drive

I love the Australian landscape. It took time living overseas to really see it though, to realise how much a part of my identity it was. I remember soon after I returned to Australia driving from Melbourne to Sydney and just staring out the window at the greys, browns and olives greens, the grasses, the gum trees and feeling a wave of belonging.

Our road trip to Mudgee and back took us through lots of different landscapes, steep flinty hills, rows of vineyards, green rolling fields filled with sheep, cows and one lone emu in a paddock.

The driving was punctuated by food stops. Yum! My highlight was the amazing 29 Nine 1999 Dumpling Restaurant in Rylstone, an oasis in this tiny town on the road out of Mudgee. Run by Na Lan who married a local lad and came out from China to live here, it was a delight. After our big late breakfast we had room for six different dumplings each and endless pots of jasmine tea. I'm dreaming now of going back to try some more of the 30 different handcrafted dumplings on the menu.

We tried some of the local wines over dinner and found them all to be delicious. We didn't get time to visit any wineries though, but I'm going to track down a mix of wines at my local wine shop to buy.

The day before we returned home we went to Orange to have lunch with some friends who have relocated there from Sydney. It was so nice to catch up over a long lunch, and the brownies and lemon curd cheesecake were an added perk!
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p.s. do you run like a girl? Lucky you!