Mudgee

Mudgee is a country town located in the Central West of NSW (or the Central Tablelands), approximately 3.5hrs from Sydney. It is the perfect distance away from home; it is not too long of a drive, but just long enough.
One of the perks of my job is that I get extra leave every year on top of my annual leave. Winning! The downside is that I am required to use 20 days of annual leave within the last 12 months before I am eligible to use my extra leave. It effectively encourages staff to use up their entitlements every year. After some calculations (and many that were wrong, maths is just not my strong suit), I realised that to 'unlock' my extra leave to use during the Christmas shutdown period, I had to use an additional one day of annual leave.

Hence, a long weekend to Mudgee was planned.

The name Mudgee derives from Wiradjuri term meaning 'Nest in the Hills'. It is known for the numerous family-owned cellar doors and its distillery and brewery. As a teetotaller 99.9% of the time, choosing Mudgee as a weekend destination might seem slightly odd. But, why not!




On the drive to Mudgee, we actually hit a black cockatoo. Thought process:

Oh look, a black cockatoo. I've never seen them before. It's kind of large. Why is it still waddling onto the road? Why is it not flying? What. What. What. Omg, it won't fly and there are cars behind us so we can't stop or slow down because people are idiots and choose to follow too closely on a 100kmph road. Oh wait, it's trying to fly but it won't make it.

Thunk.

Mudgee felt like a breath of fresh air. It was immediately obvious that it was slower paced - the town doesn't have a traffic light! Such a novelty for a city dweller like myself.






Our accommodation was a small cabin at the local caravan park. I have this dilemma when I am trying to find accommodation outside of the major cities in Australia. I could pay a price higher than I would like ($100+) for an old motel room that is furnished with those gaudy floral duvet covers (you know the ones) or an exorbitant price for something more "modern" or a B&B. I might be in the minority, but I'm also just not a fan of Airbnb (plus, I genuinely do not believe they are as cheap as people make it out to be....).

We had dinner at the brewery and also sampled four local beers. Well to be more accurate, I took a sip from each beer.








I love how the church steeple can be used as a navigation tool.