Taking Monique to the Spa - Part 2

After visiting the Crookwell open gardens we headed across to Taralga, where we had booked a room for the night at the local pub.  It’s a lovely old building that has been undergoing some serious renovations.  Our room was freshly furnished.  We opted to go “Shared bathroom” rather than ensuite.  They can often be a bit dodgy, but this pub actually had two fully self contained bathrooms for the ladies.  You can’t get much better than that.

Once we were settled in we went for a bit of a walk up the street.

It was a lovely evening, so we enjoyed our dinner out on the pub verandah.  We felt it was rather hot during the night, and were somewhat surprised that the minimum temperature was only down to 21C!! We are not used to anything over 10C at this stage of the season, especially as Taralga is traditionally cooler than home.

The following morning we got away nice and early to deliver Monique for her service.

While there we were able to see the nice collection of vintage machines.

Centre stage was the rare East German machine we gave him.  It is the black one to the left of the green Elna Supermatic.

We now had time to kill, so went in search of a cafe to partake of “second breakfast”.  We were rather pleased with the one we found.  It just happened that we parked the car right in front of a patchwork shop….. and I didn’t go in.  Very strong of me.

With Mick being a bit of a cricket tragic, we decided to go and have a look at the Don Bradman Cricket Museum, housed beside the Bradman Oval.  

Don grew up in Bowral and played his early games with the local club on these grounds.

They even have his first cricket bat on display.

Another section talked about the evolution of cricket from a game played by shepherds in the 1300s by throwing a rock into a hole to what we now know.  This is a bat from the 1700s. Just a tad different from the modern version.

It was also interesting to learn that bowling over armed was developed by ladies, as they couldn’t bowl underarm, as they were hindered by their hooped skirts.

The museum also covered more recent developments in the game, in particular Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket of the 1970s.

They had  a large display of magazine ads from the time.  They were fun to have a look at.

Finally, there was a portrait gallery of more recent cricketers.

Outside, Mick posed with the statue of “The Don”.

So much detail.

It was about then that we heard that Monique was ready to collect and take home.  We just had a quick bite to eat in Goulburn for a late lunch and drove straight home via Oberon.  Yes, the road was rough.

It worked out that we had a very enjoyable couple of days away.