We hadn’t planned to be up too early but I was wide awake around 4am so I wrote my blog.

One of the cats, Evie came into the room for some cuddles, she is gorgeous and really friendly.

Josie, the other cat is a little more timid around people.

After a little while we started to get up and wander downstairs to see who else had surfaced.

Bob and Cindy’s house is amazing, there’s a lot of levels and the rooms are massive. The garden is beautiful too.

After a delicious breakfast of lots of strong coffee, scrambled eggs and muffins we started to pack everything into the mini bus.

And we were on our way. It took Jim and Mark a while to figure out the stereo but we soon had the music on and we’re singing along.

After around 30 minutes of driving we made a stop at a retail outlet park . I think a few of us bought a couple of bits. I could’ve spent loads there if I’d had the money and the space to bring everything back. We also bought some bits for a picnic lunch.

Our next stop was Recee’s Cider company.

This was the first cidery to be located in Ellijay. It is owned by Tanner Reece and his wife. Tanner grew up in the area with Reece Orchards being in the family for a number of generations.

Most of us decided to go for the tasting options, either set 1 or set 2. This means you get to taste 4 different ciders, and 8 if you buy two sets between you.

Some of them were definitely better than others – the one that was slightly smokey with a bit of a bourbon taste was my favourite (number 6) and number 8 which had a strawberry and chilli flavour was pretty good too.

A few of the glasses didn’t make it back to the bar!

From Reece’s we drove a little bit further before stopping for our picnic lunch.

It was then time for a short hike through the woods.

We walked down to the river and took a break to have some wine. Another couple were having a peaceful rest on a rock until we came and disturbed them but they took a good picture of all of us.

The scenery was stunning so we posed for a few more photos.

After a bit of debating Ali, Sherrien and I decided to go for a swim.

And then Mandy and Mark joined us too.

The water was quite cold but you got used to it pretty quickly. We also rescued a little gecko that was drowning and put him safely back on dry land.

Following the swim we dried off with a lovely glass of wine before continuing our circular walk back to the car.

It was then just another short drive up into the blue ridge mountains to our beautiful home for the next 3 days.

The views from our lodge, Tranquility Base, are amazing, the photos just don’t quite capture it.

My room is slowly quite special. Everything is made out of wood, and it smells really nice too.

After a quick shower and change we watched the sunset with a glass of wine and keeping nice and warm in our blankets.

Around 7ish we headed down to the other lodge, Whispering Water, to have dinner – which was a beautifully cooked steak with baked potato and salads.

The evening was finished off with everyone coming back to ours for a nightcap.