It’s a good job that I can generally sleep anywhere. Three different beds in three nights as our holiday moved from Melbourne to Sydney and now out to the Hunter Valley!

This weekend we were supposed to be in the Blue Mountains, but the terrible bush fires that have hit New South Wales meant that the last thing the people in the affected areas needed was a couple of Pomms turning up on holiday. So instead, we took the decision to head to the Hunter Valley instead.

I have been to the Hunter Valley before, but that was when I flew out at the last minute and was able to join Yolande and Ben’s wedding which took place at his parents ranch out here. I was completely jet lagged, then got caught up with the “spirit” of the occasion and then subsequently hungover - so I don’t really remember much of the area other than that I forgot to drink some Hunter Valley wine and that everyone else saw Kangaroos and I didn’t!

Paul found the Chateau Elan a spa hotel set in the “Vintage” estate online on Wednesday and we booked the last available room. We picked up our hire car, a very nice Mitsubishi Outlander, and set off on the road. As did the rest of Sydney, it seemed. What is only a 100 mile journey north of the city took nearly three hours. But we didn’t mind it was an adventure, witnessing some beautiful scenery and funny place names.

We pulled up on the estate and having checked in we were directed where to drive down to our villa suite, which quite frankly is enormous. With the terrace looking down onto a shallow valley which contains a golf course (apparently the only Greg Norman designed, publicly accessible one - as the literature proudly boasts), it has a stunning vista. Inside the suite there is a huge lounge, dining room, kitchen (as well a bedroom and bathroom, obviously)

Having sorted ourselves out we called reception and ordered a buggy to come and collect us to take us to the clubhouse where we grabbed a bite to eat and then we made our way over to the pool area. It was easily the hottest day of the year, in the mid -high 30’s C (the temperature indicator in the car recorded 39C at one point), so a swim was definitely in order. This being the height of the summer holidays here in Australia, there were a lot of kids at the pool and eventually the screaming became too much for us grumpy old men. So we jumped in the car to go to the nearest supermarket picking up some drinks and breakfast stuff to store in the kitchen of our villa.

On our return we settled down on our terrace, beer in hand and watched as the Kangaroos slowly started to appear by the lake at the bottom of the valley. Eventually there were 14 of them, grazing on the golf course and we quietly strolled down for a closer look, getting to within about 30 metres of them. It was truly magical, another Australian bucket list item ticked off.

In the evening we headed up to the clubhouse again for a fairly average meal, but at least I managed to make up for the second omission of my previous Hunter Valley trip twelve years previously. I had a glass of Hunter Valley Shiraz.