Mudgee and vineyards

I am sure there are many more vineyards to visit while in Mudgee but we were so late and managed to only visit two. We went to Burnbrae and Blacklea and bought a few reds and a rose. A yummy muscat liqueur from Burnbrae which I am drinking right now. We also packed the award winning virgin olive oil with basil from Blacklea vineyard which we took straight to our friends' BBQ on New Years Eve. For lunch we went to Eltons Brasserie, a place that sounded nice online but to be honest I expected a bit more given it's a brasserie. The food was okay, nothing fancy thought but rather the usual pub grub such as Caesar's salad, chicken salad and fish and chips. I think next time we go to Mudgee I have to do a bit more research on the culinary side.

Mudgee town centre.

Having lunch at Eltons Brasserie.

Caesar's salad, chicken salad and chicken nuggets with chippies.

The Burnbrae vineyard near Mudgee.

Taking a nap.

Beautiful collectables at the Burnbrae cellar door.

Blacklea vineyard near Mudgee.

Farmstay near Mudgee

We had a wonderful stay at the Ba Mack Homestead in Windeyer near Mudgee with sheep, alpacas, goats, kittens and lots of dogs. Julie and Dave who run the farm are very welcoming and especially kids will love the feeding time with the animals. When we arrived we were greeted by Sally the little dog and my daughter automatically fell in love with her. Julie gave us delicious cake for the afternoon tea (butter-cinnamon and fruit cake) and I couldn't stop eating. It was our first farm stay and we all really enjoyed it. My daughter loved hanging around with all the animals and carried Sally everywhere we went. I'd love to return to Ba Mack for the shearing season and also have to ask Julie for the recipe of that butter-cinnamon cake, it was so yummy!
Another highlight was the kangaroo safari at dusk. It might not be a special thing for Australians but immigrants like us do get the kick out of real kangaroos. In the beginning I often mistook them with tree stumps but after a while I could see more and more jumping around. They are fast but luckily also curious so they never hop too far away.

Oh my gosh, I love that old oven!

Fresh eggs for breakfast and delicious cake for afternoon tea

Feeding time.

Sally, little darling

Time to sleep

Gulgong

Gulgong is a 19th century gold rush town north of Mudgee.

I love fancy photographic goods!

Gulgong seems to be a treasure trove for fancy goods. Shame they were all closed.

Beautiful old Millthorpe

Millthorpe is only a few kilometers away from Orange and such a peaceful place. We got there early in the morning and had a little walk around, it was very quiet. At the end of the main road are two antiques shops and especially the Old Wares shop was right up my alley. I could have spent much more time in there, looking for props and would have liked to have a big truck. I think I have to go back soon.
After prop hunting we went to the Old Mill Cafe for breakfast and I had a beautiful frittata which came in its own little skillet, very cute and tasty.

Sleepy Millthorpe

Old Wares shop in Millthorpe

The Old Mill Cafe in Millthorpe

Orange

Finally we managed to drive up to Orange, beautiful country side and wine region not so far from Sydney. It's about a four hours drive through the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately when we arrived most of the cellar doors were already closed but we found one door still open at the Union Bank wine store. They also have a very nice courtyard and a restaurant but that wasn't open either. Anyway, we tasted some fabulous wines and took home Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay from the Belgravia vineyard in Orange.

Settler's Cottage on Mayfield Vineyard

Yummy Japanese in Orange

Just by chance we bumped into Sam the chef from the modern Japanese Restaurant Sweet Sour Salt when we were tasting wine at the Union Bank wine store  in Orange.
Turned out he used to work at Tetsuya's in Sydney and we were lucky to get a table for an early dinner that night.

We had a fantastic meal consisting of deep-fried chilli salt zucchini chips as a compliment from the kitchen. As a starter we had free range son in law eggs and they were beautiful, the yolk still soft and gooey with a crisp skin. The dressing was sweet with lots of cashews and spring onions for a bit of a crunch. As a main, we ordered kung po chicken and Japanese pork belly salad with daikon and mint and especially the pork belly salad was divine. The fatty and tender pork belly featuring a crispy cruckling skin countered with the sweet and sour salad was a combination made in heaven. The dessert was very special too. Three different flavours of ice cream: ginger, cassia bark and cardamom, mmmh.