18/12/04 The Hunter Valey We drove west of Newcastle into the hunter valley wine region. After speaking to some arsy useless women at the info place we found the only campsite and chilled in the pool. We hadnt seen any vines ywt and it was really hot. We set off in the afternoon to Lovedale wine region. It was really nice. We went to a handfull of boutique wineries and tasted some great Semillon (a white but really light and lemony) and Shiraz of course. We both kept under the limit but felt a bit tipsy so stopped after a few hours. The last place gave us some free cheese so we went back and had it on some crackers with a bottle of chilled Semillon. That night there was a fantastic storm with halestones. When the rain stopped the sky looked like a painting, big round clouds. There were some comedy characters at the kitchen including a really loud, stereotypical ozzy , two stereotypical germans with huge moustaches and who made their own sausages (bit of an insult to the Aussies). All had a bit of banter an then we wandered off to see an amazing christmas caravan speractaulaire , like a mini vegas on a campsite where two old couples had put lights all over with inflatable santas and dancing snowmen. A group of us all went up tere, it FINALY felt like xmas. The next day we went on a wine discovery tour, we saw loads more wineries with Toni our driver which was great as she taught us loads about wine. It was so difficult to choose from a great variety, shiraz rose, chambourcin ( a great with red pulp) there were two other english couples and an Oz with his daughter (too young to drink though).At one of the small wineries we actually went into the wine making place to see how it was done and taste from the barrel. We ended up at a cheese factory tasting a lovely marinaded fromage blanc with olive oil and sun dried tomatoes. We both just crashed when we got back excited about the trip to Sydney the next morning. The only bad thing about this place was the phonebox Claire made dozens of calls trying to get through to Sarah and Kevin while bugs were crawling up her legs.