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March 2018 – July 21st 2018
Where we been?..... Pretty much grounded in Sydney Why? … Well things were just happening and for these travellers it meant we had to be more hands on than manage things remotely.
Our first and most important reason was to attend my nephews wedding which took place on the Central Cost of NSW and was a very lovely and happy day. Catching up with family we hadn’t seen for a while is always special but add that to a beautiful wedding was just the icing on the cake.
Next big item to tick off the list is selling our old car which we did privately and it went to a lovely new home in Western Australia.
Oh and with our tenants leaving our home of about 19 years at Mariners Cove, Wentworth Point we took the plunge and decided to sell it, so we organised painters and real-estate agents and solicitors and before we realised it our time in Sydney had again stretched and it was time to go.
Now it is quite nice to be back with our friends and catching up with them all. We had a few more highlights whilst staying and one was going flying in an Ultralight glider which took us along the coastline up north. Though a bit nervous I decided to go first and had the smoothest ride out of the two of us. The pilot pointed out sites as he hugged the coastline and it gives you a totally different perspective from way up high.
Another bonus was going sailing and being able to take my nephew and his new bride for her maiden voyage and to top it all off we saw 5 whales on their migration north. Unfortunately we didn’t get any good photos of the whales, but it was an amazing day and I was so happy Kim and Jarrod were there for the experience.
With our friends Shelly and Steve also in town we naturally had to do lunch to catch up so it was a nice ferry ride and lunch on the river to celebrate our reunion.
Sunday 22nd – Tuesday 31st July 2018
With NSW in drought we decided to support the inland towns and took a route through farming communities. Our first stop for one night was Sandy Hollow which is on the Golden Highway. With only one night here we didn’t get much time to investigate but did do a nice walk up a hill to the lookout. One thing I remember most vividly is in the morning the water pipes had frozen and I was so happy that we had purchased electric blankets for this part of the trip.
Our next destination where we planned on spending a few days was Dubbo. It had been a while since we had been to this town and our main objective was to have another look around the Dubbo Zoo . Your ticket allows you two consecutive days entrance and we did spend two full days there. Based on the African plains you can drive or walk around the park and we decided the latter option and made our way from exhibit and keepers informative talks. My favourite was the Meerkats with their cute little upright positions and inquisitive antics.
With no Eagles on display I think Geoff favourite was the big cat. Especially the Cheetahs and we had two fine specimens to watch. Oh and we had a couple of crazy Gibbons and once they started to sing the whole zoo could hear them. Oh and not to forget a very friendly Emu who kept trying to take a selfie with Geoff’s big camera.
Our next night stop was Forbes but with a short visit to Parkes where we visited the famous ”Dish”. Now for us Aussies this is known for a movie of the same name. For anyone not sure it’s actually Parkes Observatory. The radio telescope is 64 metres across and was used by receiving video footage of the first Moon walk by the crew Apollo in 1969.
The town of Forbes is on the Lachlan River where we went exploring to Gum Swamp. The excitement for the day was Geoff spotted a Sea-Eagle nest and went back in the afternoon to get some snaps of the mum sitting on the nest and a first year eagle flying around the swamp. The sad part which he didn’t photograph was a sheep that was lying down struggling for breath, by the time he had walked back to the car the poor sheep had died. This is a very sad land at the moment in bad need of rain.
But on a brighter note, our Sea-Eagles have hatched two chicks and Geoff sent a photo into Chanel 10’s daily Baily Weather Wall and it was shown on the news, very exciting!
Still heading west but veering down south we were heading to Temora and on our way we were thrilled to see the drought relief trucks heading northward to bring bales of much needed hay to the farmers. This is a donation based scheme where all Aussies can donate to help pay for feed, fuel and truck charges that is distributed to the drought stricken farms. Temora is a lovely town where we have visited previously during an air show. But like all small towns it is only an event that brings droves of people here. Otherwise its people like us, pass through and stay a few days before venturing on. The town has beautiful old buildings, milk bars that have stayed the same as when we were kids with booths and laminate tables, a few great museums and lots more to offer.
Wagga Wagga here we come. The van is booked for service and we are lucky to have our friends Mark and Chrissie who always welcome us with open arms. Only planning on spending a few nights here that stretched to three as the bearings on the van needed replacing. Better to be safe than sorry. We were fortunate to be able to visit a friend’s farm and noticed how green it was and also the country side. Don’t be fooled we were told, if they didn’t get rain by next week it would also be as dry as the country side we had travelled through.
