Yesterday we had nothing needing attending to, so it was the perfect day to do "something", but what?
I have this list in my phone of potential things to do on our Friday Fun Days. However, several would take us to somewhere popular, which we didn't want to do in school holidays, or would be for a picnic or going walking. That wasn't ideal for the day either, as the weather was quite cool, windy and showery. That narrowed the choices down considerably. One option stood out, so that's what we went with.
We decided to go for a drive. Our area has a virtual labyrinth of quiet country roads that we have explored over many years. However, there is one we often see that I had not been on. It is called the "Old Lachlan Road" and crosses a few of the minor roads we regularly travel. For years and years we've said we should go for a drive along the entire route. Mick has done it some time ago with a mate on their dirt bikes.
We travelled out the main road towards Trunkey Creek before turning right onto the little dirt road. We noted that the road from Rockley to where we turned off is the "Lachlan Road". I'm not sure why one is old and one not.
Let's head off the black top and see where it takes us.
Silly me didn't take any photos of the first section. That is because it wasn't picturesque. There had obviously been many trees close to, or leaning over the road and they have all been cut back. The trimmings are all just piled up on the side of the road and a lot of the trees had just been ripped out and the chain saw cuts really rough. We assumed there must be something happening that will require trucks to go along that stretch of road. The road we crossed in the above photo is the Hobbys Yard Road.
The second section was a more minor road and did have lots of trees close to the road and forming a tunnel over the road. There is nothing I like better than driving down a road like this. Fortunately, no chainsaws had made it to this section.
You know a road is fairly minor when there is grass growing in the middle.
After driving through quite a bit of scrub we popped out into more open countryside. It is all looking so good, with green paddocks, full dams and well fed stock. Yes, there were quite a few farms along the length of the road.
After crossing the Barry Road, for the final section we were greeted by paddocks of canola in full bloom. It looked so vibrant against the bleak grey sky.
We ended up travelling through another scrubby section and were intrigued by the way the road took various turns. We guessed that when the road was originally developed, which would have been in the gold rush era, they made the track go around substantial trees. I hope they don't try to bring chain saws into this section, as it would be a tragedy to cut down the huge old trees.
As we drove along we noticed a tractor parked at an odd angle on the side of the road. We pulled up, and yes, he was bogged. He had pulled over to let his neighbour drive past and that was where he stopped. His wife arrived on her four wheeler with some max tracks and Mick pulled him out with a sling that, very conveniently, was in the back of the ute. It was nice that we could lend a hand.
We enjoyed seeing lots of wild apple trees in blossom along the way. This section had several and looked lovely. (You will notice rain drops on the windscreen. We had a few scatty showers during our drive.)
There had obviously been people living in this area for many years. Old sheds always intrigue us.
The road took a turn behind the sheds and there was a great collection of old implements in the paddock.
Just a little further on was this abandoned farm house. It has been beautiful in its day.
The road finally ended at the village of Neville and once again I forgot to take a photo. The road was just over 20kms long.
We then had to decide where we would go to next, as it was getting close to lunch time. The obvious choice was the gold rush village of Carcoar.
Then another decision had to be made. Do we take the road that goes past Carcoar Dam or the one past Mount Macquarie. They are both dirt. In the end we decided to go via the Mount Macquarie Road, as we haven't been on that road for a while.
Mount Macquarie is normally covered by a pine plantation, but it appears to have been harvested and some new trees are growing. Mick suggested we could drive up to the top. Once again, he had been there on his dirt bike, but I had not. I didn't realise you could get up there easily in a car.
Up we went along the fire trails. I'm glad we took the ute, as I wouldn't like to take my little car up here.
Half way up we were treated to this view of the
Blayney Wind Farm. It looked so good with the sun shining on it. It was one of the first in Australia. You can just see a tiny bit of the Carcoar Dam to the left of the photo as well.
Finally we reached the summit. The view wasn't all that good from up there, as we were in the clouds. On a clear day it would be spectacular.
As we drove back down you could see for miles. It is wonderful to see so many full dams.
What you can see from here is Lake Rowland, which is part of the Blayney water supply, along with Carcoar Dam. There is no public access to Lake Rowland.
It wasn't long before we came to the end of the dirt road and popped out in Carcoar.
We had visited Carcoar on the bike
in late June and the village was absolutely packed. Being the school holidays we thought it would be the same. To our delight, it was really quiet.
Time for lunch. We thought we would enjoy a pub lunch, but when we went in we were informed that they weren't doing meals. One of the other coffee shops has now closed for good and one on the corner only opens on weekends. The Village Grocer it was. They were doing a good trade, seeing as they were the only cafe open. We enjoyed a lamb and meat pie each, which was delicious. No photo, as we were too busy tucking in.
The cafe had originally been a butcher shop and even still had the old cool room in the corner.
After lunch we went for a wander around the village.
We were rather surprised to see a BMW with Ural side car parked in the street. It was interesting to see how someone else had set theirs up. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to see the owner.
"The Pink Flamingo" is a fun vintage and retro store. They have been open for a few years, but only recently moved to these premises. We have got to know the owners as they often buy things from our swap meet stalls.
We loved the mural on the water tank in one yard.
There are so many beautiful old buildings in the village, and this is only a few of them.
The Anglican Church has been featured on a rather famous painting.
It had some pretty flowers in its grounds.
The Catholic Church was also rather attractive. You could just see the old convent through the shrubs.
And that brought us to the end of our wander around Carcoar. From there we just drove back to Blayney and down the highway to home. We'd had a lovely explore. We enjoyed travelling along the Old Lachlan Road and going to the top of Mount Macquarie was totally unexpected.
We were back home before three o'clock, so a nice easy outing.
Now we will have to put our thinking caps on to decide where we will go to next.
