Our first morning in Merriwa had a bit of excitement when we saw flashing lights up the main street from our caravan window. It wasn’t long before we saw the reason.
Wow! We had heard about the blades for the wind turbines that are being built out west being transported on this route, but had forgotten all about them. What a sight to see. Each blade is 80 metres long. One is transported each day. They leave Newcastle at about 1:00am to avoid the traffic. They are not allowed to travel through a school zone during their reduced speed times, so try to get past Merriwa before 8:00am. From there, there are few settlements for some time and the roads are fairly straight. Once the load is delivered the trucks return to Newcastle to be reloaded and a change of driver for the next trip. The mid section of the long truck concertinas to a normal truck length for the return journey.
Shortly after, another section came through. This happened each morning that we were there, at about 7:30am.
The main reason that we were staying at Merriwa was that I wanted us to go for a drive from there to Willow Tree, located on the New England Highway and then back around to Scone.
Before we headed off, we had a short walk up and down the street at Merriwa.
We had to check out the silo art on our way out of town. The artwork is a representation of the Running of the Sheep that is held in town each June Long Weekend.
Back to our day trip. The reason for this is that I drove that road back in 2013, when I had to return from our gathering at Nundle for a family emergency and I was told it was the quickest way. Well, it was shorter, I don’t know about quicker, pretty, but some was a really steep, narrow, rough goat track with lots of causeways. I wanted to show Mick and to see it again under better circumstances. It is the route that Google Maps sends people, and in the past many have been caught out by the condition of the road. It has been on our wish list for years.
You drive through a really pretty valley.
Then you get to the steep bit. We had heard that the road has had some improvements since that time I drove along it. All I can say is “Wow”! It is now a beautifully sealed, wide road up over the steep hill. We would have no hesitation in taking the van this way in the future. Also, the causeways are now in good condition. It was definitely worth going for the test run.
The view from the top of the hill was stunning,
We stopped at one spot and there were some sweet wildflowers.
More of that wonderful view.
Another paddock of canola.
We called in to a very nice, and popular, cafe at Willow Tree for morning tea before heading along the road we travelled the previous day to Scone. No trains holding us up this time.
This time we stopped and had a walk up and down the main street, taking in all the lovely old buildings.
It was nearly lunch time, but we weren’t really hungry after our morning tea.
So, we continued on to Muswellbook, where we went for another walk up and down the street.
We did stop for lunch this time. Just a couple of shops down from where we ate there was a small alley, with a public loo. It turned out that this was the site of the Niagara Cafe. When it was being demolished they discovered that behind the wall panelling there were murals that had been painted in the 1950s, depicting Wild West scenes, as that was a very popular theme in that era. They have now been preserved.
We noticed, high up under the ceiling that a pigeon has made its nest on top of the spikes added to deter birds roosting. You have to give it top points for ingenuity.
From here we just drove back to Merriwa.
In the early evening, I went for a walk in that gorgeous light.
And that is the end of that day.
More soon.
Those wind turbines are huge, we saw some on the ground in Geelong. Great to see the old murals being looked after, top marks to the pigeon! Once again lots of great old buildings.
ReplyDelete