As it was early on a Friday morning, we encountered only 1 family on our walk along the cliff face and river. It was just glorious! As a reference for future would be visitors, we took 1.5 hours with a member of party having recently recovered from a bad ankle sprain as well as ample time for photos as already mentioned above.
Hands On Rock was an aboriginal heritage site about a 5 minute drive from The Drip. The walk is relatively short but there was a short moderately steep incline to get to the sandstone cave with hand "prints" stencilled onto the rockface.
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| Mudgee morning |
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| Much cooler and more moist than the surrounding areas |
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| The meandering Goulburn River on one side |
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| Glorious green cliffside walls on the other |
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| The recent rains meant water everywhere |
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| There was an exciting creek crossing included so do wear appropriate footwear if coming after rains |
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| As we were the first to walk the track, we had to walk through many, many tiny webs...and thus the ninjas were born! |
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| A sense of scale and perspective |
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| We were glad we managed to come here just on sunrise |
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| More spider web clearing needed! |
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| The "canvas" |
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| Difficult to see at times but lots of details if you look closely |
We returned to Mudgee for brunch or essentially lunch as it was 1130 by the time we finally ate! We were desperate for caffeine and sustenance.
Alby & Esther's was our choice for the morning, a cafe/wine bar tucked away off a laneway from Market St. Due to Covid-19, reservations were only taken from 12pm and the wine bar was closed. Whilst the setting was charming, they were very busy. It did take some time for us to be served. The menu choices for me personally was a little disappointing and limited. There wasn't really anything that I felt like eating. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to order and for those who know me, you'd know how unusual that was...Having said that, the food that we ordered were fresh and tasty. Would I go there again? Definitely but with so many other cafes around, I'd probably try others first.
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| Breakfast bowls |
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| Esther's jaffles with smoked ham and swiss cheese. The tomato relish was delicious |
Cheese tasting was conveniently available right next to our resort. Much produce were purchased and the trend continued at Honey Haven. The "tastings" at Honey Haven included raw honeycomb, honey and pollen, honey softdrink, honey based scrubs and moisturisers, and much more! The lady serving us mentioned that the whole gamut wasn't always possible when they were busy on the weekends. Score! We rewarded her friendliness with armfuls of produce. Who could resist honey spiced mead?!
We finished off our afternoon with a drive to the historic gold rush town of Gulgong. It was nearly dropped as we had so many places to visit but we were glad we visited. It was more quaint and prettier than expected. Photos don't do justice to the charm of the town.
The "long" degustation dining concept was a great but for us Asian's maybe a touch too long lol. Can't please us lah...The food though, did live up to the hype. The ambience was also relaxed and comfortable with the restaurant only having one sitting per table. The service was warm and friendly. It was a great way to celebrate our combined birthdays and to end the day!
