Autumn Hues

We left the Blue Mountains today for Cessnock. Not wanting to venture into the hustle of Sydney, we decided to go via the Bell Line of Road to Windsor and then through Wisemans Ferry and Bucketty to Cessnock. Windy, but two lanes and a very pleasant rural drive with a fair portion along the banks of the Hawkesbury, this route was far more scenic than the Putty Road.

Our first stop was Mt Wilson - still in the Blue Mountains. We went in search of autumn colour and certainly found it there. We can only imagine how splendid it would have been 3 to 4 weeks earlier. Our best pictures were taken in the church yard of the St George Church.  We were heading out of the village when a stop/go man at roadworks told us the church was really pretty - who are we to argue with the man controlling traffic flow? The pictures below show what good advice it was ...

We crossed the Hawkesbury River on the Wiseman's Ferry. The eponymous town is a quaint little place with a couple of nice looking cafes and a golf course. We fancied it for a get away from it all stop on another trip. Our 7.7m motorhome had no trouble getting on and off the ferry and we were surprised to discover the service is free. Barbara had a lovely chat with the man in the 4WD next to us through her window.

The Hawkesbury from the ferry ...

We passed by three remnants of the old convict built road near Bucketty. Unfortunately they are not clearly signposted and we didn't have time to stop and turn off the road. Neither could we easily make a uturn on this mostly double lined road.

We also would have liked to stop at Wollombi - a very pretty and characterful village full of well preserved old buildings, but we running out of time and had to press on to Cessnock. 

After about 6 hours of driving, we were glad to see that our caravan park in Cessnock had a Thai restaurant attached (Blue Thai). No cooking tonight and we enjoyed our Thai meal. We are also enjoying not having to turn the heater on at night for the first time in 10 days!