Orange 2023

Orange is yet another cool climate wine region - a beautiful town with cute cafes, beautiful trees that turn “orange” in winter, wineries in all directions and plenty more!

Spoiler alert: Orange has no oranges but it has apples and figs!

Day 1 - Wine, Stir Fry and Movie night

We started early from Sydney, stopping first at Lincoln Rock and … bakery and a nearby cafe. After enjoying some delicious baked goods and taking some pictures at the lookout, we drove to … trees. The sun was out in all its glory and we got some more beautiful pictures under the autumn leaves.

We then drove to our accomodation and rushed to Phillip Shaw winery. We enjoyed their white wines and ended up buying some Pinot Gris. I also managed to squeeze in a game of soccer with a group of gentlemen.

After coming back to our airbnb, we washed up and all hands were on deck for cooking! We made an Asian style stir fry with rice and prepped up for the bbq the next day.

More wine followed some interesting conversations and then we watched Dune - well, until we couldn’t stay up anymore.

Day 2 - Sunrise, Bakery, Apples and Figs

There is no better way to start your day than a sunrise hike at 5.30 AM in the cold! We hiked to the top of Pinnacle Lookout to experience a gorgeous sunrise overseeing all of Orange.

Having only slept 4 hours, we came back and took another nap. This was crucial for the action packed day to come, which began at a local bakery - Racine Bakery. Everything we ordered was made with love! We enjoyed this with coffee from Factory Espresso.

After this, we headed to pick apples and figs at Hillside Harvest. Not knowing what to do with 3 kilos of fruit, we decided to get it anyway. Following up from this, we had another wine tasting experience at Swinging Bridge. The vineyard was blooming!

We then drove and followed a fire trail to the cascading water falls called “The Falls Water Falls”. We had a snack, took some photos and decided to make apple strudel with caramelised figs and whipped cream - thanking our past selves for buying the apples and figs.

Back at the accommodation, BBQ chicken and coleslaw was enjoyed for dinner, followed by board games and apple strudel.

Day 3 - Lookouts and lots of good food!

We started the final day with coffee from Crema, a free espresso was what I needed for a great start!

We headed to Hassan’s Lookout which was a challenging drive for my Swift but we made it to the top. It was windy and cold but the panoramic views of Blue Mountains peaks was epic. Cafe 128 in Lithgow was our next stop where we were treated with a delicious brunch and coffee.

This is when we were hit with some chill cloudy weather but we decided to visit Wentworth Falls Lookout anyway and managed to get a decent view of the falls before it got dark. Following the waterfall, we drove to my favourite restaurant in Sydney - Jasmin1, in Auburn. We had a variety of authentic lebanese dishes followed by their signature tea.

We ate to our hearts content but I promised my friends dessert at Bay Vista and they could not deny some cheesecakes! So, we ended our night and trip on a high, a sugar high!