Roma to Taroom

While we were at Roma we were closely following the weather forecast,  as there was rain predicted in the area in the coming days…..and the rain started on our final night there.

Our original plan, or should I say general idea, was to head north to Carnarvon Gorge.  Now, that would not work out if it was wet, so once again we changed our plans.  Mick has this theory that “if it isn’t planned, it can’t go wrong”.  It sometimes drives me nuts, but when wandering around with the caravan, with nothing pre booked and no real time frame, it can work out to be the case.

So, instead of heading north, we headed east towards Mile, once again on a road we haven’t been on for a very long time.

The first place we came to was Wallumbilla, a tiny old railway settlement.  The tourist brochures refer to the “Calico Cottage” located there, so we thought we had better pop in.

Next to the old railway station is a rustic old “Wheat Shed” and a small heritage area, which was closed when we drove through.

“Calico Cottage” had recently moved from the heritage area into the new “Wheat Shed”, a beautiful, spacious, light building, modelled on the original wheat shed.  It's realyl well done. Inside are some Council areas and a delightful craft shop, also serving light meals.  We didn’t need anything at that time, but bought some yummy jam drops, cooked by the ladies in the kitchen there.

Most of the day was driving through farmland and bushland, but there were the occasional interesting features, such as the bright pink pub at Dulacca.

In the middle of nowhere, there was a large wind farm.

We arrived at Miles in time for an early lunch at the bakery.  They made good pies and I had to have a sarsparilla, for old times sake.  When I visited cousins in rural Queensland in the early 1980s, “Sars” was the drink of choice.  I was amazed that Coke wasn’t even sold in the milk bars back then.

While in Miles we visited the local Vinnies and they announced as we entered that all clothing was $3.  I had a bit of a look to see if there were any shirts that Mick could use for working at the bowling club, and found one that looked OK.  I noticed that it was a “Gant” brand, which are fairly good.  It was only once we were back on our way that I noticed that it still had the swing tag attached.  Mr Google told me that the identical shirt retails for $229.00!  Score.  Mick has been advised that it won’t be worn as a work shirt.  I found an as new pair of Corfu jeans as well.  We were rather happy with that.

There is also a charity book store and they had this rather cute bookworm in the front window.

We scored there too.  Mick has been reading a series of books.  There are 6 and he had been missing number 5.  He found it not too long ago.  To his delight, he found Number 7, only published this year.  I also scored, as I found this interesting shaped jigsaw.  I think there may be one piece missing, as there is a cross on the picture, but I can live with that.  Total price for the two items - $5.  Going to Miles turned out to be a good thing.

Once we were on the road again the rain started, as we had expected.

We decided to set up camp mid afternoon at the little town of Taroom, while it wasn't raining.  There is a main free camp site, but you park on the dirt, so not ideal in the weather.  You can also camp in the car park at the Lions Club Park, which is sealed.  That suited much better as it turned out, as we had quite heavy rain during the night.  Carnarvon Gorge received even heavier rain, so our change of plans was the right thing to do.

Day 4 - Canberra to Nelligan

I’m finally back.  We have had poor internet coverage is my excuse.

After our visit to Canberra, we started to head east towards the coast.  Firstly heading back towards Bungendore.  As you can see, the weather was somewhat overcast.

Our intention was to just drive through, but as we went up a side street, we noticed “Phil’s Op Shop”, so of course we stopped.  What a bonus that was.

It turns out that the op shop is run by St Philips for Anglicare and on Friday mornings they host a community morning tea in the op shop.  They insisted we have morning tea, which consisted of barista coffee and a mix of bought and home made biscuits and slices.  They prepared the coffee while we went shopping. The morning tea was as good as any coffee shop.  I found several doileys and embroidered hand towels and a book.  An extra donation was made for the morning tea as well, as we were going to buy morning tea somewhere anyway.  It was nice to see a quilt on the back wall and some pretty doiley curtains.

Our next stop was Braidwood. We just had a walk up and down the street, as we didn’t need to get morning tea.  The quilt shop was closed, not that I needed anything.  Our only purchase was bread from the bakery.

After Braidwood the scenery made a rather rapid change from tablelands to coastal.  The grass was lush and green.

Then, as we started down Clyde Mountain we had the tall trees and were met by some rather moody, misty weather.

Our destination for the next three nights was Nelligan, which is on the Clyde River, just upstream from Batemans Bay.  Our van site had beautiful lush grass.  It was a very popular caravan park, being the weekend, with lots of families.  We were just going to have a chilled couple of days.

My first task was to finish the book I was reading.  A nice, light enjoyable read.  It was a nice gift from Jennifer of Bronze Wombat. 

We’re Off Again

Don’t you love how you can make things up as you go along once you are retired.

We were supposed to be heading off on our latest adventure today……then Mick came up with an idea.  (He often reminds me that he comes up with some good ideas.)  As we were pretty much organised, why not set off late morning yesterday?  This meant we could make a detour and take the scenic route.  It sounded like a good idea to me.

We are headed to Canberra, but rather than go directly through Boorowa, we have headed a little further west to Young.  

Young is one of those towns that is always on the way to somewhere else, so we don’t usually stop to have a good look around.  We did a few years ago come over for the Cherry Festival, but that’s the only time.

We had a nice wander up and down the street.  There are some beautiful old buildings.  You know I love looking at the tops of buildings in country towns.  We were surprised at the size of the shopping area as well as the industrial side of things.  It is apparently the main hub for the region.

Mick was delighted to find a book he has been searching for in one of the op shops.  I must say, the two op shops we visited were large and very well set out.  There is also a lovely wool shop called “The Wool Room”.  Sadly, they didn’t have what I was after.  I’m looking for a red 4 ply hand dyed sock wool to knit another scarf.  They seem to be rather thin on the ground.  Anyway, it was a lovely, well stocked little shop I would like to visit again some time.

We camped the night at the local Showgrounds.  There are some beautiful old pavilions. Apparently, some of them date back to the early 1900s.

We really liked the old sheep sheds.  It would be nice to come back one year to the local show, which is held in September.

We were warned that there would be harness racing on last night.  Most of the activity was on the other side of the arena, so we could hardly even hear it. 

Although we know nothing about harness racing and aren’t really interested, we wandered over to have a look.  It was only a very small crowd watching.

We supported the local Lions Club by buying a steak sandwich each for tea. That was a bonus.

We had a chuckle at one feature.  Hollywood has their big sign, as does Mount Panorama at Bathurst.  It turns out that so does Young, although it isn’t quite as prominent.

Once we returned to our van it was time to cook some pancakes for dessert, as it was Pancake Tuesday.  We always forget to pack something, and this time it was some sugar and golden syrup.  I had remembered to buy some pancake mix (I’m cheating, I’m on holidays).  Anyway, it was a gorgeous evening to be sitting outside enjoying our pancakes.

And to cap it all off, we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

A Fun Day Out at the Sunflowers

On Sunday we had our first Fun Day Out together for the year.

Last year, after the event, we heard about a sunflower farm being opened to the public to raise funds for charity.  It was the first year of the event, so when we heard that it was on again this year we put it in the diary to go and have a look see.  Sunday was the day that finally worked for us.

After several days of temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s, Sunday was a bit better, with some rain about the district, not that we received more than a sprinkle here at home. It did however, make some stunning scenery of the summer grasses against the dark sky.

Our first stop was at the pub in Newbridge for a nice counter lunch and a mosey in the craft and bric-a-brac store next door.  Mick found a vintage LP and Wilbur Smith book and I found a metre of 1970s cotton to add to my growing collection.

We knew roughly where to find the sunflowers, at Hobbys Yards, but it wasn’t until you were nearly there that there was any signage.  You can’t see it from the main road, rather you have to turn up a very minor country road.

The story behind this is that the lady owner of the property wanted to plant some sunflowers, so last year they planted five acres, just for fun.  When there was quite a bit of interest, they opened it as a fund raiser.  This year their charity is Motor Neurone Disease, with the aim to raise $1,000.  They are confident of reaching their goal.  So what do they do with the sunflowers after they have finished flowering?  They let their sheep into the paddock and they make short work of eating them all.

When you get there, there is a paddock for parking and just the paddock of sunflowers.  There is an honesty box for donations and a bucket with a couple of pairs of secateurs for you to pick some flowers.  They are open every day from sunrise to sunset.

The flowers are looking a little worse for wear this year, as the weather has not been very kind.  It has been so hot and dry that they are suffering.  However, they are still lovely to visit.

We had a nice wander around.  We were surprised that there were only a couple of other cars in the car park, so you felt like you had the flowers to yourself.

The bees were enjoying themselves.

We took the obligatory selfie.

And picked a small bunch to take home.

It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Our bunch of blooms are making the kitchen look nice and cheerful.  

To cap off a wonderful day, we were treated to a firey sunset.