Lithgow, New South Wales

Sunday September 11th saw us taking the short drive from Bathurst to Lithgow. Weather was again very average but we were able to get the caravan hooked up without to much rain. It was a very short drive and we arrived at the Lithgow caravan park by mid morning. We checked in to a good sized powered site with a concrete pad. Was quite wet so the pad was appreciated. This is a fairly small caravan park but the managers/owners are very welcoming and helpful. Price is average at $32/night. Amenities were somewhat aged but spotless during our stay. I'll give them 3.5 Stars and would recommend the caravan park for fellow travelers.

Once we got setup Sandra got busy with the Laundry while I made some appointments and got caught up on some computer work. The wind had dropped and the skies cleared somewhat so Sandra was able to get stuff outside on the clothesline. We made a quick trip in to Woolworths in the afternoon for a few grocery essentials. Afternoon was spent getting clothes dry and sorted. A bit of house cleaning in the caravan as well. We were lucky enough to catch up with my Mom via Skype in the moning. She is enjoying her final days in Peace River with a number of social events planned by friends and organizations she has belonged to over her almost 40 years living there. She is moving to Sherwood Park to be closer to family.

Monday morning Justine arrived to spend a few days with us. We had booked her a cabin at the caravan park so we could have a good visit. We haven't seen her since before our trip started so was great to actually be able to give her a hug and enjoy some time together. We enjoyed a lunch at a small cafe on Bell's Line Road called Ellie Cats. They do a good assortment of gluten free so we were all able to enjoy burgers for lunch. Justine's manager from Wolgan Valley joined us briefly for a visit. It was good to meet Tenille and see how well her and Justine get along. Justine continues to enjoy her life and work at Wolgan's One and Only Resort.

We returned to the caravan park for more visiting and a BBQ Chicken dinner. We got to enjoy Justine's trip to Europe by going through several photos she had taken.

Tuesday morning brought a bit more sunshine but rain didn't seem too far away. We took a drive up to Hassans Lookout with Justine. We got a very good view of Lithgow and the surrounding areas from a variety of lookout points. Very beautiful area but unfortunately a bit overcast. We managed to get a few photos of the area, each other, and some plant life.

We returned to the caravan to continue viewing Justine's Europe photos. Looks like she had a wonderful trip and she is already planning her next adventure in 2017. We enjoyed leftovers for lunch before Sandra and Justine went grocery shopping. I got a bit of a shoulder treatment from Justine that brought tears to my eyes as well. Justine returned to Wolgan Valley in the afternoon to prepare for her next week at work and we prepared for our trip back to the Hunter Valley.

Bathurst, New South Wales

Friday September 9th saw us make our way East again towards Bathurst. The morning was threatening rain and windy. We traveled through Cowra and Blayney on route. The drive was beautiful with the green fields and a number of hills. Not the best for fuel economy with the wind and the hills making for hard work towing the caravan.

We arrived at the Bathurst Showgrounds before lunch and got setup in  a site with some grass albeit wet. We avoided any trees as the wind was fairly strong and worse was forecast. The Showground does offer water and power sites for $25/night. The amenity block was one of the oldest we have seen and definitely needed some work/upgrades. Relatively clean so I'll give 2.5 Stars. The day was windy and cold so we pretty much stayed in the caravan. There was a large function on at the Showground that night so made for a bit of a noisy evening. There was also heavy rain and winds during the evening/night.

Unfortunately, Saturday was more of the same with intermittent rain throughout the day. We hunkered down inside the caravan and didn't get out to explore Bathurst. At least we had power for our heater and we were able to keep warm and dry. We'll have to give Bathurst another try in better weather but will probably look at a different campground. $25/night is fairly expensive for fairly average facilities to my way of thinking.

Grenfell, New South Wales

Wednesday September 7th saw us travel West to Young. We had a quick stop in Young at the Tourist Centre. Gathered a bit of information on the local area and enjoyed another lovely art display by a local artist that had been born at Mangrove Mountain.

We carried on North from Young to Grenfell where we planned to stay at a free camp located at the old railway station. We got setup on the bitumen parking area in front of the Railway display. The area was supplied by the local Lions Club and Men's Shed. Had a nice covered barbecue area with a fresh water tap. There is also  a dump point located at the front of the property. There was an amenity block with flush toilets as well. 3 Stars for these. There was a donation box underneath the BBQ which we contributed to. Great to see small town support grey nomads with fine areas like this. Was the reason we chose Grenfell over Young or Cowra to be honest.

We did a walk around the main downtown area after lunch. Grenfell appears to be best known for being the home of Henry Lawson. A number of old buildings were also an attraction. We enjoyed a quiet evening in the caravan.

Thursday morning we decided to do a day tour of the area. We headed back towards Young but took a more back-road route. Our first stop was the Iandra Castle which is a huge building located in the middle of nowhere. It is a heritage listed property and open for viewing by appointment. We made do with a few pictures from the roadside.

Next we took a short unsealed road to Touts Lookout which offers a stunning view of the local area. There is also a camping area here with basic toilet blocks. Would be a beautiful view but could be windy as it was when we were there. Surprise, surprise, we got some awesome photos of the surrounding area and canola fields!

From here we traveled through Young and drove South towards Harden/Murruburrah. We stopped for a stretch at a craft store/information centre in Murruburrah before heading off towards Boorowa. A bit of a homecoming for Sandra as she had once attended the Boorowa Ball back in the 70's. She couldn't remember too much but we took a couple of pictures for mementos.

Back in the car we drove through Murringo before arriving back in Young. Lovely scenic drive with rolling hills, lovely fields, and lots of sheep/cattle. We returned to the Visitor Centre where we purchased a small piece of art we had liked the previous visit. They were kind enough to recommend a lovely gluten free restaurant, The Rhubarb Emporium, where we enjoyed a great lunch. We even bought some gluten free desserts for later.

We finished off our trip to Young with a quick trip to Woolworths to top up with diesel and groceries. We returned to Grenfell where we looked up the artist from Mangrove Mountain we had seen at Young. She lives and has a gallery in Grenfell on a lovely rural property. We stopped in for a visit and she gave us a tour of the gallery. It didn't turn out the Sandra knew her but she was an interesting person and was planning a caravan trip so we had lots to chat about. Returned to the caravan for a quiet night.

Temora, New South Wales

Sunday September 4th saw us travel North East from Narrandera towards Temora. The trip was uneventful other than we became part of an impromptu Cattle Muster for a short time.

We arrived in Temora before lunch and setup at the Council run Caravan Park at the Aviation Museum. Very wet from all the rain but at least there was grass to keep it a bit cleaner. We found a grassy spot without too much mud. Caravan park has power/water at costs $25/night. Lots of amenity blocks which were reasonably clean and modern. I'll give 3 Stars.

Once we got setup we took a drive into the main town for a little exploration. We took in the Rural Museum which is at the Visitor Centre. It was a large display and very good. A lot of separate buildings out the back focusing on different aspects of rural life. They had a really good collection of farm equipment and a great ambulance display. A fire bridgade display is in the works with a new building being constructed. They also had an excellent art display in the main building which highlighted local artists.

Don Bradman's original home was also on display. All in all one of the best small town museums we have seen. A must see in Temora.

We headed back to the caravan park as Sandra had a bit of washing out. Weather was once again threatening. Hopefully it clears up as there is quite a bit more laundry to be done and the park doesn't have a dryer.

Monday was primarily spent around the van with multiple loads of washing being done and myself doing some Blog catchup. The rain held off and we were able to get most of it dry. After lunch we went to the Temora Aviation Museum. This is a privately owned museum and another top notch display. The museum focuses on Military aircraft and all the planes are operational. A number are the last operational models in Australia. We ended up having a volunteer named Malcom act as our private guide throughout the facility. I think he was only to get us started with an overview of the facility but he ended up walking us through all the displays giving us expert commentary. An unexpected bonus. The museum itself is modern and well setup with excellent displays. A definite must see when in the area. I've shown a number of the aircraft below.

We returned to the caravan to get the last of the clothes off of the line as rain was threatening again. We enjoyed a nice BBQ steak to finish off the day. With our main work done we planned a sightseeing trip for Tuesday.

Tuesday morning saw us head South to Junee which was our first tour stop. A lovely old town with another beautiful Railway precinct.

We also took in a guided tour of the Junee Chocolate and Licorice factory. Well worth it as the entry cost of $5 was very reasonable for close to an hour of touring and tasting. We were in luck the day we were there as both chocolate and licorice was being made. Very interesting. There was also a display of vintage automobiles just across the parking lot.

We found a nice park near the railway station to have our picnic lunch. Was a nice sunny and warm day for a change which made the lunch more enjoyable.

From there we headed to Cootamundra. We parked the car and had a walk down the main street. We admired some of the fine old buildings and did a bit of retail therapy as well.

As we headed out of town we took a side road that led to a hilltop. A dirt road with some wet patches but we were rewarded with some wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. As you might have guessed we got some excellent canola pictures.

We followed the road to where it joined the old highway and carried on to Wallendbeen. Just a quick stop here to stretch our legs and have a look at the Milestone Sculptures which are celebrating Australia's Wheat industry. We took the road back West to Temora from here arriving home in late afternoon. We filled up the car with diesel and grabbed a few grocery essentials.

We've really enjoyed our short time in Temora. Must do's for future travellers are the Rural Museum and the Aviation Museum.

Lake Talbot Tourist Park, Narrandera, New South Wales

Saturday September 3rd saw us move East to Narrandera. The trip was uneventful with a strong wind coming out of the West pushing us along. We stopped a few times to check our caravan wheel repair. Good news as the wheel hub remained cool throughout the trip. Hopefully the problem has been resolved. We did get caught up in a bit of a cattle herd on the highway during our journey.

Arrived at Narrandera just before lunch. We stopped for a quick look at a free camp at the Old Brewery Flats. Looked like it would have been OK for a basic overnight stay in better conditions. Given it was very wet and more rain was on the way we wimped out and headed for higher ground. We ended up at Lake Talbot Tourist Park. This is a Top Tourist park and offered some nice long albeit narrow drive through sites. The Park overlooks Lake Talbot which is a local recreational area off of the Murrumbidgee River. The amenity blocks were dated but clean. I'll give 3 Stars. It is a nice park but at the high end of price for this area.

Once we got setup we headed out for a drive around town while the weather was somewhat cooperative. We had a walk around the downtown admiring the Council building and Memorial Park amongst other historic buildings.

We stopped at the Visitor Centre and viewed the Tiger Moth display. The Visitor Centre is located along the main highway and in a lovely park.

Sandy Point Reserve, Hay, New South Wales

Thursday September 1st saw us heading North towards Hay. We passed through Deniliquin which was considerably larger than we had expected. Maybe worth a stop next time. The weather was good for most of the trip but more rain was forecast.

We had a bit of problem with a caravan wheel on route to Hay. On one of our stops we noticed that the back wheel on the passenger side was quite hot. Given our previous problems with bad bearing that wrote off our first Retreat we were understandably concerned. We made a few calls and tried a few things while we had an early lunch and let the wheel cool off. Seemed to be OK when we check in 20 Km but was hot again by the time we arrived in Hay. We decided to get the caravan set up and then see where we could get someone to look at it.

We stayed at a free camp at Sandy Point Reserve which is right on the Murrumbidgee River on the South side of Hay. Lots of space for camping with several flush toilets. They appear to be cleaned on a daily basis as well! I'll give 4 Stars for these ones. It was fairly wet so we tried to find a level spot that wasn't to muddy. Would be a lovely spot to spend several days if the weather was more cooperative.

Once we got setup we visited the Visitor Centre. Got some maps and information re the local attractions as well as the location of local NRMA agent. We headed off to the NRMA agent to see about getting our caravan looked at. They were able to get someone to look at it Friday morning if we could put the call into NRMA then.

We were up early on Friday morning to hook up and take the caravan in for the work. We are not 100% sure what the problem was but the mechanic changed one set of bearings and loosened off the brake somewhat. Was done fairly quickly so we were back at the campground by mid morning. After lunch we went to the Shearer Museum. This is a lovely modern building with a detailed history of Shearing in Australia. We also got to see a live Shearing demonstration. See the before and after pics below.

We returned to the campground as the weather was getting bad again and quite cool. Spent a rather dreary afternoon/evening trying to keep warm. Had some heavy rain in the evening but luckily it didn't keep up through the night.

On Saturday morning we decided to move on as the campground was very wet and weren't getting too much solar to recharge our battery system. We hitched up and headed into town to see a few more attractions before we hit the highway. Our first stop was the Railway/POW Museum. A bit of a funny experience here as they were setting up to do a re-enactment of the POW history and thought we were part of it. We convinced them we were just tourists and did a walk around the POW exhibits. Very interesting part of Australia history. The Railway station was also restored beautifully.

Next stop was the Gaol Museum. This one was a lot quieter (we were only ones there) and we wandered around peacefully. Lots of history with this one as well as building had served many different purposes since its construction.

Once we finished at the Gaol we set off for our next destination which is Narrandera.