Saturday, 30 April
Saturday morning's game plan had us leaving around seven-thirty, which we didn't quite manage, but we were back out on the highway just after eight, and the route to Dubbo via Gilgandra, heading in a general westerly direction, delivered a side on view of the Warrumbungles before veering increasingly towards the south.
Through Gilgandra just after nine we thought about breakfast, but opted to continue onwards with an extended break in Dubbo when no obvious options presented themselves as we headed through the home of the Coo-ee.
Finding a parking spot behind Dubbo's Woolworths Supermarket wasn't too difficult, and an inspection of the options on the main street brought us to Mr Bean's Coffee Emporium for a substantial breakfast, before hitting the road again via Wellington and Molong en route to Bloodwood Wines, which is about ten kilometres north of Orange.
The iPad showed it's value as a navigational device, delivering us almost exactly to the entrance of the vineyard, rather impressive since the we're on our way, anticipated ETA between twelve and twelve-thirty phone call suggested that the entrance was easily missed.
That phone call had also indicated they were on (hopefully) their last day of picking, and we passed the pickers, obviously on their lunch break, on the way in, sighting a figure that seemed to be the right vintage to be Mr Doyle disappearing into a hilltop vineyard block.
Changes to the previous travelogue setup and the need to play catch up when you've found yourself about four days behind the pace militate against throwing a detailed description of the next few hours here, and the reader will find discussion of the oenological side of the visit, along with tasting notes, over on The Wine Pages. More...