And so to Mudgee

Our Christmas present from David and Zoe was a trip to Mudgee during which Emma and Pete have paid for us to have a wine tour. Obviously collaboration between Zoe and Emma here.
We left Manly at about 10.00 and had a relatively good journey out to the Blue Mountains. However, there were roadworks on the highway, probably just as there are in Cornwall during any holiday period. We stopped for lunch in Leura and went looking for a sandwich shop we had been to before. Leura was absolutely full of tourists, we forget of course that this is the summer holidays, and that the Blue  mountains are a major tourist destination.
Having managed to park safely it was off to find t he shop, only to discover that it was no longer there. Luckily finding sandwich shops in Australia is a fairly easy business and we were soon satisfied. Lunch over it was back in the car to Mudgee, all in all a journey of about four hours.
Mudgee had the feeling of a colonial town and reminded us of many of the towns we have seen in America.
We found our hotel easily enough and Zoe had booked us a beautiful place, all four of us staying in a lovely apartment in a converted Victorian hotel. Two bedrooms, a huge lounge, with a six seat dining table, a well equipped kitchen and an enormous bathroom, which has the only double shower I have ever seen. Not just a cubicle big enough for two people but also two shower heads with individual controls.There was also a double spa bath.
After we had moved our bags in, not without some effort I might add,as the master packer always finds it difficult to pack lightly, and our room was up two flights of stairs, we repaired to a local micro brewery where we had a couple of beers in the afternoon sun. The beers were well deserved and much appreciated.
In the evening we went to a local pub, the Oriental hotel. Known locally as the Ori, where we had our evening meal. I was left at the drinks bar with the difficult task of ordering the drinks. The wine we wanted had an unpronounceable Australian name, and as David left to get the food I was left to struggle with name much to the amusement of the bar staff who broke out laughing. My concern was such that I forgot to get the sparkling water I had been instructed to get. So great was the mirth of the serving wenches that when I went back to get a second bottle of wine they started laughing immediately.
Having established that there were four bush fires in the area, and that none of them were threatening the town, we walked back to our hotel and retired to bed. An excellent journey, a wonderful evening and a great start to our time away.