Lost
11 November 2017 | Bimbadgen Winery, Hunter Valley
You want how much
"Time for an anti-pie-effect walk" says I and off we go.
Our podiatrist.....or is it our pedometer, says we need to walk 10,000 steps a day so that's our goal. Anytime we're on terra firma we try and hit the goal.
So, we're a couple of thou in, back beginning to ache, when I spot a sign up ahead, here on the promenade in Newcastle. "That'll ease my back pain" I think and in we go. WHAT???? Twenty two bucks an hour? I can rent a car for that. Slightly let down at having had the prospect of whizzing along whisked away from us, off we went again.
Fifteen minutes later. Whoa. What's that in that coffee shop? FREE bike hire. In we go for another try. "Yes. Entirely free, courtesy of Hits 103.9 until December. But not today. But you can book for Sunday."
Duly booked we sat down for a coffee for which we paid much of the price of a bike hire, but there you go.
Just across from us, sitting on the waterfront is a bare footed, hairy bloke checking out something on his skateboard. (Just an aside but what is it with adults, I mean, seriously grown men, riding skateboards?)
I notice skateboarder dude is wearing a Fleetwood Mac T-shirt and it springs to mind that a couple of weeks ago I saw a poster promoting Stevie Nicks' Australian tour. A quick check online and yes, she's live on Saturday night in the Bimbadgen Winery, wherever that was. Bit it surely couldn't be far. "Best of two worlds" thinks I. Wine and music.
Having been royally ripped off by Viagogo when we bought tickets for Bruce Springsteen we went in search of the town ticket agency. This establishment fortunately is also a travel agency. So, not only did we get tickets but we got directions to both the car hire and Bimbadgen.
We checked the route map ticket-travel girl had kindly printed. Almost two hours to Bimbadgen, just on the outskirts of Sydney. So, it was an early start to pick up our wheels and head for the Scenic Route down the coast towards Sydney. Scenic it was. And pretty damn slow with every man and his surfboard heading for the beach. Two thirds of the way to Sydney and not entirely sure where we were we stopped for lunch deciding to go all high tech and check the route on Google Maps. Directions please from "My Location" wherever that was, to Bimbadgen. Now, I guess we should have realised that it might be a bit unusual to have a vineyard near the set of Home and Away but that's what the agent's route map said. So we double checked and what it actually said was, Bimbadgen Avenue, Sydney.
Which is nowhere near Bimbadgen Winery. In fact, the Winery is about a half hour from the boat. But it was a nice drive and we got to see more of Australia. Which is the objective after all.
So, there we were. Continuing our unbroken record of many decades in going to see '70's rock bands, none of whom have a band member younger than us. By a long shot. All the old folks dancing like their dads or perhaps just having a seizure.
Nicks was rubbish.