Caravan Trip 2015 week 4



We packed up and left our Canberra park and headed for Goulburn. We stopped first at the "Big Merino" (world's largest concrete constructed sheep)... 

We then drove into the city centre and wandered through Belmore Park...

 Goulburn was the first inland city in Australia and has many historic buildings. It is a large regional city and service centre for the surrounding pastoral industry...


Od courthouse in Goulburn

 We moved on to Taralga which is a small village in the Southern Tablelands of NSW. It was old and quiet with some quaint little old buildings...

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing a very slow winding trip through the edge of the Great Dividing Ranges to Oberon.  After we had set up we went and looked at Lake Oberon and the dam and walked along the dam wall...



Old Oberon train station

 Next day we headed to Bathurst ~ home of the internationally know racetrack Mount Panorama. Bathurst is also referred to as Gold Country as it was the site of the first gold discovery and where the first gold rush occurred in Australia. But we were here to check out the famous racetrack. The circuit is actually a public road when not being used for racing...

 

 

We did a lap around the 6.2km (van and all!). We stopped to take some photos at Brocks Skyline and also took some photos for another man... 

 





In Pole position 



Famous Peter Brock statue

 

Winners

 Back onto the windy hilly road to a little place called Sofala. It was also part of the gold rush era. Today it is a very old little village with narrow streets...

 I found a hat badge in this old store and the badge looks so old and I guess it had been for sale in this shop for many many years!...

More driving through the hills before we reached another overnight destination ~ Mudgee.


Streets of Mudgee

 It was interesting how they park in these NSW towns ~ reverse angle. It was hard to get used to!...

 

 

We walked the dogs in a local park ~ love finding quirky things in towns like this seat!...

 



 

It seems looking at Railway Stations and Masonic Lodge Halls has been ingrained in me now (thanks Dad). The Mudgee Railway Station was a beautiful building...

 We continued on through the coal mining town of Ulan, stopped at Merriwa for the bakery and were pleased to finally get to some flat area after days of travelling through the hills. We had now entered the "Horse Country" part of Australia and driving past stables and homes of some very expensive horse breeding set ups. We stopped at Scone and as Peter is a lover of scones we just had to find some to eat in Scone!  And we did...

 We stopped that night in the rural town of Murrurundi.  Funny we should camp across some people from Esperance and Peter used to deal with them so many years ago...

 Next day we travelled through Willow Tree and a few more small towns before arriving at Gunnedah. We were now in cotton territory and it was interesting to see the huge bales of cotton being carted on the trucks. We don't grow cotton in WA...

We visited the statue of Dorothea Mackellar ~ a famous Australian poet who wrote the widely known poem "My Country"...

 

Went to "Pensioners Hill" lookout and also saw the great rock sculptures depicting people and significance to Gunnedah...



Views over Gunnedah

 Back on the road to Tamworth. We are used to kangaroo roadsigns so very different to see koala ones!...

 

We arrived in Tamworth mid afternoon so we had some time to do some washing and housekeeping and give the dogs a trim and a bath. Wayne and Sue had phoned to say they were headed our way so we booked the bay next to us for them...

 

After a slow morning and chatting with Wayne and Sue we went for a short drive to Nundle. It was a very pretty drive and we stopped at Chaffey Dam on the way. Interesting to see the campers on the banks...

 I had read a few things about Nundle. It is a quaint little village with historic buildings and the Woolen Mill. I particularly wanted to visit this store called Odgers and McClelland Exchange which sells beautiful and practical homewares with a vintage flavor...

 

It didn't disappoint and we had fun fossicking around and purchasing a few things... 

 

 

We visited the woolen mill ~ sadly it wasn't running on this day but it was still very interesting and I may have added a few balls to my Autumn collection from Bendigo!...

 



Cutest little yarn bombed caravan





 

We had the most beautiful lunch at the "Mount Misery Gold Mine Café" and the scones were the best ever. Peter went and complimented the chef...

 We drove back to  Tamworth and did some more sightseeing. As Tamworth is Australia's country music capital there are tributes and statues all over the town...

 It was fairly quiet at the caravan park and the manager said we could park where we wanted and spread out so we did!



 We all got dressed up in our "flannos" and went to see the Big Golden Guitar...

 

Went up the lookout...

Looked at the Tamworth Railway station...

It was great catching up  with Wayne and Sue and sitting around chatting. But it was time to move on again. We said our goodbyes (again) and headed towards the coast.  First stop for a break was Walcha. Loved this beautiful vibrant Autumn tree..

 

 Then we called into Aspley Falls. This was a national park area with no dogs allowed.  We left them in the car and took turns running down to have a look at the falls...

 

Then it was time to do a not so fun drive through the Great Dividing Range. It was so slow, such a winding road but oh so pretty. For hours we weaved our way through the ranges often only able to do 25km/h. With no where to pull over for a rest thankfully they had the sense to make a large rest area with a toilet and enough space to stretch before continuing on. It was a beautiful spot and also great to get the dogs out for a while... 

 

 

The most common sign on the road today!

 Eventually we came out the other side of the ranges and found a spot to pull over (and help some girls that had run out of petrol) and admire the stunning view over the ranges...

 It had been a long tiring day and when we finally got to Port Maquarie where we had all sorts of trouble finding our caravan park.  But after much stress we found it and set up and took the dogs to the beach ~ and celebrated the fact that we had driven from one side of Australia to the other!!!...