We Had Visitors - Part 1

We had some very welcome visitors back in October.

Our lovely friends Lou and Tony came to visit from NZ.  Lou blogs over at Manx Girl and we first met on the Isle of Man back in 2009.

We visited them in NZ for my 50th, so Lou & Tony returned the favour for Lou's 50th.  They postponed their trip until October so that Holden fan Tony could attend the Bathurst 1000 car races.  I call that a win, win.

They stayed for just over a week and we crammed lots into that time.

Firstly, on the Wednesday before the race, we attended the street parade of race car transporter trucks and the race drivers being driven in sports cars.

Tony looked quite pleased to be with the Brock Commodore.

Of course he had to check out the open wheeler as well.

Our local park is always nice to stroll through.

Mick visited with Elton John.  Elton John will be performing in Bathurst in January on his farewell concert tour.

In the afternoon we ventured to the National Motor Racing Museum at Mount Panorama.  We were surprised at how quiet it was.  We certainly timed our visit well.

It has a really varied collection of both cars and motorcycles.'

A rather distinctive motorcycle helmet caught my eye.  We never realised that the famous Isle of Man motorcycle racer Joey Dunlop had raced in Australia.  Here was the helmet to prove it.

On the Friday, we went for a road trip to Parkes to visit the radio telescope, otherwise known as "The Dish", as the movie is a particular favourite of theirs.

Our next stop was at the town of Forbes, whose buildings were used in the movie "The Dish", as they are somewhat more picturesque than those of Parkes.  We enjoyed a picnic lunch by the lake and of course there was too much focus on the food, so no photos.

There are some interesting sculptures around the town.

Lou and I noticed an interesting shop, "The Sewing Shop".  It has only recently opened, and had a lovely display.  It turns out it is an alterations type shop, rather than a fabric shop.  Some of those farm fresh eggs came home with us.

There were some storms around, but we seemed to miss most of them.

 

We continued on our way through the small town of Eugowra, with its murals and nice little craft shop.  The town is famous for the Escort Way Gold Robbery by Ben Hall and his Gang.

 The wall hanging depicting the event in the craft shop is rather good.

Our next stop was Canowindra, for a visit to the patchwork shop and of course, most importantly, afternoon tea. I forgot to take photos.

Lou and Tony visited the races on the Thursday, Mick and Tony went on Saturday, while Lou and I visited Anni at the Home Patch and went shopping.  Sunday is the main race day so our guests went to the races again, while boring Mick and I watched on the TV at home.  I still haven't been to the races since the mid 1980s.

I'll share what we got up to after the races next time.

Travelling Home From Binalong - Via The Woodstock Show

On the Sunday of our weekend to Binalong the majority of the group returned to Bathurst by the same route on which we had travelled down.

Mick and I decided to come home a different way.  Not far past Boorowa we turned off so that we could have a look at Wyangala Dam, not far from Cowra. The road used to take you across the dam wall, but about five years ago they closed that, for security reasons, and redirected the road.

As you can see, the water level is quite low. The dam currently still holds 17% of capacity, which is quite a bit less than when the photo was taken at the beginning of September.  In the Millennial Drought it dropped to 9%.

The countryside was relatively green with even a few crops.  However, there was not much length in any of that grass.  I think the conditions would have deteriorated considerably since then.

The other reason we travelled this route was that, on the Saturday morning before we left home, we heard that the Woodstock Show, just near the dam, was to be held on the Sunday.  We visited this many years ago and it was a nice little show.

Firstly, we were greeted by a substantial car and bike show, with a huge variety of vehicles.  

Who'd have thought that a little Corolla, like my first car would be hotted up!

There was a large array of stalls.

Not just one or two rides, but a rather impressive side show alley.

And so many people.  We heard that they had record crowds, and would believe it.  The fact that you couldn't have asked for better weather would have made a huge difference.

Inside the pavilion there was a nice display of produce.

Lots of quilts, art, cooking and photography.

Back outside a feature was the scarecrow competition.

The poor old witch was too funny.

There was even a pet show with a nice variety of pets in the competition.   One section was even for a pet rock.  

Some friends of our from home had their vintage bicycles on display and some other steam punk inspired contraptions.  They always really look the part.

We were surprised at how many people we ran into that we knew, from a variety of locations.  Just as well we were with the right companion on the day.

It's always fun to watch the tractor pull. 

There were big tractors.

Little tractors.

Shiny tractors.

Rough tractors.

And even little bulldozers.

Mick was particularly interested in watching this one, as it is the same model as they had when he was a kid.  He's spent many an hour driving one of those.

After we had had our fill of the show it was time to return to our central tablelands.

The closer we got to home the drier it looked.  That was accentuated by the fact that we were still experiencing colder weather and not much growth had taken place.

Our weekend away was really memorable.  The company was good, the weather couldn't have been better, the scenery and roads were enjoyable on the bike and Binalong and the Woodstock show were terrific to visit, and of course Sophia the bike ran perfectly.  She is lovely to ride on.  We don't seem to get on the bikes very often these days, and each time we do we ask ourselves why we don't do it more.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there are so many things that we want to do and we simply can't do them all.  We will try to get out on the bike a bit more often, even if it is just to go for an afternoon ride to get coffee and cake.