12 Months and more later!!

I've just checked to see if this blog is still alive.  Since this is about travels we'd better put things up to date.  In February when the weather was hot we hooked up the caravan again and drove north on the NSW coast and stayed at Scots Head for 2 weeks.  Meeting with relatives for some of that time.  We've stayed here a few times, and it's a great place at the caravan park to be close to the sea, in a nice park with shade.  There is some lovely green hinterland to see as well.  We went one day to the Bellingen market to view some of the things offered there for sale.  There is some great fresh produce, and at stalls in the area near Scots Head.  Very nice bananas.  Lovely days to have an early morning swim, then breakfast and morning tea, read, do a sudoku, swim, lunch, sleep, swim or walk along the beach, have dinner in van, or at a restaurant, talk,  fall asleep.

At Easter school holidays we travelled to North Narrabeen (about 1/2 hour drive!!) to the caravan park and took the 3 grand children to enjoy the experience of caravan camping, and later were joined by their mum and dad and a small tent as well.  It's good to be close to home so that we can do some family shuffling around.  The beach is not too far away to walk and there is the lagoon close by as well, also a large ocean pool to swim in as well.  We're thinking of doing that again in January - will have to get to book in very soon.

There was also another visit to Hong Kong in early June.  Another place we enjoy visiting since we've had daughter no 2 living there for 11 years.  She was finishing up, so one of our purposes was to bring some things home!  We enjoy the busyness, development, transport of HK, and have had lots of visits over the years.  Maybe we won't be going there as frequently now.

In September we tried our first 'cruise'.  A nine day one in and out of Sydney to New Caledonia, which included 2 days at sea each way and 4 stops, one in port at Noumea and the others at anchor and tranporting us to shore by tender (life boat).  This was an enjoyable experience.  There is lots to do on board, including plenty of food to eat and activities and entertainment to participate in.

There was also a short visit to Wiseman's Ferry to stay a couple of nights with the purpose of meeting with people who worked in Manila Philippines at the organisation that we were involved with in the 1980's.  Great to catch up with people after so long, in a lovely setting, which is also only about an hour away from home by car, on the Hawkesbury river.

For 6 days in October we joined a tour with friends to the central west area of NSW.  One night in Canowindra with the purpose of taking a hot air balloon flight.  Since the opportunity was offered we decided to do it!  We had a wonderful calm, cold early morning to have this experience, so we certainly enjoyed it, even though a little nervous to start.  We stopped for lunch, morning tea, afternoon tea as we travelled, sometimes at lovely old country villages, or towns.  A ride on the zig zag railway in the Blue Mountains was the first event.  The remainder of time was spent in Bathurst, but with trips out to Orange area for a field day, to Hill End to the historic gold mining area, some visits to old dwellings in Bathurst and to a great dinner at Abercrombie House. A lot was packed into 6 days.

What will be next?  There are a few things in the planning, but we must get to and decide when to book a few days at North Narrabeen in January (2012), if there are any spaces left!  One day soon was may add some photos.



 

Conclusion of our trip

Some interesting figures:-
Total Kilometers travelled - 11,962
Total fuel used - 1827.54 litres
Aver Fuel consumption - 15.29lt/100kms
Average fuel price - $1.53 per lt
Highest fuel price paid - $1.97 per lt

We thank God for a safe and enjoyable trip.  We had no incidents along the road and kept good health. We did however, have an 'interesting' situation approaching Cobar when we had a vehicle with flashing lights overtake us with 'wide load following' sign, but giving no instructions to us.  Then another escort was following behind us with the same message, so, as a rest area was approaching on the right we slowed to turn in out of their way, however at that moment 2 semi trainlers were coming the other way towards us and we had to stop till the road was clear to turn right.  The second escort vehicle had to stop behind us, and quickly catching up was an extra large wide building!  We made it in time and I'm sure they were travelling far to fast.  Don't know how they thought we'd get out of the way as it's not easy to pull off the road on the left.  We noted later with satisfaction that they had to wait in a truck checking stop outside the town.

The time at HCJB was a blessing to us.  Being there was the main reason for the trip.  This became an opportunity to see more of this amazing country.  It was good to work with the full time staff and to meet so many volunteers, enjoying working together and to see the work progressing.

Cargo to Home

Sunday was a beautiful day.  It was cold and clear as we prepared to leave the farm in Cargo.  A beautiful area of rolling green hills.

Orange is higher and therefore usually colder, however we were just driving through this time.  There are some lovely older homes in the centre of town, and also plenty of modern homes in outer subdivisions.  A growing city.  We stopped at the rest area on the east side of Bathurst, after searching for a parking spot near the town park and not being able to park with a caravan in tow.  (It's often hard to find a convenient place to park in some of these towns)  We usually look forward to our cup of coffee (or tea) at this stage.  What a disappointment when we found the water luke warm.  We usually fill the thermos in the morning before leaving.  This time the water obviously had not reached boiling when I filled the thermos.  Luke warm coffee.

As we came through these places it's noticeable that the traffic also increases the nearer we get to Sydney.  It was a diversion to take a few minutes to drive out to Mount York when we were driving through Mt Victoria.  We checked out all the monuments and history of the crossing of the Blue Mountains and the first roads across to the west.

View West from Mt York

Monument to First Explorers Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth

It was lunch time as we arrived in Katoomba, so parked a block or so away and went to a coffee shop for lunch in Katoomba Street the centre of town.  So we were soon on our way down towards the city.  We diverted and went via the grandchildren and B and R in the inner west for a couple of hours before heading to the north of the city to home. 

It's good to be here with the garden growing well (some things too well) with all it's spring flowers at their peak - rododendrums, azalias, clivias, wisteria, may bush and much more.  Through the trees we can see the towering house next door which is being built, and is very big!  So we must adjust and get used to it.

The caravan is parked at the front door again, and contents of that scattered on the front porch, waiting to be cleaned.  There is much to do, we collected lots of dust.  The car, the van, will need washing, and the annex which we used in Kununurra has gathered a lot of red dust and should also be cleaned.  There is a large pile of ironing waiting.  It really should be done.  That is something that I don't do when we travel.  Crushed clothes rule when travelling.  The lawn has been mowed.

We've appreciated the fact that Jac has stayed in our home while we've been away, as that has helped it to be looked after and occupied.

The blog will take a rest for a while.  No doubt we'll be travelling somewhere again soon!

Nyngan to Cargo (Orange area)

The Bogan River at Nyngan is running high, there's been plenty of rain and most of the recent rain has been run off  (the ground has been well soaked).  We had a walk beside the river evening and morning.  The caravan park was in a lovely setting.  I suppose they would have to evacuate if there was really flood rains happening.

Bogan River

   We stopped in town to buy a few groceries before setting off on a road through Tottenham,Bogan Gate, etc to Parkes.  This meant we avoided going through Dubbo (again).    Being in Nyngan marked the end of a loop in our travels over the last 2 1/2 months.  We drove through Nyngan and had morning tea on our third day out.

The landscape has gradually changed from semi arid to rolling pastoral areas.  We constantly saw acres and acres of fresh green crops, wheat, oats, etc and also bright yellow of canola crops.  They are all doing well.

The fear at the moment is the hatching of grasshoppers.  An enormous quantity of eggs have been found west of Cobar and will be sprayed about time of hatching.  This must be a hazardous process.

The towns and villages are closer together and it has been a pleasant drive to this area just south of Orange.  Where we are staying there are lovely views of rolling hills, the mountains near Orange and sheep and lambs grazing.  Very beautiful.

This afternoon we had a drive into Orange and coffee up high looking over the city.  We are staying an extra night, and tomorrow must journey on and probably will arrive home some time in the afternoon. Maybe I said that in yesterday's blog.  However we are almost home!

A tour of Cobar and Bogan River at Nyngan

The Cobar Caravan Park

The tour of Cobar and mining area was very comprehensive and took 3 1/2 hours.  We were taken around the town, up and down and north and south, from old buildings to more recent, and a look at the town from the old slag heap.

Wall of the Cobar Great Copper Mine marks the Eastern Entrance to the town

This part was probably a bit too long, then after a short break we went out to see the present day mining operations.  Copper and gold are the metals being found here.  No doubt this has brought life to the town in recent years.  Mining started here in the 1880's and has started and stopped several times since, depending on the world price of copper and gold. The drive around the mine site was interesting, and also a look into a big pit.  Another area was the tailings 'lake' which we drove right around.  The ore is processed at the mine into ingots of copper and gold, and then transported by rail to Newcastle.  However some gold also ends up at the Perth Mint.  There was so much information it was rather hard to take it in!

The Opencut Mine(gold and copper vertical seam visible) with the town adjacent

There was time for lunch, after we'd collected out car and van, at 'Twisted Sisters' Coffee shop in town and we then travelled east to Nyngan.  It was around 4 p.m., so time to stop here at a caravan park by the Bogan River.  A very pleasant park with plenty of space.  The river is running at more than full height, not far off getting onto the lower lawn area here.  As a treat we have taken a site with en suite facilities tonight.  After all we are nearly home.  We should arrive back in Sydney in a couple more days.  We hope to get to Cargo near Orange tomorrow.

Broken Hill to Cobar

It's a long journey from Broken Hill to Cobar, with not many places to stay except rest areas.  We stop at these for a break such as morning tea and lunch.  We however had morning tea in Wilcannia by the river which is flowing well and a good height.  There is still a caravan park on the east side of the river and we noted that a couple of vans were parked there.  There is lots of open country to see on this journey but it was also interesting to see water lying here and there and the picture below shows a lake that probably is normally dry.  There are lots of flowers by the road and in the fields.  Some unfortunately are weeds, but others are native. ground covers and lots more of the cassia shrubs that we have been seeing in the centre as well.

Below is a picture of the old bridge at Wilcannia.  This used to be a lifting bridge to allow the paddle steamers to pass through. Lately the river has been low or almost dry, but this year it is flowing, and looking good.  It has the brown muddly colour which is normal.

We stopped several times to look at the wildflowers.  There were many places where they looked like snow on the ground.  These may have been a paper daisy, as there were some near the road side.  I would have had to walk into the paddocks to be sure.  I trust that they are not an introduced problem, as there are many of those around too.  The Pattison's Curse is looking lovely beside the road, but we didn't see fields of it in this area.  There is occasionally the Ruby Dock weed, a large moroon red flowering plant that has spread a lot, and is visible here and there.  The birds spread the seed.  We saw a lot of that in the Centre, particularly on the trip into Palm Valley, which is a long way from anywhere.  Sometimes I have trouble with the management of this blog.  I'm writing a story in the caption and it won't let me move on!  We are now in Cobar having spent a night here, with a short visit to Jac's nephew and family last night here in town.  We're about to pack up and park the car and van while we go on a town tour.  We'll then move on a town or two for tonight.

Broken Hill

It has been good to have a day to look at a few more places around Broken Hill.  We were here for a night last year and the year before, but that was to go on Lake Eyre and Corner Country tours, so did not have more than an hour to see some of the historic buildings. 

This morning we moved the caravan to a more comfortable site, because when we arrived there was nothing available but a temp site in a parking area.  Popular!  We visited the information centre, and then noted the old Railway Station Museum right next door (the Sulphide Street Station), so it was interesting working out the development of railway in Broken Hill.  The first rail came from Silverton and Adelaide. 

Down the road a block or so was an art gallery with the Big Picture which we went in to see, lots to sell as well.  This claims to be the largest painted canvas picture (maybe) in the world!  It is in a semicircle and is a landscape as though looking at the complete area around BH.  Worth a look.  Had to pay.

We also discovered another old railway station (Crystal Street) which was built a few years after the previously mentioned.  This connected Menindie (and later Sydney) to BH, but at that stage they had different gauge lines in about 1910 or so.  So eventually if you wanted to train from Sydney to Adelaide you had to walk several blocks to the other station!  This wasn't changed until the 1970s when the rail became one, and it's possible to travel from Sydney to Perth via Broken Hill.  A new station was built and rails were changed to standard gauge, and the Silverton line was disbanded.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service has a museum/display and tours of their base out at the airport, so that was a must for us to see this time.  This is a great service to the outback.  The B H base covers a very large area so it was interesting to hear how that works, and to see the control room and the hanger with work going on.  Pilots, Engineers, Doctors, Nurses and even Dentists are employed.  No charge is made to any patient.  Funding comes from State and Federal Governments and also a lot of fundraising and donations.  This is well worth seeing if you are ever in a town that has an RFDS base.

The afternoon was spent in driving the 25 ks to Silverton, the original mining town in the area, but now almost a ghost town, with ruins and a few restored houses and hotel, museums.  It is popular with artists and has several art galleries.

Old Churches of Silverton

  We enjoyed the scenery around and looked at some of the buildings here and there.  The bitumen goes further and we drove to the Mundi Mundi Lookout with an amazing view west across the plains, with a glimpse of the Flinders Ranges (as below).

  Then a little further for a view of an old Reservoir (the Umberumberka Reservoir! - try saying that) with more lookout views.  It was surprising to see quite a large lake.  This was also built around 1910.  Why it was built we have not found out.

Back in BH we drove along some of the Heritage trail and then back to caravan 'home'.  There is more to see in BH, but we'll leave that for next time.