Bathurst to Katoomba

We had another overnight in Bathurst then drove on to Blackheath for the night. Loved the antique market they have there, great for spending a few hours browsing. The caravan park is excellent, but the hill up to the shops is a bit of a killer!
We had rented a house with Judy for 6 days in Katoomba, so Marnie and I picked up the key early on Sat and went straight there. It has a beautiful view from the verandah and is not too far from the gallery where Marnie is doing the painting workshop.  Judy arrived round lunch time. It was great to see her again. We had lots of catching up to do, so spent most of the arvo chatting and getting stuff out of the van. The next 3 days were quite hot for the mountains, followed by 3 fairly cool days,more  typical for here .I have to confess while Marnie got off to her workshops at 8.30am, Judy and I spent most of our time scourering the wonderful shops in Leura and Katoomba , checking out the coffee in the numerous and inviting cafes, and catching up with Louise, a long time friend who lives in Blackheath. We also had dinner with Marnie's aunt and her husband, in a "health food " restaurant called Common Ground, at Katoomba, a really interestingly decorated place with wonderful healthy food.Louise, Judy and I had a day out together and went to Wentworth falls for more shopping and eating. The Conservation Hut, overlooking the escarpment is a wonderful place for lunch. We had a fun day together.
Having been here many times before, I didnt feel so inclined to do all the usual  touristy things, but we did manage to go to Echo Point and a few other lookouts including the 3 Sisters, so I could get some snaps for the blog!
So this is short and sweet, as we have spent all our time shopping and eating, ( yes I managed to make a few unnessasary purchases which, thankfully, Jude will take home for me) Marnie has found the workshop really helpfull, though has felt unwell for the whole week, so it has been a bit of a struggle to get through it.
Hopefully, she will put some of her new paintings from the week, on her art blog , some time in the next few days.
I havent taken many photos here but will include the few I have.
Vicki

Bathurst Park in the CBD

Lovely old court house in Bathurst

Same park in Bathurst

Lots of lovely old pubs in Bathurst, this is The Royal Hotel

Ironstone cottage, where we have been staying in Katoomba

This is part of the view from our verandah. The escarpment looks beautiful as the sun goes down and it lights up

A must have photo of the iconic 3 sisters

More escarpment from the Conservation Hut at Wentworth Falls

Judy and I, waiting for our coffee in the historic, Art Decco, Paragon Cafe in Katoomba. They make great chocolates too

Interesting wall mural in Katoomba

Judy and long time friend Louise

Browsing in an amazing antique shop in Leura

Same antique shop. Actually it is a house and every room is packed with stuff.

You can even sit amongst it all and have a Devonshire Tea

From Wellington to Bathurst

I have an old nursing friend in Wellington, I trained with back in the 1960s and thought it would be good to contact her before we passed through. We made arrangements to meet with her in town on Sat and when we arrived she insisted we come back to her farm for lunch. She has been in Wellington since 1972 when she married her husband Paul. I last saw Mary 6 years ago at our nurses reunion in Sydney. It was great to see her again and chat about “the good old days” ! We stayed in the beautiful riverside caravan park at Wellington that night. It had been raining heavily for a few days and we passed through Orange the day before (Friday) stopping at the caravan park overnight and visiting the farmers market the next morning . It was still raining heavily but we managed a few purchases and headed on to Gulgong, the lovely old town where Henry Lawson (The poet/ writer) grew up. Most of the old buildings are still in tact or have been renovated or otherwise preserved. It was an old gold mining town, very charming with a crooked and narrow main street, apparently due to the tents in those days, being erected in a disorderly way. It remains a thriving town thanks to the nearby, productive coal mine. The rain kept up, so we waited till the next day before exploring the town. The sun finally decided to shine so we had a look at The Henry Lawson museum, the old opera house, the art gallery and antique shops. We also drove up Flirtation Hill to see the wonderful 360 degree vista. Everything looks so green after the drought affected areas we have been in. After all that rain, we were beginning to experience some of that 98% humidity that the Central Coast & Sydney has enjoyed (not) for the past 3 weeks.
Mudgee was next on our route and we arrived in time to have a good look around yet another historical and charming town. We visited a winery/cheese/gallery, just out of town and, of course, came away with an assortment of cheeses. We were not persuaded to purchase any of their wines….all too dry for our taste.
With long gone memories of Hill End (we had both been there in the early 70’s) we hoped to see a less dusty township this time around and we were not disappointed thanks to the abundance of recent rain. The road was better than expected with only 2 short patches of rough dirt, maybe 10 km in all. We loved the old gold mining town. It was once one of the biggest inland townships in NSW. The mining boom here, in the 1870s, only lasted a few years, though we heard they are still mining gold somewhere nearby. The community camping area was in a wonderful spot in the middle of town and very picturesque, with heaps of Kangaroos appearing on the hill behind us, around dusk followed by a magnificent sunset. There is only one pub left out of the original 28 and some of the old buildings have been immortalized by well known artists, such as Russell Drysdale, Bret Whitely and Margaret Olley. We enjoyed our surrounding so much, we stayed 2 nights, though we missed the internet, which , even with next G, we were unable to connect.
The road to Sofala was worse than expected. In fact, the opposite to the Hill End Rd. It had 2 short patches of tarmac and the rest was very lumpy, corrugated dirt road, not to mention very narrow in parts and quite winding. Thankfully, we didn’t need to pass any busses or large vehicles en route and made it safely to Sofala, taking several hours to drive the 39km. This town is in a beautiful valley and is yet another preserved gold mining town popular with tourists on the weekends. Only a few of the shops were open for week day trading. We did find one cute shop called “Paws a minute” full of animal things. Marnie managed to find an irresistible pair of cat salt and peppers to take home.
Now we are in Bathurst for 2 days, parked in the showgrounds which is really close to the CBD and a much better alternative to the only caravan park 5 km out of town. Just one downside to this convenient spot, which we didn’t discover until 9.30pm when the road works began on the main road just 50 meters from where we were camped. It soon became evident we would get little sleep, as apparently they would be working all night (according to our fellow campers). We hastily packed up (I sat in the back holding on to everything while Marnie gingerly drove over to the other side of the showground, well away from the road and altogether much quieter . I am pleased to report a good nights sleep.

Vicki

Me and Mary at Wellington

Gulgong

View from Flirtation Hill, overlooking Gulgong

Marnie, warming up her tonsils in the old opera theatre Gulgong

Mudgee Vineyard

Many artists have painted this building in Hill End

Another cute house in Hill End

Church in Hill End

Look carefully and you will see TMH parked in the camping ground.

I love the way Kangaroos pose when  their picture is taken (Hill End)

This shack is called The Hill End Hilton

The community camp ground Hill End, very in keeping with the town

Marnie peering into the closed Bald Hill gold mine entrance.

This creek is near the mine, where I guess they once panned for gold

It was beautiful up here on Bald Hill, over looking Hill End. Lots of Kangaroos around during the day.

Sometimes the driver needs some dicipline!

Old Sofala pub

Sofala streetscape

Stray pussy in need of some lovin....Sofala

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

From Cowes to Orange and a trip down memory lane

We drove from Cowes, via Melbourne to East Doncaster, as it was closest caravan park to Eltham where we were headed the next day. Eltham has the amazing artist colony Montsalvat, founded by Justus Jörgensen, it is Australia’s oldest artists’ colony and is home to practising artists. It remains to this day a working not-for-profit arts centre administered by a board. Set in 12 acres of established gardens, the historic buildings include charming mud brick cottages and the impressive Great Hall which hosts a variety of concerts, exhibitions and functions.
It is like stepping back in time. Most of the buildings look centuries old. The main building (the great Hall) has a wonderful collection of hand made furniture. There are several galleries, mostly showing the work of Justus Jorgenson, lots of small buildings and rooms where resident artists live, acres of trees and gardens, a pool and a wonderful cafe selling the best scones and coffee in Victoria. We enjoyed several hours looking around the place.
Heading for Shepparton, we drove towards Wittlesea, thinking we might see some of the fire devastated areas. Most of the damage in that area was at Kingslake, a little too far out of our way, but as we drove along the freeway, we passed vast tracts of burt out bush near Flowerdale and Kilmore. Even down the centre of the expressway was burnt out for many miles.
We stayed 10km the other side of Shepparton and met some Chinese fruit pickers in the van park, who gave us a big bag of assorted, freshly picked fruit which I stewed up as we couldn’t have eaten it all before it went off.
On our way to Griffith, we passed through Jerilderie. The countryside is so flat that the sky gives the impression of being so much bigger.
I had been looking forward to seeing the Riverina area and was expecting much. Griffith was a big disappointment, as was Leeton, probably due to the 9 years of drought. Apparently a large amount of fruit and rice has to be imported to make their products. Rice crops especially, have fallen to minute amounts being grown and it has to be imported from Thailand, so that products such as rice cakes, can continue to be manufactured there.
The highlight of our week was visiting some “long time, no see” friends at West Wyalong. Dick and Bronwyn Myers, who have lived on a farm 30km out of town, for the best part of 40 years, (Bronwyn was actually born and raised there too). We got a wonderful surprise when they opened the door, to see Dick’s sister Tina was also there.
We had a wander round the property (Marnie had stayed there as a 10 yr old) and enjoyed a veritable feast for dinner (typical country hospitality) We left the next morning, weighed down by a large box of Dick’s home grown veggies.
We continued on the next day through to Grenfell, stopping to look around the town where Marnie’s parents (John and Judy) had spent their early teaching years at the local high school. Then it was on to Gooloogong, where my mother was born. Not much there, other than a pub, where the locals looked in their phone book and declared there were no longer any Hogans living in Gooloogong. We drove out to the local cemetery and managed to find uncle Ted and his wife Anne’s graves. That was the closest we got to unearthing some family history.
So, here we are in Orange. The countryside is so lush and green. I gather there has been plenty of rain this summer. It all looks so inviting after the months of browned off countryside we have been through. Tomorrow I am hoping to visit an old nursing friend from Sydney hospital, who lives in Wellington.

Vicki

David, Nicole, Charlie and Lou Lou, who we saw in Melbourne

Monselvat, pool and artists quarters.

Upstairs in the Great Hall

Monselvat

The Great Hall at Monselvat

The lovely old church

Marnie, sermonising, inside the church

Jerilderie also has some claims on Ned Kelly.

In the info centre at Gerliderie,

Fields of sunflowers on the way to Griffith

The pub at Gooloogong

The Big Racquet in Barellen where Evonne Gooloogong was raised.

Marnie with the Myers

Family graves at Gooloogong

The death of a Trusty friend

It is with a heavy heart that we report the sudden and unexpected death of our trusty navigator, James.

It happened yesterday on our way to Griffith. It became obvious that he was getting upset because we were ignoring his seemingly, continuous statement “YOUR OVER THE SPEED LIMIT” when going through a school zone (on Sunday) He suddenly lost the satellite connection and appeared to be completely lost, reciting over and over “re calculating route” turn left, turn right etc….We should have taken it as a sign that things were not quite right but we ignored him and continued on the freeway. We did restart him a few times, but always with the same result….Finally, he emitted an ear piercing buzz, which, looking back now, was his last hurrah. We could not turn it off and so it continued, even with the plug out, until, he was finally laid to rest, when the battery ran out. Saddened, but relieved the noise had ceased, we managed to find our own way to Griffith. It may be, that we just expected too much of him and he died of overwork.
Worried that we might continually get lost for the remainder of the trip, we went straight into Dick Smiths to purchase a new one (poor James, barely passed on more that 5 minutes!) Our new navigator could be Lee (Male,) or Karen. Lee is a cross between English and Australian. Karen is just plain AUSSIE. As we feel comforted by having a male around, I think we will give Lee a go first.
I will report at a later date, on how he is doing.
Vicki

From Melbourne to Phillip Island

We had a few more days in Melbourne, during which time I managed to get 2 excellent seats for the Sat matinee show of “The Jersey Boys” . Before the show, we went to the Queen Victoria markets. The food section is extensive, with a meat and seafood area, a large Deli section and a wonderful fruit and veg area. Then, at the back of those is a vast area selling anything and everything. It would take all day to get around it, I am sure., but I did my best to see as much as possible.
The Jersey Boys proved to be the most entertaining show I have seen in recent years. We both loved it. What a treat and how fortunate to get good seats the day before. We did have to sit in separate rows (Marnie one row behind me) but were only 10 rows from the stage and almost in the middle. To get seats together, we would have to sit upstairs almost in the last row.
I have to say, we really loved Melbourne. It is a huge city, a little overwhelming to me at times, but great shopping, the latest shows, wonderful transport (love the trams) innumerable restaurants, a convenience store on almost every corner, noisy, busy and just a great place to spend some time. We were sorry to leave after 5 days. On our way out, we stopped at Glen Iris to visit my nephew David and his lovely wife Nicole and their 2 gorgeous children Charlie and Lou Lou. We enjoyed lunch with them and left at 3pm heading for Moe. It was stinking hot and we were dead beat by the time we got there. I rang my ex husband to let him know we were in town and the next morning we met for a coffee and catch up. He has been living in Moe for almost a year.
Wilsons Promontory, commonly known to Victorians as The Prom, was our next destination and we arrived after lunch at Tidal River, a large camping area in The National Park, next to the river and a few hundred meters to a beautiful beach. This is a very well set up holiday spot, with cabins, dormitories , a supermarket, café , info centre , well mapped out nature walks and lots of amenity blocks for the campers, not to mention, miles from nowhere. There were only a few (very expensive) powered sites. I think it all comes from solar power. We opted for non powered and managed to survive (only just!) for the next 2 days.
Tidal River has a wonderful backdrop of mountains which seem to be mostly rocky formations, high enough to have the clouds hanging over their tops at times. The walk to the beach, along the tannin stained river, has interesting granite boulders in natural, but attractive groupings. We did one of the nature walks which meandered on a boardwalk, by the river and over wetlands. The weather has been comfortably cool while staying here. We made friends with a cute, tame, Crimson Rosella. He sat in a tree close to the RV watching us. Marnie pulled out her bag of mixed parrot seed and he jumped straight onto her arm , picking out the sunflower seeds and pushing off all the others, so that they fell onto the ground. Another baby rosella joined him , then later we had 3 eating the discarded seeds. We didn’t see any other animals, but there was plenty of nocturnal activity outside the van, judging by the many and varied footprints surrounding us in the mornings. We did see one rabbit!
Onwards, ever onwards, we then drove to Phillip Island, to the main town of Cowes and here we are for 2 days. We are 100M from a lovely beach , which we enjoyed an evening stroll on last night, and today, while Marnie painted, I walked into town to check out the shops and general vibe.
We have not managed to get our awning replaced yet and will have to contact the insurance company, as the Melbourne repairer has not received the replacement and we will be leaving Victoria in a few days time.

Vicki

The beautiful old Princess theatre where we saw the Jersey Boys

Parliament House, Melbourne

The yummy Deli section of the Queen Victoria markets

I should have inserted a family pic of David and co, but completely forgot to take one. Also forgot to take one of ex Bill, so this is in the Prom, tannin stained river and interesting rocks

The beach at Tidal River, the Prom. near our camp site

More of the beach

Rock formations at the Prom

Tidal River, the Prom

More Tidal River

Our friendly rosella watching us.

He comes down for a feed.

This is a baby rosella. He hasnt developed his colours yet.

The mountains surrounding Tidal river. Wilsons Promotory.

The beach next to the caravan park at Cowes, Phillip Island.