We woke in Premer to the sound of trucks and sulphur-crested cockatoos. After a lazy start to the day - breakfast and a walk around the extremely small town of Premer (besides the houses there was only a post office and a pub) - we drove to Coolah where we had another wander and checked out a couple of shops.

Next stop was Dunnedoo where we had a pie for morning tea (the pies there had been recommended, and for good reason as we discovered). We headed back to the Castlereagh Highway and turned for Mudgee.

We were driving along minding our own business when next thing an FA-18 Hornet flew across in front of us very low. There was nowhere to pull over and watch, but he crossed our path a couple of times, executing some pretty impressive manouvres, then disappearing behind hills. We wound down the windows to have a listen. By the time we found a place to stop he was making his last pass, a dirty pass at a higher altitude.

Wow.

It was a brief but exciting show - but I am sure we will see more of him, I suspect he was practicing for Bathurst.

We drove past Gulgong but the road pretty much bypasses the town. We proceeded to Mudgee to the Tourist Information Centre, as our wine rack was still empty and Mudgee is famous for wineries. There we discovered that one of wineries includes a motorcycle museum. Was Brett excited or what?

The museum was very small but really high quality. Brett gave us an information session on the development of motorcycle technology using the exhibits as, well exhibits. Each motorcycle was able to contribute something special to the story he told. If you want to know about rake and trail, frame development, the history of motorcycle racing, brakes, wheels, just about anything to do with history of motorcycles, Brett is your man. And the wines were good too. We bought a few bottles to support this great local winery with its excellent (free) motorcycle museum.

After refuelling we headed off along the road to Hill End. We also dropped in at another winery and completed filling the wine rack.

The road to Hill End - how to describe it? Perhaps the best word is "indescribable". I took lots of pictures. It is another "do yourself a favour" road. The last stretch has now been sealed.

We are now in Hill End. We have no phone or internet reception. I guess in some ways you can say that Hill End isn't a real town, so maybe that explains why. I mean, it used to be a real town, but now it is a National Park. We are camped up in the town campground and it is the Friday night of a long weekend, in the middle of the school holidays. As you can imagine, this means children. It makes a change from every other night on the road so far.

The other thing that is different is hearing the calls of peacocks. Not exactly what you expect of a National Park campground. As we arrived it started to rain, and later there was quite a storm.