June 5th, 2019
Happy Birthday to Taylor who we have gotten an update from and she is loving Hawaii and might stay! We woke up and had cup of noodles and PB & J for breakfast. I read about another hike I wanted to do. We packed up (which was easy since it was all in the car) and headed to Wentworth Falls area. There was a 4 to 5-hour long hike that looked like a really cool rock ledge on the side of a cliff that we planned to do. (it did have a handrail in the pictures). When we got there, that particular trail was closed due to a rock slide. I was slightly disappointed at first to get there on a day the trail was closed. Then I decided I was going to be happy to be there on a day there wasn’t a rockslide that killed someone. With countless trail options we picked another trail and it worked out because we got to go on this cool trail…
We got more great views of the Blue Mountains and even got a little rock ledge action too.
After our hike we stopped at a McDonalds as this is one of the very few places in Australia that offers free WiFi for one hour! Brendan, always needing to do school work, grabbed some food and worked online for an hour. I read in the car. I looked at the McDonalds’ menu and everything was about $7 Australian dollars ($5 USD) except the one item for $1 which was a plain hamburger. In attempting to be budget-friendly, I bought the $1 burger. It was pretty much the worst thing ever. I know I can’t expect much but yuck… For $1 my opinion is the cup of noodles is the best option.
I found another spot online that said it was free camping right next to a rural tavern. It was in the Hunter Valley which is Australia’s oldest and largest wine region. We wanted to explore this area the following day, and we hit the road and drove to Wollombi Tavern.
A couple hours later we arrived, and it was really cute. Another great free camp spot right next to a little pub rich in local atmosphere. After getting the car set up, we went in and ordered drinks and a pizza. The pub was totally busy with all locals. Everyone was very friendly and welcomed us extensively. They were all excited because tonight was the first game of what they referred to as the Aussie World Series but in rugby. They had food out and raffles going on which they were eager for us to participate in. People started buying us drinks and were all super interested in talking to us. I got in a conversation with one old-timer who said at the end that I changed his mind on his opinion of Americans. I took that as a compliment and had many great conversations throughout the evening. We also watched the rugby game which was the first one we had ever watched all the way through. The locals were entertaining and VERY into it. Sometimes they would yell ‘take his head off!’ and I think they might have meant it! One guy won a New South Wales rugby scarf in the raffle and insisted he give it to me as a souvenir. Everyone was very nice. They all wanted us to stay in their town for the weekend, and one guy offered us to stay at his house and BBQ etc. At one point I asked if the bar was going to close because I had read online their hours and it was much past that. The response I got in a thick, rugged, Australian accent was “you’re in the bush now love, anything goes…you’ll learn that if you stick around a bit”.
It was a really fun night and staying up late, mixed with wine and the car being parked at a better angle we actually slept pretty well car camping.
WoW, What a fun time and great local experience! All the people in the picture look very happy (and very bushy too) – Im glad you could be an example of the better side of “America” since I’m sure what they likely hear is not representative of what we’d want to be associated with. This is a real point of remembrance, finding this little spot – really neat!
My goodness what a trip and meeting great people.
Yes, it’s been amazing!