16th to 19th July Grampians

Day 13 - 16/07/12 Ariah Park to Shepparton  420 km

It was wonderful to have breakfast cooked for us. Les had cereal first, then both Les and Joy had a cooked breakfast. But we were very restrained – only scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato, when we could have also had sausages, mushrooms and toast with jam, fruit, yoghurt etc, etc.

We planned to leave by 9am, but when we went to pay for the accommodation, we ended up chatting to the people who were staying in the other carriage, and then with the owners, so we didn’t get away until 9:30am.

Because we didn’t really have a long way to go today, we decided to take some back roads rather than the direct route. First stop was Ganmain. The Ganmain Bakery was marked on the map, so we thought it would be a good place to stop for morning tea. But it ended up being a bit of a disappointment. We still bought a couple of slices, but we drove on to Matong to actually eat them and have our cuppas.

Driving onward we took another back road – this time to go via Urana. There is a lake there that we thought might be good to see. It was quite interesting, but not as interesting as the emus we saw beside the road!

We had lunch at a little place called Berrigan, and made it to Shepparton before 4pm, which was good, as we wanted to check out what was for sale at the SPC Ardmona factory shop. If you are ever going through Shepparton, it is definitely worth stopping at the shop, as the savings that can be had are pretty good. We spent about $90 and saved about $40 or $50 or so. It isn’t just SPC Ardmona things that are for sale – they also sell Cadbury chocolate, Heinz soup, Arnott’s biscuits, Finish dishwasher tablets, and heaps more.

We checked into the motel around 4:30pm, and spent some time on the internet, as we had free wi-fi. Neither of us really wanted to get dressed in decent clothes to go for dinner, so we found a takeaway pizza place and ate our pizza back in the motel room, whilst watching Masterchef.

Weather today was overcast and cool, with patchy rain most of the way.

Day 14 - 17/07/12 Shepparton to the Grampians  361 km

Another overcast day, but at least it isn’t raining.

Why is it that breakfast at motels is so expensive? We hadn’t brought our plastic bowls with us so couldn’t do our own breakfast with the cereal we had, and we refuse to spend so much for just a bowl of cereal and a juice. So, it was off to McDonalds, thinking Joy would be able to get cereal there – last time we had breakfast at McDonalds, they did cereal, but then that was some years ago. Now, no such luck – or maybe it is just in Shepparton that they don’t? Anyway, she had to settle for the hotcakes – tragic!

By the time we’d finished breakfast, it was just after 9am, so we were almost on schedule for departure. We thought we’d be able to have morning tea somewhere along the way, but after getting through Bendigo, there were no picnic areas to stop at. It was 11:45 before we found somewhere, and that was in Maryborough.

The weather had started to clear, and we had sunshine with scattered clouds. It made the lambs look lovely and white.

We had to slow down at one point to let an echidna cross the road.

Lunch at Stawell in the park. We had to prepare and eat our lunch in the car – not because of the weather, but because the swans and ducks swarmed around us as soon as we sat down. There was no way we’d have been able to have our lunch in peace.

We also did the grocery shopping in Stawell, as the shopping in Halls Gap is very limited and very expensive.

Arrived at our cabin at 3pm, and we love it!

We have views across to the mountains, and outside the front door is a bush that is home to a chirpy little bird.

There are kangaroos and emus everywhere.

And we can sit at the dinner table and look at the view.

Once we’d unpacked, we went into Halls Gap to get an update on which walks are closed (they had serious flooding here and some roads and walks were damaged). Joy also took the opportunity to have a cappuccino (what a surprise!). We had the pleasant surprise that the coffee shop has free wi-fi, so we will probably take advantage of that later in the week.

Once it was dark, we could check out the night sky – there are so many stars up there, and out here where there isn’t any ambient light, you can even see the Milky Way.

Dinner on the lounge in front of the TV, but without the open fire going, as it simply wasn’t cold enough to light it.

Day 15 - 18/07/12 The Grampians  67 km

We were planning to have a reasonably early start today, as one of the walks we wanted to do said it was best in the early morning as you would see the kangaroos. But, despite these good intentions, we didn’t get away from the cottage until around 10am. The weather was fine but cool – perfect walking weather.

We still did the “morning” walk, which was Fyans Loop, from the Brambuk centre (an indigenous information centre). After a false start, that we are blaming on poor signage, we enjoyed the walk, and saw enough kangaroos and emus to keep us happy, despite not getting there at the “best” time.

Back at Brambuk, we had morning tea, and checked out the photos of the Grampians after the fires in 2006 and the floods in 2011. It was absolutely amazing! In January 2011, they had 300mm rain in 3 days. They are still trying to recover from that, but only doing what needs to be done to make things safe. Let nature do what nature does.

Since Joy had been treated to a cappuccino at morning tea, it was only fair that Les be treated to a waterfall. So, it was off to walk to Clematis Falls. It was a pleasant walk, and worth it for the falls at the end. On the walk we saw a beautiful bright red and brown little bird, but it must have been shy because it wouldn’t stay around long enough to have its photo taken.

Lunch back at the cottage, then off for another short walk – this time the Serenity Walk that goes from down in front of the cottage. Took about 10 minutes.

In the afternoon, we went to Reed Lookout and The Balconies. On the way out from the cottages, Joy’s eagle eye spotted one of the little red and brown birds. After scaring Les by yelling out “STOP” at the top of her lungs, she managed to get a photo.

Reed Lookout and The Balconies are best seen in the afternoon so the sun is in the best spot. We got there just as a mini-bus-load of Italian tourists arrived, so after checking out Reed Lookout…

…we walked briskly to The Balconies. We also wanted to miss the rain that was threatening. We had The Balconies to ourselves (back in the old days you could walk out on the bottom level and they were called “The Jaws of Death”).

We made it back to the cottage at around 6pm – a long day! Still not cold enough to light the fire, but we ate tea on the lounge in front of it anyway.

Day 16 - 19/07/12 The Grampians  120 km

We definitely had an early start today as were up at 6:15 am as we wanted to head up to Boroka Lookout to watch the sun rise. As we headed away for the cottage at 6:25 am it was looking good as we could see stars in the sky. The lookout is about 25 km from the cabin and with all the kangaroos and other wildlife plus the windy road we took it easy but as we turned off the main road onto the lookout road we got our first patch of fog. The further we went the worst it go. When we arrived it was fog everywhere.

 The sun was due to rise at 7:35 but on the lookout it made no difference so at about 8:00 we gave in and headed to MacKenzie Falls for breakfast and a walk to the bottom of the falls. This is one of Les’ favourite waterfalls as he has a full size poster print at home from a shot her took back in the 80’s (remember cameras with film in them….)

View from Top

  View from bottom of Falls

The walk is 2 km return but is “steep and strenuous” (extra dessert tonight!). You can see the damage the 2011 floods did to the bridge at the bottom of the falls.

Back to the car park for morning tea and then we drove out to Zumsteins which is one of the more popular picnic areas however the flood has all but wiped out the picnic area. The Park workmen were there working on repairs today but they have lots to do. We also saw a deer in the picnic area which was a bit of a shock.

We wanted to go to Burong Falls but had not brought the map that the info centre had marked it’s location on, so we tried a well signposted road that headed in the right general area and 9 km later we were there.

Then back to Boroka Lookout and the fog had cleared by now…

… and then home for lunch. Quiet afternoon reading, knitting, doing the blog, etc (and watching the fog roll back in over the lookout which we can see from our cabin).

10th July to 15th July 2012 Bathurst and Blue Mountains

Day 07 - 10/07/12 Bathurst  ?? km

Yes, we are seeing Bathurst not at its best – overcast mostly, and chilly.

As we didn’t have any house inspections organised for the morning, we did some drive-bys, and got ourselves a bit more familiar with the various parts of Bathurst. It helps to know what the areas are like, so when we know where a house is, we have an idea of what the area is like. We have been told to avoid Kelso as it has a bad reputation, but what we’ve found is that there certainly are bad areas there, especially the older parts of it, but there are also some very nice parts.

We had a couple of inspections in the afternoon with one real estate agent, and they were OK. Two of them, though, had the rather strange plan that meant one of the bedrooms in the house had no windows! I suppose in each case there might have been valid reasons, but still…

After the inspections, it was off to McDonalds for the free wi-fi. Unlike our experience on holidays last year, the wi-fi was working, AND Les was able to get a strawberry thickshake – yes! Whilst the wi-fi might be free, it certainly isn’t fast. But at least it meant we could put up the blog and check our emails. Les did all the hard work whilst Joy passed the time trying to do a crossword.

Back at the terrace in time for the rain to start coming down. It rained on and off during the evening, but later during the night it absolutely bucketed down! We found out later that it was about 26 mm in 12 hours.

Day 08 - 11/07/12 Bathurst  0 km

Wow, did the rain come down last night! We were a bit surprised to wake this morning to find we hadn’t floated away. Whilst it was overcast in the morning, the sun came out during the day, and by the afternoon it was mostly scattered cloud. It isn’t forecast to last, though.

Today was basically full of looking at properties. You can certainly tell that what you get for your money in Bathurst is much more than you get in Mudgee. We saw a lovely house out in the new part of Kelso that had the perfect aspect to catch the winter sun in the living area, and a view across the farmland (well, it’s farmland now, but who knows how quickly that will become more housing development). The house is less than 10 years old, has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, plus a large living area, lounge, etc, etc, all for $419,000. In Mudgee, that will get you a 10-15 year old house, with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, in a nice area.

But, the big question – do we want to live in Mudgee or Bathurst? Is the difference in house price worth it? Bathurst, whilst a nice place, appears to have a less friendly atmosphere, and more problems with the less fortunate in society.

We had tea out with Lisa at the Schnitzel Bar. Very nice and reasonable price.

Day 09 - 12/07/12 Bathurst  0 km

Well today was washing and more inspections and it was raining on and off. 3 inspections this morning starting at 9:20. Liked 2 of the 3. Then we headed to a cafe for a hot chocolate (Joy) and Milkshake (Les) plus some pastries – we are testing out a new café each time.  Next was off to another real estate agent that we had not met last time we were in Bathurst. We saw 6 houses, some higher than our budget and some we just did not like (ie pool, etc) but we really liked the last one we saw. Solar passive, meaning that nearly all the rooms face north and it has a slate floor to trap the winter sun’s heat but in summer the sun goes straight over the top of the house.

Back to the apartment for a late lunch and rest before starting to prepare to pack stuff away.

Day 10 - 13/07/12 Bathurst to Faulconbridge  140 km

Dawned a nice sunny day and we had one more inspection this morning. Average place but had an aviary, chicken and ducks as well as cat and dog!!!! Yes it was in the middle of the suburbs.

Left Bathurst 10:00 and arrived at McDonalds at Lithgow 10:45. This must be one of the busiest McDonalds in the state based on floor size. Again Joy had a coffee and Les a thickshake and YES the machine was working and so was the Wi-Fi. Spent 1 hour 10 minutes checking and sending emails (we did say it was slow). Had lunch at the pie shop at Wentworth Falls before doing the grocery shopping at Springwood. Arrived at our accommodation (Rachel’s Retreat) at 2:30.

We are spending 2 nights here along with 12 other people, being the Onley clan, partners and children to celebrate Joy’s mother’s 80^th birthday (17^th July) and Joy’s sister Jill’s 50^th birthday (14^th July). We had others arriving at all different times up to about 9:00 that night. Les and Matthew got the wood fired pizza oven fired up and cooked some pizzas made by Jill and Kate, even though Les was not having pizza for tea.

Day 11 - 14/07/12  Faulconbridge  17 km

A lazy morning today. Glenn cooked up a big breakfast for those who wanted it, which I think turned out to be a few. Weird, though, because Glenn didn’t have any of the cooked breakfast. I think Jill volunteered him to cook it.

Some of us headed out for a walk at about 11:00. Found a 1.2 km track that was listed as “medium”. First 100 metres was easy but it got progressively harder and Joy’s mum was starting to have a few problems with some of the big steps down so we took a side track back to a picnic area. What do you do with your mother for her 80^th birthday? Take her on a bush walk! Not too many 80 year olds would be able to do that.

So the 1.2 km ended up about 500 metres. Then 4 of the walkers, including Les, walked back along the roads (about 1 to 1 ½ km) to get the cars and come and collect the rest of the group. Back to the house for lunch and a lazy afternoon watching the rugby on the ABC and home-made scones, cream and jam prepared by Joy.

Headed to the Springwood Sports Club for tea and then back to the house for birthday cake and a video of Mum’s life (or at least the high points) put together by Joy and Les.

Day 12 - 15/07/12  Faulconbridge  to Ariah Park 419 km

Woke to another beautiful sunny day (well in the Blue Mountains anyway). Packed the car and said our goodbye’s and left the rest of the group to finish getting out of bed (as we left at such an early time of 9:00 am!!!!) and do their packing and look after the house.

Headed back west again, we seem to be going back and forward a bit. Have done almost 900 km since leaving home and we are only about 100 km from home now!!!

As we headed down from Mount Victoria the weather set in with cloud, fog and showers. So much for the sunny weather! Stopped in Yetholme for fuel and it was very cold and windy. Back to Bathurst for morning tea and then through Blayney and to Cowra where we had lunch at the lookout as the rain had stopped but was still cool and overcast.

After lunch drove through to the train accommodation near Ariah Park Country Carriages and unpacked and settled in. Along the way we spotted 2 camels which was quiet a surprise in this part of the country. It’s sheep and cattle, isn’t it? Not sheep and camel?

While we were sitting in our carriage, listening to the sounds of the country, we heard a sound we couldn’t identify. It turned out to be a fox! It was bold, walking calmly around the carriage and along the fence to the farm house. The woman who runs the B&B told us they have seen a lot of foxes this year, and that they are not at all shy. It’s a bit worrying as they have ewes about to drop their winter lambs.

The B&B owner also told us they have a cat plague this year – apparently something to do with having a mouse plague last year?

We had a beautiful tea cooked by the owners, of Pumpkin Soup with Garlic Bread, Shepherd’s Pie and vegies (not as good as Les’ mum used to make but still very nice) and Apple Cake with ice cream and cream for dessert.

Played 3 games of Pool and Joy won 2 of the 3. There was only 1 game that actually went to the end as the first and last was won when the other person sank the black ball at the wrong time! It is challenging playing pool in the train carriage, as the lack of space on the sides makes it difficult to make the shots.

4th July to 9th July 2012 Mudgee

Day 01 - 04/07/12- Enfield to Mudgee  261 km

Today was the first day of our holiday, but officially it didn’t start until around 1pm, as first we delivered Meals on Wheels. Since we only had a short distance to drive, we figured it was just as easy for us to do our MoW run than not, and save them having to find someone to fill in for us for the extra week.

After delivering the meals, it was back home to pack the car (couldn’t pack it before because then the meals wouldn’t have fitted!), have an early lunch, and then we could head off.

Of course we can’t travel for a whole 261km without stopping for a break, so we stopped at the Tea House at Hartley. It is one of those places we have passed many times (on our way to and from Parkes), and often said “one of these days we’ll have to stop there”. So this time we did, and it was lovely – Joy’s first cappuccino for the holiday!

We arrived in Mudgee at around 5pm, and checked out our home for the next five nights. It is a pleasant cottage, with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a well-equipped kitchen. The lounge room has a slow-combustion stove – just what is needed to keep us warm in the cold Mudgee winter. The lady who runs the cottage, and lives next door, told us it was -4C this morning – brrrr! She also told us it was an unusually cold morning (yeah, right).

A quick trip to Woolies for supplies, then it was back to the cottage to settle in for the night. Joy has a cold, so will be happy to crawl into a nice warm (electric blanket) bed.

Day 02 - 05/07/12- Mudgee  0 km (in our car)

We woke to a beautiful blue sky and a crisp frost. It might be cold, but it is lovely! If this is what a Mudgee winter is like, then we can cope quite well.

 Sitting on the front verandah of the cottage reading a magazine in the sun – bliss (we are staying in Bliss Cottage). The fellow who runs the cottage (and lives next door, with the lady who runs the cottage J) came over for a chat. Very friendly. But he went on his way when our tour guide for the day arrived.

A friend of a friend lives in Mudgee, and he very kindly offered to show us around and tell us all about the place. Graham collected us at 9:30am, and we drove around the town, looking at the various areas, looking at where would be nice and where to avoid when looking at houses. We saw the new development areas, and also the older, more established areas. There are some parts of town that were housing commission areas, but you can easily pick them.

Because we aren’t really doing the touristy thing in Mudgee, we only visited 2 wineries – Wild Oats and Huntington Estate. Only Joy was tasting, but still bought 7 bottles of wine – that should last for the holiday?

Not only did Graham show us around Mudgee, but his wife generously fed us lunch. We got back to his place around 2pm. Graham and his wife Kaye, plus 3 dogs, one cat, 4 chickens and 2 roosters, and several geese live about 15km out of Mudgee on the Hill End road, on 60 acres of land. Their house is halfway up a hill and has beautiful views across the valley to the hills in the distance. We sat at the dinner table having lunch and admiring the view, and having a good old chat, about this, that, and the other.

At about 7pm, we decided it was time to head back to our cottage. No dinner for us tonight after the long lunch we had!

Day 03 - 06/07/12- Mudgee  ?? km

We woke to another beautiful blue sky and crisp frost. No complaints from us.

Again, we sat on the verandah in the sun, chatting to the fellow from next door, who had arrived to deliver us more firewood. But again, he went on his way when our next Mudgee local arrived.

We had arranged with a man who was principal of Parkes Primary School in the early 1980’s, and had been Joy’s father’s boss for those years, to visit and tell us his views on Mudgee. He was born and bred in Mudgee, and only left to go teaching, then came back pretty much as soon as he could. So he knows a lot about the place.

Kevin is also very interested in the history of Mudgee and the area, and is a bush poet. He has published 6 books of poetry, and had some of his poems put to music and performed by various musicians around the traps.

We had a great morning with him, chatting about Mudgee, what things are here to satisfy our interests, and what to watch out for. Les found he and Kevin know a few of the same people – Les knows them through his father, who was also a bush poet, and played in a bush band. It is a small world.

After lunch, we did drive-bys (not the Sydney type, with guns, but the Bannister type, looking at houses). These were of houses that we thought looked interesting but we hadn’t organised to look through. It also gave us a chance to get to know bits of Mudgee.

A quiet night in front of the fire, watching TV, and another home-cooked meal. One of the reasons we love staying in self-contained accommodation is we don’t have to eat out all the time, but can if we want to.

Day 04 - 07/07/12- Mudgee  ?? km

Still not sick of the blue sky and crisp frost.

Today is Saturday, so the tourists are in town. We don’t want to think of ourselves as tourists.

Today has been pretty much set aside for inspecting properties for sale. Since we are staying only a 5 minute walk from the main street, and the tourists make it hard to find a parking spot there, we walked up to the first real estate agent. She showed us 3 quite different properties. One was a quite old place that was in the process of being done up. All the basics had been done, and done very nicely, but there was still a bit of work needed (fences, shedding, heating, patching gaps between ceiling and cornices etc, etc). It was a house with character, but probably a bit too much work to do for us. The others were newer places, both of which we would probably happily live in, but neither of which really grabbed us.

After lunch, it was off to see more properties. Again, we saw 3, but one of them was way out of our price range, and wouldn’t suit us anyway, as it had a swimming pool. The other 2, however, were quite good. One has really gotten our attention, and we will need to put serious thought into it. The other one is a definite maybe too. But first we need to look at a couple more properties in Mudgee on Monday, then the ones in Bathurst next week.

Back home for afternoon tea, with Joy finally getting some reading done, and Les catching the V8 motor racing on TV.

A walk along the river just before sunset meant we felt justified having dessert for the second night in a row.

Day 05 - 08/07/12- Mudgee – Wollar – Ulan – Gulgong – Mudgee  165 km

The first time we didn’t have a blue sky to wake up to – this morning there was a fog. This meant is wasn’t quite as cold, and it soon burnt off to a mostly sunny day.

Today was our first touristy day, and first we drove out to the Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve. There is a rock formation there we would like to see, called Castle Rock (or something like that), but the walk is about an hour (not sure if this is return or one way), and since we are both suffering from colds, we thought it best not to try that. So our first stop was at the picnic area nearby for morning tea. We just sat at the picnic table listening to and watching the birds. There were heaps of little wrens, yellow robins, and various non-descript LBBs (Little Brown Birds), and their chirping was a really pretty sound. The kookaburras were a bit noisy, but that’s OK.

Our exercise for the day was when we walked to a place called Hands on Rock – 600m walking to get there! As the name implies, it is an aboriginal art site – mostly hand stencils, but also some stencils of emu tracks. There were some grass trees along the walk, so Joy was happy.

 Along the road towards Ulan and then from Ulan to Gulgong, you really get to see the impact of the mines in the area. We are both really conflicted when thinking about the mines. They do make a mess of the land and they look awful. And even though the mining companies do a much better job of rehabilitating the land after they are finished mining, what sort of environmental impact do they have? But we humans also need energy. And I know we have “green” alternatives such as solar and wind, etc, until it can be made financially attractive to use those options, we still rely on coal – hence we need the mines.

Lunch at Gulgong at one of the pubs – a very nice meal, we both thought.

 Then back to Mudgee via the Henry Lawson Drive. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready to leave tomorrow, catching up on the diary, relaxing, listening to the birds on the back verandah.

A light tea tonight after the pub lunch filled us up so much that we didn’t even have anything to eat with afternoon tea!

Day 06 - 09/07/12- Mudgee – Sofala – Bathurst  132 km

Yet another sunny day dawned. If this is winter in Mudgee, we’ll be fine. But somehow I think we’ve been seeing it at its best. There is rain predicted for the next few days, just when we head off to Bathurst, so we will be seeing Bathurst at its worst?

First up this morning were more property inspections. One was an old house, which we like, but it needed quite a lot of work done on it, which we don’t like. It had also been advertised as a 3 bedroom house, BUT, the 3^rd bedroom would really be better called a closet, as the single bed that was in there only just fitted.

The other 2 properties we ruled out for a few different reasons – not enough yard, issues with rights of way, weird internal layout etc, etc.

So now it is off to Bathurst to see how it would suit us. We drove there via Sofala, where we stopped for lunch beside the Turon River. At some point in the not so distant past, the river has had a flood, as the trees were definitely affected.

We wandered through the town, and it is quite pretty. There are some buildings that need some real TLC, but it looks like they are working on that, and that the townspeople have some pride in the town.

 We arrived at our accommodation in Bathurst at around 2:20pm – plenty of time to unpack, do the grocery shopping (Woolies is just across the road), and wander up to the main part of town to say hello to our friend Lisa who lives and works in Bathurst, and check out the signs in the windows of the real estate agents.

The place we are staying in is a 2 storey terrace, so we are getting our exercise walking up and down the stairs. It has been quite well renovated, but it still has that old house smell, and Joy doesn’t like it. Once you’ve been inside for a little bit you don’t smell it anymore, but it’s just when you walk into certain rooms, or come back in from outside.

Dinner in front of the (gas) fireplace, watching TV and browsing through real estate ads.