Tuesday 3rd January 2023
We’d booked a gold panning tour for today, so set off early to drive there. We’d allowed plenty of time as we weren’t quite sure what the roads would be like (they were actually pretty good and very wide) so arrived with a couple of hours to spare. We went to explore nearby Hill End. It’s a quaint little former mining town, and has a small museum (the Hill End Heritage Centre). The museum is pretty small, but is free to enter and an interesting way to spend half an hour or so.
We then continued to the meeting point for the gold panning tour, which was described as a brick chimney. Sure enough, we soon spotted the brick chimney at the side of the road, and parked up at the lay-by.
The were quite a few people on the tour, much more than I was expecting. We were first given a demonstration on how to pan for gold by Jhob.
When we’d booked the tour, I had romanticised visions of panning for gold beside a gently flowing babbling brook. Instead, we were in a very muddy, leach infested creek.
Jhob didn’t warn us about the leaches (he was wearing Wellington boots), but Pete and I soon discovered this for ourselves. We were both wearing sandals, and within 30 seconds had several attached to our feet and legs! I soon leapt out of the creek (possibly screeching slightly), trying to shake them off. It was pretty disgusting and we ended up with bleeding feet which soon turned into bright red spots!
It wasn’t quite the experience I’d envisaged, but on the bright side we did find gold! Well, a few specks of it, but that still counts right?
We then went to the History Hill Museum & Underground Mine. To be honest I didn’t find the museum the most inspiring ever. It’s basically got a huge collection of eclectic items, some of which relate to the town’s gold mining history and some of which seem totally random. The interesting thing about this place, however, is the disused underground mine which you’re free to explore. I very much enjoyed this part of the museum.
On the way into Mudgee, we saw a sign for some wineries. So we obviously had to check one out, and called in at Burnbrae Wines. We got a tasting between us, with me drinking most of them as Pete was driving. They were very pleasant wines, and it was lovely sitting outside overlooking the vines. We bought a bottle of their sparkling wine to take away with us.
We continued driving the short distance to the Woolpack Hotel, where we’re staying for the night. It’s actually a pub with accommodation above it, and is right in the centre of Mudgee.
We dropped our bags off, put our wine in the fridge, then went out to explore the town. It’s quite an attractive small town, although there’s not a huge amount to it. Several of the restaurants seemed to be closed (due to it being early January), so we actually ended up eating in My Thai Mudgee, a Thai restaurant right next door to our hotel. We had chicken satay and Thai fish cakes to start, followed by crispy chicken with chilli and basil and a pad kee mao for main course. The food was actually very good, and we especially enjoyed the chicken satay and the crispy chicken (which had a lovely chilli kick).
After dinner, we went back to our hotel room to enjoy the bottle of sparking we’d bought from Burnbrae Wines. We finished the bottle, and were still in the mood for a bit more wine. The advantage of being above a pub meant Pete could go downstairs and get us a takeaway bottle. We ended the evening with an episode of Money Heist on Netflix before going to bed.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 