Nobody knows you're here.

Check in at one. Leave at ten. Everything in between is yours.

1:00 pmYou arrive

The last twenty minutes are the good part

You come off the motorway at Richmond and the traffic just stops being a thing. Paddocks, the Hawkesbury on your right, then a gravel drive, a gate, and horses who have worked out that a new car usually means treats.

The Cabin sits low under the tree tops with a timber deck wrapped around it, angled at the water. Your own entrance, no shared driveway, no neighbours through the trees, no reception desk. Zoe hands you the key, points out where the bird feeders are, and leaves you alone.

4:30 pmThe lake turns

Hammock, swing chair, or the good chair on the deck

Late afternoon is when the water goes gold and the birds get loud. There's a hammock strung between the gums, a rope swing chair facing straight out over the water, and a lawn that runs down to the fence line. This is the bit guests write home about — the outdoor spaces get mentioned in more than fifty reviews.

Bring a bottle. There's nothing you need to do and nowhere you need to be.

8:00 pmThe bath

Each cabin has its own bath for two

This is the reason people book. The Cabin has its own bath for two — a pair of claw-foot tubs side by side on the deck, a slab of timber between them for the wine, a mosquito canopy over the lot, and nothing in front of you but paddock, water and sky. The Studio has its own, a round bath for two on white pebbles under a pergola.

Neither is shared and neither is overlooked. There's a lounge right beside them, so you can keep a drink within reach and stay out there half the night. People do.

10:30 pmBed

A four-poster king, and a very particular kind of dark

A four-poster king with white voile tied back at every post, white linen, timber walls, and a floor-to-ceiling photograph of snow gums standing in for a headboard. Proper mattress, and a level of quiet that people from the city usually find slightly unnerving for the first ten minutes.

Sleep quality comes up in the reviews on its own. So does the dark — you are far enough out that the stars actually do the thing.

6:40 amKookaburras

You will not need an alarm

The kookaburras arrive first and they are not subtle about it. Then the lorikeets pile onto the feeder in a shrieking rainbow crowd, and the horses drift over to the gate to see what's going on. Coffee and breakfast basics are already in, so you can be outside with a cup within about ninety seconds of waking up.

Zoe usually picks flowers from the garden for the cabin before guests arrive. She has been doing this nine years and it shows.

10:00 amOr later, if you ask

Cider country starts twenty minutes up the road

Most people don't drive straight home. Bells Line of Road runs from your gate up into the apple orchards and cider sheds at Bilpin, past the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden at Mount Tomah, with lookouts the whole way.

Or go the other way into historic Windsor and Richmond for breakfast. Either way you're back in the city before lunch, which is the whole trick of this place.

Same lake, same quiet. Pick your kind of it.

Both are entirely self-contained, both sleep two, and both have their own outdoor bath. They sit a long way apart on the property — you can't see one from the other, and you won't run into the other guests.

The original · 4.94 ★ from 237 stays

The Cabin

The one that started it, and the one with 237 reviews behind it. A sustainably built timber cabin under the tree tops, deck wrapped around it, lake straight ahead. Two claw-foot baths out on the deck beneath a mosquito canopy, a four-poster king inside, a hammock and a rope swing chair on the lawn.

• Sleeps2 guests
• BedFour-poster king
• OutlookLake & waterfront
• BathTwo claw-foot, on the deck
• AlsoKitchenette, hammock, free parking
• Best forAnniversaries, first escapes

Ask Zoe about The Cabin

Newest · adults only

The Studio

Built for the big occasions — proposals, birthdays, anniversaries, and the occasional very well-behaved girls' weekend. Its own walled garden with a round bath for two, an outdoor bar, a lounge and a table under the pergola. Inside: a four-poster draped in voile, a kitchenette with everything you need for breakfast and a glass of something, and a bathroom done wall-to-wall in a blue and gold mural.

• Sleeps2 guests
• BedsKing + couch
• OutlookAcreage & waterfront
• BathLarge outdoor bath
• AlsoKitchenette, outdoor bar, parking
• Best forProposals, celebrations

Ask Zoe about The Studio

Not sure which one suits? Ring Zoe and describe the occasion — she'll tell you straight, and she'll tell you if the other one's better for you.

Both cabins, inside and out.

Zoe's own photos, taken on ordinary days. Nothing styled for a shoot, which is rather the point.

The Cabin

The deck, and the good chair Baths, lake, nothing else Netting down for the evening Two baths, one timber slab Looking out from the deck The gums, mid-afternoon Flowers from the garden, by the bed The kitchen corner Cooking, out on the deck One of the locals Treats at the gate

The Studio

The path to your gate Out from under the pergola The bath, from the garden The outdoor bar Dinner outside Inside, late afternoon The lounge The kitchenette The vanity The shower Towels, and the house rules The water feature The shelf, if you forgot something Your own gate The round bath, from the deck The four-poster The lake, late in the day

Far enough to feel it. Close enough to be silly not to.

You're at the point where the Hawkesbury farmland runs into the Blue Mountains. Cider, orchards, botanic gardens and lookouts one way; two-hundred-year-old river towns the other.

• 5 minNorth Richmond & RichmondShops, cafés, the good bakery, and Richmond station if someone's training up.
• 10 minKurrajong VillageAntique centre, bakeries, coffee, and the valley views on the way up.
• 15 minHistoric WindsorOne of Macquarie's original five towns — sandstone pubs, the courthouse, riverside breakfasts.
• 20 minKurrajong Heights lookoutsThe escarpment edge, looking back over the whole Sydney basin. Best at sunset.
• 30 minBilpin cider countryHillbilly Cider, Bilpin Cider, pick-your-own orchards and hot apple pie along Bells Line of Road.
• 45 minBlue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount TomahCool-climate gardens at 1,000 metres, with a very good restaurant in the middle of it.
• 1 hrSydney CBDWhich is the entire point. Leave after work on Friday, be in the bath by dark.

Drive times are approximate and assume you're not stuck behind a horse float.