Day 94 - Cessnock, 29th September 2025

Today we hit the wineries in the Hunter Valley!! First stop was Hanging Tree Wines because like the sign said, ‘National Wine Day is 1st January to the 31st December!’


We started with prosecco and worked our way through the wines.



Next stop was Brokenwood but at $25 for tastings we decided against it! (They didn’t see our shopping at the last winery, big mistake! Huge! đŸ¤£)


The Cheese Factory had some delicious oils and dips but no cheese for tasting unless you paid $28.50 each! The Hunter has nothing on the Swan!


We walked across to Roche ….


and Rach and I did some tastings (and more shopping) at McGuigans.


On recommendation we had booked into Baume for lunch. The food was delicious, but like so many places we have discovered, they were understaffed and so the service was terrible. It took ages for someone to take our order, ages for our drinks and food to arrive, and Rachel’s order didn’t arrive at all! They had forgotten it. Eventually she got her meal and they did apologise and not charge her for it or any of our drinks so that was something.  While we were eating our lunch I received a call from the hot air balloon company that I was on the waitlist for. We are in for tomorrow!!

The next stop after lunch was at Hunter Valley Gardens was our undoing! Sparkling pink moscato at Garden Cellars and shimmering gin, vodka & liqueurs at Small Mouth! So good! We may need a bigger van!


Our final stop was for the necessary coffee and chocolate.

Back at our vans we donned our sneakers and did some laps of the racetrack to clear our heads. 

After dinner and a short game of cards we headed to bed. The meeting time is 4.30am for the hot air balloon tomorrow so it is a very early start.



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