Denbies and Stepping Stones

Having only had a few days holiday this year so far (my plans have been falling through all over the place), I booked a day off and headed to Denbies Wine Estate for the day. I got the bus there so I could properly enjoy myself. 

I did the indoor tour in the morning with a tasting, though they were fairly stingy with the number of wines we tried. Still the cellars were cool.

After lunch (and a glass of wine of course), I took the outside tour in the 'train' - a landcover towing some couches. 

Heading out. 

View back to Denbies.

This was the Sparkling tour, which includes a glass of bubbles at the top.

I wanted to go for a hike afterwards so went over to the Stepping stones walk by the National Trust. It looked pretty simple on the map, but they really need to work on their signs. 

I thought the walk was called the Stepping Stones due to the stones across the river. 

After the stones, I followed the signs and headed along the river. Because the sign said so. Turns out, the signage was wrong and this was the wrong path. Still it was a nice little walk until I turned back and found the right one again.

Awesome tree.

Entrance to a WWII bunker.

When I got back to the right path, it was all uphill. 275 steps apparently. Though some of them were knee high so I would realistically estimate twice that. So maybe the walk was named after this. (It's my own fault. I wanted to see Box Fort, which obviously would be on a hill but this escape my notice until it became painfully obvious. And I do mean painfully!)

Still the view from the top was great. And there was a cafe there too which I fell on like I hadn't seen civilisation in a year. 

The fort was really disappointing. It didn't really look like the Roman fort they claim. More like a 1950s bunker covered in graffiti. 

Box Hill Fort

View over Denbies vineyards.

I did find a really nice sit down at the top in the sun and peace and quiet.

After making it down again, I had a restaurant booked at the bottom (score for planning) and had packed a change a clothes so I didn't stink out the restaurant. I got there early and enjoyed a nice glass of wine beforehand. The food was nice but I was quite disappointed in the size of their 'large' plates. I was still hungry but the place was getting packed and noisy thanks to a wedding party coming in. So I got the bus home and an early night.