Last visits on the way home

We stopped at Blayney, a small historic town.  The village of Millthorpe nearby is more preserved but we did not take photos there.

Two picturesque churches in town.

Carcoar Dam may be our last stop before getting back to Canberra.  It is a very nice camping area on the edge of the water.  There are cold showers available which may be nice on a hot day like today.

We have two nights to spend before getting back to Canberra and we may spend both nights right here.  I don't think we could find a better spot to end this very special holiday of eight months during the Covid-19 pandemic which made life miserable for most of the world.  We managed to largely escape its reach, as we sheltered in WA.  Sitting here, reading in the shade of large trees, overlooking the water is a very nice experience to end with.

We went into Carcoar, another historic town.  Here is the Anglican Church which the town is contemplating selling.

Painted mural on a water tank in the town.

We changed our minds and our very last stay on this trip was at the Abercrombie River.   It was a really hot day and we bathed in the river a number of times.

Here is Winnie among the trees.  This was a very nice spot to end this great holiday.

In praise of Orange, NSW

 This has been a nostalgic trip for Andrew who grew up in Orange.  He left to go to university at age 16 and never lived there again.

The family house in Edward Street.

What used to be the corner store Eddy's is now a private dwelling.  It still looks like a corner store :-)

Orange East Public School.

Spring Creek Dam, near where the sawmill had been where Andrew's father and mother worked in their early years  in Australia.

Orange is a very nice town, full of old buildings.  The town council has heritage listed them all so there are very few modern buildings in the centre of town, thus retaining the character of the town.  This week's Weekend Australian magazine had an article on the stream of tree changers in Oz.  This is people, young and old, who are leaving the big city centres and relocating to regional areas.  Orange is apparently one of the ones attracting many of these people, often from Sydney.  They bring business opportunities, money, open new restaurants and cafes and generally keep the town thriving and economically vibrant.  Even Covid had little impact on Orange with only two people affected both of whom recovered.

The lovely grocery store cum cafe The Agrestic Grocer we went to for morning tea and where I bought a big jar of marinated olives.  

Our hostess Narelle who went to Andrew's school but a few years behind him. His sister Joan and Narelle were, and remain, best friends.  Not only did we meet up with Narelle whom we have known for a long time, but we also met up with two other people from Andrew's class at high school.

The beautifully decorated sour dough bread which Nikki could only admire from afar.  But it certainly looked good enough to eat and was very photogenic.

Last night we went to a wonderful restaurant Bodhi Vegetarian Restaurant.  We had tried to go to Mr Lim, a Korean restaurant but it was fully booked but I am glad we could not go there as the vegetarian option was really nice.  As well as the food, they had a great variety of teas to choose from and our choice was particularly flavoursome.

Before leaving we drove to the Pinnacle Lookout and climbed up high to get a lovely view over the surrounding countryside.

Bathurst

We are spending the night at the Lions Club Berry Park here and will play bridge on Monday morning at the Bathurst Bridge Club.

The Bathurst Court House.

The Mitchell Conservatorium.

The Conversation by Stephen Hart which was a commissioned artwork for the Bathurst Regional Art Council and partly financed by the Australian and NSW Bicentennial Arts Councils.

Hill End and around

Hill End is a small historic site of a small gold mining town where some of the original workers' cottages and buildings have been preserved in their natural state.  We stayed at the Village Campground which was very pleasant with hot showers and a washing machine - every camper's dream come true.

The beautiful tree-lined drive into the town.

The 1948 painting by Russell Drysdale of his friend Donald Friend which hangs in the NSW Art Gallery.

The church in the painting.

The lush green countryside we are seeing on this part of the trip.

After Hill End we visited another small historic village, Sofala, where we had the immense good fortunate to find the Rustic Cafe where we had the best sausage roll on this trip.  Andrew still prefers the sausage rolls at the Overlander Roadhouse in WA but my vote goes to the Rustic Cafe.  We are doing a David Stretton and Margaret Pomeranz here :-)

Safely in NSW again

Once again, no border checks and we just  drove straight through from Adelaide to Broken Hill.  A big drive but we now know there are no impediments in the way for us to reach home so we can relax.  And hopefully the short time we spent in the infected city have left us untouched by the nasty virus.  The brief brush with it was sobering. after eight months being safe, locked in WA.

The Sculpture Park just outside Broken Hill.  In 1992, a huge amount of earth and rocks were moved in order to build this sculpture park.  Fred Hollows was involved and he is buried somewhere here.

A view of Broken Hill from the hill where the park is situated.

Broken Hill Town Hall.

Some other attractive building in the town.

The Cobar town sign.  It was a town that was very kind to us.

On a stinking hot day, the lady at the Visitors Centre told us that if we had seniors cards we could go to the town pool for free.  In fact, a pensioner's card is what was required but the pool lady let us in for free anyway.  It is a lovely complex and the cool down was very much appreciated.

The Municipal buildings in Cobar.

Mural on the toilet block in Cobar.

The open-cut mine at the edge of Cobar.  What used to be a town for copper mining is now mining for gold.

From here we are slowly meandering towards Canberra.  Frankly, we would rather be home now but we want to do the right thing by Annie and Peter and not dislodge them from what has been their home for the last eight months.  

The Bogan statue at Nyngan in the Bogan Shire.

More silo art at Dunedoo.  Here we had a guy on a crane touching up the artwork.

Bronze eagle.

Replica of old Cobb and Co carriage on display in Nyngan.

Another town mural on the Dunedoo public toilet block.

The charming old town of Gulgong where most of the old buildings have been preserved and the frontispieces intact - thus we get the Butcher's Cafe.  

Hotel.