The Hunter Valley
Trip Start
Feb 19, 2009
1
30
34
Trip End
Ongoing
Cessnock, New South Wales, Australia
Saturday, October 10, 2009
You may be relieved to hear that this entry will be quite short, I could just say went to Hunter Valley admired the scenery, tasted the wine and moved on, however I will try to flesh it out a bit – sorry!
The Hunter Valley was settled during a land rush in the early 1820s, the best land and convicts to work it being assigned to those who had the strongest financial position. Convict transportation to the colony stopped in 1840, assisted passage schemes and the potato famine in Ireland resulted in a new wave of settlers and the government policy on land sales , changed in favour of small land owners many of whom were ex convicts who had been given their ticket of leave. The first crops were wheat, sheep tobacco and grapes. But the wheat crops were affected by rust and cultivation moved elsewhere. Soon grapes became the dominant crop and wine making became the chief product of the area as it still is today.
The comparatively short drive from Manning Point to Cessnock, the biggest town in the Lower Hunter, only took two hours so I was in good time to set up camp and go in search of the tourist information centre. As camp site was the only one in the area I was concerned that it would turn out to be an experience like Mount Tambourine but this worry was unfounded as it turned out to be very good albeit extremely windy. The town is of little historical interest but is clean and tidy with many useful shops and amenities. At the tourist centre I booked a wine tour for the next day on which we travelled by horse and carriage rather than the usual mini bus.
Starting at the civilised time of 11am the other 9 members of the group and we set off at a gentle pace to the first winery. They were a nice group (seven from one family on a birthday outing and a German couple) and no-one seemed to be inclined to drink a very much which is not always the case on some tours.
In all we visited 5 vineries and a cheese factory, luckily the rain just about held off but it was cold in the open carriage.
This is probably heresy but I was not very impressed by any of the wines which I tasted, preferring the wines of Western Australia which seem to me to have more flavour, but I was forced to buy a couple of bottled to while away an evening or two alone in my tent, in fact I sip on one as I write.
The following day as the weather was a little brighter I spent some of the day retracing the route of the day before in order to take photos, stopping at a couple more wineries as I went. Then back to camp early just before the rain started. So far it has rained every day since I have been in NSW and possibly even worse in a tent the wind has been gale force at times.
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On my final day here I drove a very scenic road over the Broken Back Range on the smoothest gravel road I have yet experienced to the small township of Wollombi, here there are the remains of the first road into the Hunter Valley built by convicts between 1827 to 1834. The town turned out to be very tiny just a few old houses but as the much vaunted and advertised museum was closed it was not possible to get any information about the place or the buildings. This was a pity as there were a lot of visitors all of whom had expected the museum to be open. The only thing left to do was to return back to the campsite and start to pack up ready for the journey to Sidney the next day
