Mar 8, 9 Temora, Junee, Gundagai,Yarrangobilly

Mar 8

We spent last night on a side street in Temora, very hot night. This morning we drove to the Temora Rural Museum. It started with a small building with exhibits of clothing from the 70's, domestic odds and ends, wringer washers, a coffee maker with glass globes one on top of the other, sewing machines, etc. Then we went out the back and into a huge exhibition area. They had Don Bradford's (he of cricket fame) cottage, a building full of small motors, another of farm equipment, a sheep shearing shed, blacksmith shop, a school house, pioneer cottage, old newspaper office with printing press. It just went on and on.
Temora is in the heart of wheat country. There are vast fields of wheat, miles of them, railhead with grain bins, scattered wheat stations. It is farm land. The museum was preparing for a big exhibition day on Saturday. The men had taken the tractors and harvesters out and cleaned them in preparation. Sat. they are going to harvest wheat with the old machines and put on all kinds of displays. We were sorry to miss it.
But we drove south to Junee. First stop was the Licorice and Chocolate Factory. We had a tour that explained how licorice was made. I don't generally like licorice, but a small piece covered in chocolate was pretty good. They also made chocolate covered nuts, cherries, and so on. They had just tried for the Guinness record for the biggest smash cake. And that is a hollow chocolate cake filled with candies (lollies). Theirs had been cakes in the shapes of locomotives and train cars.
Junee has the largest full circle railroad roundhouse in the southern hemisphere. Half of it is now a museum with vintage railroad cars and engines. One of the cars looked just like those Harry Potter. The other half is a working roundhouse, repairing Diesel engines.
On to Wagga Wagga, the largest city in the area. We just stopped at the info centre to use the wifi, then drove to Gundagai, where we stopped for the night. We're in a free camping area by a creek under eucalyptus trees where it's nice and cool. During dinner, cockatoos came by the dozens and are they noisy things, loud squawky birds. They've quieted down now.

Mar 9
Up early, in search of the Dog on the Tuckerbox statue. Found it off the highway a few Kms north of town. Tucker is slang for food, so the dog is sitting on some guys food box and there was a famous story written about it. Back in Gundagi we stopped to see the Marble Masterpiece. The same man who did the Dog statue worked in marble. He spent 28 years building a miniature cathedral to highlight the beauty of Australian marble. He used 20,958 pieces of marble to build it. The last few yeas he became blind in one eye, but was able to finish it and another miniature altar piece as well.
Down the road a bit we came into a town and saw a cricket match being played, so we stopped. They were junior players, maybe early teens. We were given a quick explanation of the game, just the bare bones, but it made it more enjoyable. The fella who explained it was a baseball player himself. Basketball is also big here, but not as big as rugby and Aussie rules football. Sports are really big here
South of there we joined the Snowy Mt Hwy that went through the mountains, past reservoirs made when several rivers were dammed in the Snowy Mt Scheme to supply water to large populations. The mountain were covered in eucalyptus forests and went on and on.
We were on our way to Yarrangobilly Caves, down more twisty mountain highway, until the turnoff to the caves, then it became one way and even more twisty. We took the tour into Jersey Cave, the first cave discovered in the area. It had some unique black and grey flowstones, thought to be caused by air pollutants that got into the cave. Pollutants like soot from bush fires. The black layers appear several times over the life of the cave. The guide had 30 years of cave experience and certainly knew his stuff, but in the Aussie way he called stalactites and stalagmite Yarrangobillys 'hangy downy and pointy uppy things'.
Here McDonald's is Maccas, Salvation Army is Salvos, breakfast is brekky, a certain eucalyptus is the stringy bark tree, and so on.
There was a thermal pool near the caves, so we hiked down a steep trail to have a dip. It turned out that it wasn't as thermal as we had hoped, about 80 degrees - cooler than the air. Also, the pool was about 8 feet deep and a breeding habitat for some kind of frog, so we sat in the kiddie pool for a while and hiked back up.
On through the mountains into great valleys, up on wide plateaus. There is a vastness to the country that reminded us of Alaska and the expanses of the Canadian Mountains.
We stopped in Bemboka for the night and asked about a free campsite we found in our Camps book. The fella told us he thought it cost $10 and to go to the pub to get more information. So up to the pub, no one inside, but a couple of men were sitting outside, so we asked them. Turned out one of them had the keys to the showers and would take us to the camp, but asked if we wanted a beer first. So we had some beers, Sam paid for the 3 of us. The guy was a heavy smoker and I asked if I could look at his pack of cigarettes. The brand name was very small, but the health warnings were very large and both sides had pictures of mouth cancer. That seemed a strong deterrent to us, but even the $20/pack price didn't seem to be enough for the gang at the pub.

Mar 7 Yass, Cootamundra

Mar 7

Left Canberra heading north to Yass, took a while because we got petrol and groceries and went to a hardware store.
We've done grocery shopping at Coles and Woolworth's. Both are usually big stores and the layout is not what we're used to. prices are high compared to the States: bananas $3.50 per kilo or $1.59 a lb.; fish varies, but can be $35.00/kg or $16/lb.; soup 3.50 a can; bread 3.50 a loaf. Aldi's stores are also common and IGAs in small towns. The Aldi we went into had everything from garden hoses to a huge food selection and cheaper than the other stores.
We've seen Kmart, Target - even a Target Country in a small town. The Targets mostly carry clothing and home items, like bedding. Most towns have a Crazy 'somebody' store that have discounted items, a bit like the Dollar stores. And the small towns we've been through that are commerce centers for the area have lots of local shops and cafes.
Yass was a fairly small town in the sheep and wheat growing part of New South Wales. The information lady said her father raised sheep for fine wool, used in Italian suits, but has trouble competing with the Chinese. He had 23,000 acres for the wool sheep, some lambs for eating and wheat. Many farmers are having trouble surviving and are selling off parcels of land. Land in that area goes for $900 to $1300 an acre.
We walked around Yass then drove on to Cootamundra, home of Don Bradford the most famous cricketer in Australia. We talked to a lady, Yvonne, at the information centre and she gave us good directions to his museum and the Cricket Captains walk. She said her house was near the walk and we should stop by for tea and biscuits. We saw the museum and a film about Sir Bradford and were thoroughly confused about the game of cricket. Right now Australia is playing India and have lost 3 Test matches, which we know is bad, but that's it.
Then we drove to the walk and it had busts of every captain of the Australian cricket team.

As we were leaving, Yvonne drove up and motioned us to her house. She invited us in for tea, biscuits and conversation. She was a woman in her 70's, she was a clerk for the Presbyterian Church, the head of the Elders Council and she preached at a church in a small town nearby.
She had recently been given permission to perform marriages. She explained how she had had to go through a long process to be able to do that. The only person who voted against her was the local preacher who said she was so popular she would get all of the weddings! There are very,very few women ministers in the Presyterian Church here. She had also run her own sheep station when her husband died. She told a story of her mother in the hospital when Yvonne was born. Her mother was French and a lifelong smoker. When the sister (nurse) came upon her nursing the baby with a cigarette in her mouth, she was horrified and, but her mother calmly said, "I'm keeping the ashes off her head."
What an excellent storyteller and what fun that was.

Mar 4, 5, 6 Goulburn Canberra

Mar 4 Goulburn
Goulburn is a small town of 24,000, but is historically significant. It was the first inland town established. It was the original terminus of the railroad from Sydney and is the merino capital of Australia. A short walking tour highlighted the architecture of various buildings in town. We stopped in the Cathedral Church of St Peter & Paul and the Cathedral of St Saviour. At the latter, the guide was enthusiastic about her recent trip to the US and our national parks. It was a charming town and had a busy downtown.
Now we're in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory.
Last night Sam made some tuna salad, for our quick lunches. We had gotten some cans of tuna from the couple from Calgary. Surprise! it was tuna with tomato and onion. It made a pretty good salad.

Mar 5 Canberra
First, Parliament House, in the Capital Centre of Canberra. We had a tour of the building and a wonderful introduction to Austrialian government. Compared to what we have heard of US politics lately, the Aussie way sounds extremely civilized.
The building itself is underground and you can go on the roof and walk on the grass up there. That symbolizes that the government is under the people, not above. Another interesting feature was the Members Hall, between the 2 chambers. It contains a small fountain, the noise of which assures that conversations between legislators are private. The Great Hall contains the 2nd largest tapestry in the world, a rendering of the painting of eucalyptus trees.
From there we walked to the National Library and their Treasure Room. It displayed various items from their collection; the diaries of Captain Cook, letters from Captain Bligh, a Coverdale Bible (first complete English translation), a letter from Louis Pasteur, the original music and words for 'Waltzing Matilda', world's smallest atlas, plus a letter from Charles Dickens to his sons, who emmigrated to Australia.
It was another walk to the National Gallery of Art. We took a tour of their Aboriginal collection and learned so much about the art and the symbolism of the designs. The most surprising was that since the Aboriginals are painting their land, they paint on the ground, not on vertical surfaces. We saw one painting displayed that way. It was of sand dunes and we could really see the hills and valleys, it was almost like 3D.
To get to The Australian War Memorial we hiked around part of Lake Burley Griffin and walked up the Anzac Parade. It was too late to see very much of the museum, but we were able to watch the closing ceremony. A bagpiper came out of the Hall of Memory and played a Scottish lament. It was quite moving.

Mar 6 Canberra
Today we went to the National Museum of Australia. It's a new museum, just 10 years old. It tells the Australian story thematically. The Land area told of the aboriginal land uses, then farming and raising sheep. There was a giant windmill once stood 100 feet tall from a station (ranch) in the outback as well as equipment used by gold miners. There was the prototype of the first Holden, an Australian made car. This one was designed by Aussies and made in Detroit in 1947 by GM hen shipped to Sydney and driven at night to Melbourne, so no one would see the design. Another exhibit told of an Englishman, who had never been to Australia, who was convinced that because there were so many rivers, there should be a great inland sea. So, Charles Strut, was sent into the outback with a whaling ship, which he and his men took up rivers as far as they could, then carried into the desert. When he returned to Sydney, he had traveled over 3000 miles with it.
We took the bus back to the Australian War Memorial. We had a lovely tour with an older gentleman who was very knowledgeable about the museum and had traveled extensively to battlefields. The Memorial museum covers all conflicts that Australians have fought in, but primarily Gallipoli, WWI and WWII. Gallipolli is in Turkey and that is where the Australia New Zealand Army Command (ANZAC) made their reputation for bravery and where Anzac cookies come from. It is an extremely well designed museum with dioramas, artifacts, airplanes from all eras and light and sound shows.
There were multitudes of school children there both times we went. We found out that, by law, the government pays for accommodations for school children to come to Canberra to visit the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House.
The closing ceremony was an honor guard and a bugler playing 'Last Post' (their version of Taps)

We've been in several campgrounds now and there are some differences with those in the US. The sites are generally small with electric hookup and a place to drain grey water. Australian rvs don't have holding tanks for black waste, they have cassettes that have to be removed and emptied in a dump site. Campgrounds have those. Many campers are in vans without facilities, so the showers and toilets buildings have been fairly large and very clean. Some of the campgrounds had laundries, but the campers mainly use the washers and then hang clothes on campground provided clothes lines. When the sun is out, things can dry very quickly.
The rvs themselves aren't usually as big as those we see in the States. Lots of people use vans or small trailers. We've seen some units suited to the bush, trucks that have tent like structures that fold into the back or trailers that fold out into tent like structures.
At Canberra we met Colleen & Mike who were in the process of selling their house and going on the road with a truck and tent trailer. We also met Sandy and Alan who were from Perth and had been on the road for 10 months. They had traveled a bush track across the country in a truck set up for the bush. It sat high off the ground with a tent thing on the back and had a huge antenna for a ham radio in case they had trouble in the outback.

Mar 3

Mar 3
Up early to see the sun rise over the water, but it was too grey.
Drive down to Wollongong, Australia's 3rd largest city. There were 2 lighthouses on Flagstaff Hill Park that we walked around. Then we drove over to the Univ of Wollongong, where Jacob spent his junior year. It's a beautiful campus and deserted on a Sunday morning, so we drove around it.
Next on the agenda was the Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist Temple in the Southern Hemisphere. There were three shrines, one to the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in the Pagoda. The main shrine had five large Buddhas; Confidence, Longevity, Wisdom, inner Beauty and inner Peace and 10,000 smaller Buddhas. The Avalokaitesvara Bodhisattva was in the Great Compassion Hall. The grounds were enormous, beautiful and tranquil.
On to Kiama and the Blowhole. After seeing the water explode from the hole, we had lunch by the water.
Leaving the coast we drove to Jamberoo by the Jamberoo Mountain Road. There was more magnificent farm country. I don't think there is anything comparable in the US. Vast green hills and valleys stretching as far as you can see, then you turn around a bend and more and more hills and valley for miles.
Once on the mountain part of the road, it narrowed down through forests of eucalyptus, really narrowed - sometimes one lane. We came to a couple of places where part of the road had washed away. Halfway to Robertson, we turned off to Carrington Falls, down a small road to a dirt road to a parking area. The trail to the falls was an easy, hard surface walk. The falls, breathtaking. The water dropping straight for hundreds of feet before hitting the rocks. We walked up to the head of the falls before hitting the road.
At Robertson, we bought a wildberry-apple pie for later, then drove down to Fitzroy Falls. This was a busier area, many more people there. We hiked to lookouts on either side of the fall and on to another lookout that had views of 2 other falls. It's a good time to see falls, after so much rain.
Our next stop is Goulsburn, so we headed that way. We drove to a rest area and found 2 other campers already there. We parked and talked with another couple about some of the 'rules' of free camping and got some good hints. While we were talking, a kangaroo with a Joey in her pouch came up to the road! She just stood there for a bit and jumped away. The other campers told us about a convict built bridge here at the rest area, so we walked over to it. When we looked out into a field by the path, there were kangaroos there too. We saw 2, then they jumped over to another 2, then a 5th joined them. Real Kangaroos!
Had very large Brussels sprouts for dinner.

Mar 1

Mar 1

The rains continued today, so we decided it would be a good day to see a cave. We started off to Jenolan caves. The brochure said it was 90 minutes, 50km from Katoomba. And it looked like a straight secondary road on the map. So, we headed west on the Great Western Highway thru rainy mountains. The turnoff road to the caves wound around great rolling hills dotted with farms, cattle, sheep and goats. It narrowed as it went into a logging area with some clear cut hills and the debris that goes with it. Then the road went into the mountains again and narrowed even more. By the time we saw the sign that said the road was unsuitable for articulated vehicles, it was mostly one lane, but widened slightly at the curves. Fortunately we didn't meet any cars on the 8km of wicked, twisty, steep,downhill that went to the caves.
We bought tickets to one of the 9 different cave tours, which ranged from easy to crawl on your belly in a jumpsuit with a helmet. We choose the moderate Lucas Cave. It had the largest room, the highest room and the entrance the original discoverers used. And 910 steps.
When we bought the tickets we asked the clerk if the route that went west out of the cave area was a good alternative, but he said that one way was even worse.
So back we came.
We're now in Lithgow in caravan park with the heat on.

Mar 2

Mar 2

Still grey and drizzly today so we headed to Mt Tombah Botanical Gardens. It's an annex of the Royal BG in Sydney. The gardens are laid out on the side of a mountain with stone walled terraces. There was a formal garden, rock garden, bog garden, heath garden, as well as areas with plants from Africa, South America, & North America. But we were more interested in the Australian woodland and Gondwana Garden. Gondwana explained about the time when the continents were all one big land mass and then broke apart. That happened millions of years ago and the plants that still survive in Australia from that period.

From there we drove along the northern line of the Blue Mountains, picked up some apples and Anzac cookies in Belpin. We stopped in Windsor to see St Matthews, but it wasn't open. The tourist info lady said some cretins had broken in recently and they were keeping it closed. In town, we walked by the Hawkesbury River. it was very high, just beneath the road bridge, but wasn't expected to go over it.
The MacQuarie Arms Hotel, oldest hotel in Australia, was open, so I had a glass of pear cider, most excellent.
From there we drove around Sydney to the coast to get to the Grand Pacific Drive. Near Coalcliff the road takes the Sea Cliff Bridge that hangs out over the South Pacific Ocean. It just perches on the side of the cliff then extends out over the water before it comes back to the cliff, very dramatic.
We wandered down the coast to Bulli and a tourist park overnight.

Feb 27, 28

Feb 27

Left Sydney and drove out to Parramatta. Checked with the Info Center, then parked. Not easy, but found a park with plenty of spaces. Walked downtown and it was hot, probably 30. Went to the Old Government House, the oldest public building in Australia, Built in 1799 and added to in 1815. The guide was very proud that they had furniture from that time in Australia's past, as not much has survived.
Stayed in Parramatta overnight on the road by a park. Pretty hot night.

Feb 28
First stop, Featherdale Wildlife Park. It was a small park, but the animals were close up and wallabies wandered loose around us in their enclosure. It seemed like hundreds of birds - huge eagle, Blount Tail, the largest in Australia - cockatoos - kookaburras - storks - macaws - parrots - cassowaries, so many. We also saw dingoes, echinids, a crocodile, wombats, several different kinds of kangaroos and wallabies, lots of koalas. Also snakes and reptiles. Nice place, very low key, which we appreciated.

Then we headed west towards the Blue Mts. We stopped for a hike to Wentworth Falls and our first look at the mountains. They are blue because of the oils that the eucalyptus trees give off, just breathtaking.
In Katoomba we found a campground, that is, a caravan park. Across the street was a trail that led to Katoomba Falls, so we took a quick hike down to the cascades and back. It started drizzling by then, so we headed back. Then the sky fell and the temperature really dropped. Cool night for sleeping.