NSW Trip Day 7: Orange -> Blue Mountains

It was just an overnight stop in Orange so up and packed the car and on the road again. Driving through Lucknow LiAM was impressed with the mining shafts he could see. Bits of the drive to Bathurst were familiar to me. From Bathurst we turned off towards Oberon, then through to Jenolan Caves down a road that was very windy towards the end – tight, switchback curves. Coming to the caves from that direction confused me a little, it took me a while to feel familiar with the place, but once we were parked and down amongst the buildings it felt right.

We had lunch from the bistro and tried not to share it with the rosellas that were flying onto our chairs and even the table once. We went on a tour of the Orient Cave, which is apparently the prettiest cave in the world. To get into the cave we went through a man made tunnel which was very interesting for our mining enthusiast kids. LiAM had also wondered if there would be spiders in the cave – and as we entered the tunnel there was a spider on the roof a few metres in, so he was happy even before we’d reached the natural part of the cave. The cave was beautiful, quite spectacular in places. I felt the guide did a little too much explaining about how the caves were made etc when we were in the first, small chamber, where there wasn’t so much to look at, and the kids got a bit bored, but once we moved on there was enough to see and marvel at that everyone picked up again. There were a lot of steps and Millie managed all of them – it was a bit steep and narrow for us to carry her, so I was very impressed that she managed by herself. LiAM and Caitlin answered lots of the guide’s questions and I took lots of photos.

Once out of the cave (into the bright sunlight – we’d been talking the day before about how it would feel to come out of a dark cave into the light, and we got to see what it was like) we walked down through the Grand Arch and then under the road to the Blue Lake. The water was so clear we could see most of the bottom in places, and there were also beautiful reflections of the trees, and the rocks and the arch – and there was a platypus in there! It came up to the surface repeatedly as we walked along the edge of the lake, then would dive down and be gone for a while, then back up. Very very exciting. The kids did a bit of climbing up some rocks next to the path – they got quite high enjoyed exploring the bush there. Back to the car after a toilet stop, using the toilets built in to the rocks under the Grand Arch. We sat Caitlin in the front for the drive out as it is a long windy road and she often feels sick in that situation, and it helped as she was fine today. (I drove so that I wasn’t sitting in the back feeling sick myself).

From the caves we went to my friend S’s house in Hazelbrook (between Katoomba and Springwood in the Blue Mountains). She and her family have just lived in Canada for a year on teacher exchange, and it was great to hear all their stories and see lots of photos. We realized that we have known each other for 30 years this year – great to spend an evening catching up with each other and with our families. Her girls are much older than our kids, but they all played together at times and everyone had an enjoyable evening. We’re staying in a cottage own by one of S’s friends – we got here quite late so basically just jumped straight into bed and crashed.

NSW Trip Day 6: Dubbo -> Orange

We all had a bit of a sleep in so when we got up we packed the car and cleaned up and headed out. We didn’t get time yesterday to visit the Zoo shop so we’d agreed to go back out there this morning (it was only 3km from where we stayed). The kids each selected some zoo souvenirs to buy with their money, and we watched the lemurs again for a while, then decided to one last drive around the zoo – our ticket from yesterday was still valid (and it hadn’t cost us anything anyway, as we have reciprocal membership through Melbourne Zoo– a family ticket at Dubbo was about $130 so we’ve certainly got our value out of our membership this year!). We said goodbye to each of the animals as we drove past, and we weren’t going to get out at all but the hippos were out of the water and near the fence, and the kids hadn’t seen the hippos close up the day before – when we jumped out, they were doing a feed and keeper talk so we saw all 5 hippos up close and learnt a bit more about them. Then back in the car to cruise past the rest of the animals, and then we left Dubbo for Orange, briefly stopping in Wellington on the way for some fries.

Orange has grown a lot since I lived there (over 30 years ago so not a surprise!). We drove into town and I recognized a street name and showed everyone my primary school and our church, then found 2 of the houses we’d lived in while we were there. Finding the 3^rd house was trickier – I thought I knew the way but came to a dead end – the new Northern Distributor cuts through the country road we used to live on, so I found a way around that, then drove much further than I thought I needed to, and realized I’d missed it. I rang Dad and he described how to find the house, and on the way back I thought it might have been demolished – then I found it, tucked in next to a truck depot, and looking much smaller than I excpected it to be!

We checked into our caravan park then went to Cook Park for a late picnic lunch. I knew exactly how to get there and which side to drive to so that we could see the ducks and the swings – don’t know where that memory came from. The duck pond looked slightly different than I remembered but the swings looked exactly the same, as did the bandstand, the fountain, the little gazebo with seats in it, the avenues of trees, the rose garden. It was so cool to be there with the kids and have them play in all the places I used to play, and of course feed the ducks all our bread ends (and the crusts off our sandwiches). There was one big fluffy black and white duckling that the kids wanted to adopt, but we did leave him there… There were piles of leaves on the ground too which were lots of fun to run through.

Autumn leaves in Cook Park

Feeding the ducks in Cook Park

It was getting towards sunset so we left the park and went out to Mt Canobolas – past our old property on the way. We arrived at the top of the mountain in plenty of time to see the sunset, very pretty – and rather cold! After admiring the view for a while we went back down to Lake Canobolas as it began to get dark. We drove to the far side and walked a little way out on the dam wall, then Caitlin and I walked all the way back across and the others drove back. The kids had a brief play on the beach in the dark then we went and got supplies for dinner and back to the cabin.

Sunset from Mt Canobolas

It was Tony’s first time in Orange and I really enjoyed showing him and the kids all the places I remembered – it still looks like a really nice place to live.

NSW Trip Day 5 - Dubbo

The kids were very excited that the pool at this caravan park was open (the one in Griffith had been closed for the winter) so after a jump on the jumping pillow they went for a swim. The water had been heated to 20 degrees so it wasn’t freezing and they enjoyed it.

Once dry and dressed we headed out to Western Plains Zoo. The first thing we saw, in the free area where you buy tickets, were ring-tailed lemurs on an island – an excellent start to the day especially for LiAM. From there we drove our car around the zoo, getting out to walk to a few exhibits at a time then driving to the next section. I have always loved this zoo with its large open range type exhibits, and sharing it with the kids was very exciting. (The areas are large for each animal, and set up so that you can’t really see the fences or moats between you and the animals, so it feels almost like you are there with them). We saw black rhino, meerkats (including a baby), wombats (Tony’s favourite), African wild dogs, giraffes, simiangs (they were very entertaining, the baby only moved by somersaulting or spinning, and kept climbing up the rope then jumping on his mum), hippos, bongos, lions, elephants, white rhino, cheetahs, zebras (Millie’s favourite, including a baby having a feed from his mum), tigers, blackbuck (Caitlin’s favourite – a large herd, with a couple of beautiful dark males who stood out against the lighter females), buffalo, bison, onagers, przewalski horses, otters, greater one-horned rhino, dingos, emus, koalas, wallabies, ostriches, various antelope and deer, Galapagos turtles (including a baby, who was surprisingly small, the size of a small puppy maybe), spider monkeys and black and white ruffed lemurs. The highlight for me was definitely the cheetahs – there was a mum with dark stripes down her back and large, dark spots on her sides, and three cubs – they raced around and chased each other and wrestled together and jumped in and out of the tree, it was very exciting and amusing to watch. We made it around the zoo in time for the kids to have a play in the playground and watch the lemurs a bit more, then came back to the cabin, exhausted. LiAM said it was the best zoo day he’s had. The map had a list of 30 featured animals and LiAM was ticking them off as we saw those animals, he was thrilled that we got to them all.

mother and cheetah cubs

mother and baby meerkat

Blackbuck

Once back here the boys swept up the leaves around the cabin so we could stop trekking them all over our floor, and the girls went for another swim which Caitlin found was a perfect antidote to being so tired. I had a bath in the tiny bath in the amenities block which I did find relaxing – I haven’t gotten all of the bindi from my foot yet so I was walking tenderly and my whole body was aching by the end of the day. A relaxing evening in the cabin and then a relatively early night for most of us.

NSW Trip Day 4: Griffith -> Dubbo

Millie and I were up early and went for a walk in the dark around the caravan park. Once everyone was up we got on with packing and cleaning up and were on the road again by 10. We bought some mandarins from a roadside stall, then went and saw the house where Tony and I lived when we were first married, then on to the hospital where Caitlin was born, and took some rainy photos in front of the current construction work going on there. We also checked out the main De Bortoli vineyard where Tone used to work.

On to West Wyalong where we had a very quick play in the park before it started raining heavily. We jumped back in the car and had some sandwiches before continuing on. We reached ‘The Dish’ – the CSIRO radio telescope dish - around 3pm and spent a bit over an hour in the visitors centre and in the grounds. I had never been there (possibly one of the few NEW places I’ll be seeing this trip) and it was impressively large (64m in diameter in fact). The visitors centre had some fun and interesting facts and activities about space and the telescope, and an information scavenger hunt and activity book for the kids. The rain stopped briefly enough for us to get some photos of us in front of the dish too.

Kids in front of The Dish

We drove to Dubbo through a massive lightning storm – very impressive to watch from the flat land we were driving through. The caravan park was a hit with the kids, with a big playground and a jumping pillow. We had Indian Takeaway for tea then I tried to remove the remains of a cats-eye bindi from my foot (I packed the car in bare feet this morning and was very careful on the tiny bit of grass I needed to walk over, but picked this up from a bit of gravel. Ironic that after saying to the kids, a few times, that its more dangerous to be barefoot in Griffith because the bindis are nasty, I was the one who got one! If you've never seen one, look at the pictures in this article)

I was happy with the car trip today – this was our longest driving day (except perhaps for the final 2 days of the trip, depending when we decide to leave Sydney) and it went well. New fancy headphones for each of the kids helped, so they could each play their own devices/listen to their own music if they wanted to, as well as listening to Harry Potter 7 on audio CD and playing games, talking about the scenery, and dividing the trip into 3 sections.

NSW Trip Day 3: Griffith

This morning Tony went for a morning game of golf at Griffith Golf Course, and the kids and I had a quiet morning at the caravan park. We played a few games in the cabin then went exploring, played in the playground, and played tennis on the tennis courts for a while. After Tony got back Millie and I went to the shops – I got some new leggings which I’ve been needing for a while (and the need had become more urgent when I’d put on my last pair without holes this morning – and realized they also had holes in them…) and some food for lunch.

Once we’d had lunch we set off to Leeton – it was fun driving along familiar roads and seeing new houses or crops in some places, with others looking exactly the same. (One big difference is that it looks like a lot of the rice farmers are now growing cotton). In Leeton we drove to the hospital so LiAM could see where he was born, and then went and played in the playground near the main street. Some of the equipment was the same as we knew it, but they’ve also put in 2 awesome flying foxes – everyone except Millie had a go – it was fast and a bit scary and lots of fun. We got some afternoon tea from Micks Bakehouse and then drove back to Whitton to eat it in the park there. There is a new skatepark, but the rest of the playground is exactly as Caitlin remembers it from when she was tiny. I went down the big slide for old times sake and it was high and scary just like I remembered – glad I wasn’t doing it while balancing a toddler like I used to! Tony had a beer at the pub and chatted to the new owners about the changes in the pub since we left (really only changes in ownership, it looked exactly the same). The kids rode their scooters at the skate park and played with one of the local boys, then we scooted and walked around to our old house. At first glance it looked exactly the same, but they’ve put in a new fence, and air con in the garage, and several sheds in the backyard. There was a guy mowing the back lawn and the kids went and said hello – he was the guy who bought the house from us and we had a bit of a chat about the renovations they’ve done inside as well. We then wandered down to the butcher – as we’d driven into town we’d wondered if the butcher would still be there, and we doubted it as the guy was pretty old when we left – but driving past we could see him sitting in the same chair in the window, reading his paper, as he always was 8-10 years ago. So we bought our dinner from him – and he recognized our faces and wasn’t surprised when we said we used to live there.

LiAM with his impressive chocolate cake

Caitlin on the slide in Whitton

Home to the caravan park and Tony cooked a bbq and we watched tv and chatted until we went to bed.

(I haven't uploaded any photos from my camera yet - will try to do that in the next couple of days so I can add some photos to this post) - I have now done this!