The Manna House: 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