Cupitt’s Weekend Away

Going into this trip, all we knew was that we needed a weekend away and that this part of the map was untraveled so far. With help of Google, we set off with our original plan to hike Pigeon House Mountain Didthul walking track and stay in the Morton National Park, which would cover the territory between Nowra and Batemans Bay perfectly.

However, coming up to the weekend we were both a little out of sorts – Scott had hurt his back and Rosie may have had several wines on Friday night…

So we came up with a new plan!

We left Canberra around 9am, following a detour to the south so we could drop off a sneaky puppy that had a bit of an adventure on Friday night. Eddie, mum and dad’s doggo, has escaped his pet sitter’s and ended up at the Fyshwick after hours vet – it lead to an interesting sleep with a nervous cat in one room, and a snuggly puppy in the other.

We then hit the road to our first stop for a pie at Gunna Doo Bakery in Bungendore (yes, we stopped there because of the name). I stuck with the classic beef, which hit the spot, while Scott went the stroganoff pie which he highly rated. We then made excellent time to the coast, ditching most of the traffic at Batemans Bay and headed north towards Mollymook.

Our next stops was Ingolds Knob Lookout (teehee, knob, another stop because of the name) in North Brooman State Forest for a bit of an explore and a play with the drone. We got some good pics, but really noticed how windy it is once the drone up in the air. The spot was super pretty, stretching all the way from the coast to the mountains.

We then went to Cupitt’s winery for lunch. We managed to sneak in a wine tasting with the highlights (and purchases) being the Rosie’s Rosé (yes, there may have been a theme with this trip), Slaughterhouse Red, and Arneis. They are also a brewery so Scott indulged in the tasting paddle. Unfortunately it wasn’t to his taste, and it was the first time I have ever seen him leave beer!

We went for the whole Cupitt experience and also purchased some of the cheese from the onsite formargerie. The Brie was pretty good but the Tomme was disappointing as it was super hard (almost as if it had fridge burn).

Lunch was tasty – I had the kingfish and tuna sashimi followed by the duck; Scott had the pork terrine followed by the beef flank. While it was delicious and cooked to perfection, both the mains were served with fruit (nectarines with the duck; black figs with the beef) which just isn’t our preference. But overall, it was still very lovely.

Feeling full with a bit of a buzz, we hit the road to try and find a place to stay for the night. It was around 30C at this stage and we were both feeling hot and sticky – all we wanted to do was get into the water so we hit the next town (Brawley Point) and found a caravan park with beach front camping.

We had a great afternoon swimming in the pool and then chilling on the beach with a bottle of wine. Scott flew the drone and got some pretty good shots.

Lots of nature at this park including a curious goanna who had taken up residence in someone’s swag; and of course, the awesome ducks which we tried to make friends with.

Dinner was a Charcuterie platter served with wine and guacamole like my mum makes (avocado, salsa and sour cream – yes, it is a complete heathen way, but it’s delicious). We had planned some steak and pasta as a real meal, but by the time the cheese was gone, we only made the pasta carbonara side dish.

We did manage to use the Billy Boil which is an under used appliance in the van. We simply brought the mix to the boil, and then chucked it into the thermal cover for ~15mins and BAM! – drunk snacks served. Out of this we have two goals for our next trip: Camp somewhere that isn’t a caravan park; and use the Billy Boil for dinner.

A bottle of wine and some beers later, the rain started to sprinkle so we called it a night. We had the van closed up which was great for Scott, but a little too sticky for me so I opened it up around 2am, only to have a storm come in around 3am. We had angled the van better this time so even with the wind, we were dry and toasty warm, falling asleep to raindrops on the roof.

The only negative about the night was the single mosquito that also took refuge in the van and decided to eat most of me. We did take our revenge and manage to squish him on the way back.

Sunday was a very rainy, wet day so decided to just head home. We left Brawley Point and made our way back to the highway through the 4WD path connecting Murramarang National Park to the Princes Highway. This was a bit of fun and managed to get some mud on the van.

After a disappointing breakfast in Batemans Bay, we hit the road home for the Sunday Canberra pilgrimage from the coast. Unfortunately the storm had brought down a tree on Clyde Mountain which left us in a traffic jam for close to an hour, but we made it home safe – complete with fish and chips from O’Connor.