Me, Rich and Joe headed off from Sydney about 11 am on Saturday morning (10th May)... must say it felt good to be heading out of the city and to be seeing the country again. Packed all of our stuff into the camper and off we went.

First port of call was Cessnock, a funny little town in the lower hunter valley which we used as our base for the next 2 nights whilst we did the obligatory wine tasting tour. Headed off on the tour on the Sunday. What a day... bargain at only $40 (20 quid). Left at 9:30 and by 10am we were sampling our first wine of the day... tad early but hey! First winery, we had 9 wines ... which set the precedent for the day really.... and there were 6 more and a brewery to go!
Really enjoyed the wine tasting - Me and Joe have now developed a taste for white port with a squeeze of fresh lime - how sophisticated! We bought a bottle and have been drinking it on the van - what a life! Last stop of the day was the bluetongue brewery where you bought a cricket bat of beers for $10, which had 6 shots of their home brewed beer in. My favourite was the alcoholic ginger beer.... yum!!

That night, we had ventured into Cessnock and ended up at the Cessnock supporters club which was a tad like the phoenix nights club and gave us a bit of a chuckle! They had a dodgy restaurant on site and I had chicken schnitzel. The woman asked if i wanted gravy, and i ended up having it on the side... THANK GOD!! It still makes us all cringe now if we think about that gravy... it was literally just a lump and it wobbled when the table moved..... eeeeew! Ended up back in the van playing cards with a lime and port.... talked to the folks and then headed to bed as we were leaving the next day early to head north towards Nelsons Bay.

Nelsons Bay was gorgeous, we decided to stop there 2 nights, our caravan park was literally right on the beach and the first night we took the camping chairs onto the beach with the Tooheys and port and lime and just set up camp there chatting and drinking - was great. Really landed on my feet with these guys - Rich is a lorry driver and trained mechanic so we're sorted on the van front, and then Joe is a chef.... his cooking is delicious - not a super noodle in sight! First night, on a 2 ring camping stove he did chicken with fresh lemon and wilted greens and crushed potatoes and green beans. Since then we've also had the most amazing home made Beef burgers too.

Nelsons Bay, was a really quiet little place, and as it was off season there weren't many people about but it was nice. Enjoyed watching the sunset, and as you can see from the pics they were rather nice. Joe and I decided to walk to the top of Tomaree Peak on Tuesday which was nice, quiet a steep walk and realised how unfit im getting so need to get doing some excersise. Views from the top were great though and you could see all across the bay.

Went out that night for a few drinks but the town was dead and there was like 2 people in the pub so we abandoned it for the comfort of our trusty van again!

Wednesday we headed to the Myall lakes which was a nice drive, stopped off several times to take pics of the views and have a look around a couple of the little towns. Stopped the night in Forster, but again we seemed to have found ourselves a ghost town with absolutely no-one out past 6pm!! Had a huge dinner, and I ended up just falling asleep - think im still recovering from last weeks partying!

Today we are in Port Macquarie which is a nice town, seems quite lively too so we have booked for 2 nights and the lads are eager to find some night life. Think they want to go deep sea fishing tommorrow, so i might leave them to it and go investigate the nearby Koala hospital! Am hoping to be in Brisbane by next weekend to meet up with my mate Beth from Melbourne. Going to see what sort of pace the lads are moving at, and if they arent going as quick as i want to ill just jump out and catch the greyhound up the coast.

Anyway peeps! Hope you are all well and good - hope to hear from you soon with all your antics!

Ill update you soon on my next phase of the trip. Much love - Han xx