Well, yet again, I've been a bit slack. I put it down to being in a bit of a sulk about leaving the Snowies, just haven't been so inspired by the sights since then. However, we took a spectacular drive along the Waterfall Way today to get to Coff's Harbour, so thought I better get to it! I start off back in Canberra, where I didn't do much photographic chronicling as we were just hanging out with the fam...... So I'll just group them together.....
DAY 33 (27th May): Went to a place called "Cockington Green" (which made me giggle as much as I did when in England and every village had a "Cock Inn" - I know, I'm a child) which is a place that does miniatures of famous places.
Or is it that I drank one of those Alice in Wonderland potions and am REALLY, REALLY big?
Teeny-weeny Stone Henge
Some of them took years to build, and were amazingly detailed.
The Salisbury chalk horse........ which I suspect was concrete, in this instance! ;)
Then that afternoon, we all set off for Bateman's Bay to the beach house where we spent the next three days - and here's the warning, lots of family snaps, feel free to scroll through them a fast as you like. On the way down through the mountains (I never realised how
high Canberra is - it's altitude is 605m - thanks Rach) we passed a place called Pooh Corner.....
Blurry photo! Now it wasn't the nicest of locations.....
Rach, in her eagerness to make a guest appearance in the blog, managed to step on some glass - its that kind of place!
However, historically, its interesting, as the cave was the location of a munitions store during the Second World War that could be detonated to stop passage from the coast to the national capital inland (thanks Rach again!).
Ok, history lesson over, we arrived at Batemans, here's the family photos from the day at the beach.
You'd think he was all romance, hey? Just wait....
Cousins jumping the waves
Other cousins sandcastling....
It's my new do....
It was only about 20 degrees at the most, but you'd have never guessed it looking at the kids!
Ambushed........... set up by none other than that dastardly husband of mine..... Going
Going......
GONE!
And I wasn't going to go swimming!
The fabulous Canberra Wherretts, who looked after us very well!
Fabulous us :)
DAY 36 (30th May): So after a wonderful five days, we had to hit the road, heading north towards Sydney. The weather, sensing that we had left solid roofs behind us, turned on the charm again. We made it to Camden, and it rained SO much that night (the caravan park was a lake in the morning!) that we ended up staying an extra night to try and dry out.
This was the view out the front window at times......... noice.......
DAY 37 (31st May): On the second day, we caught the train into Sydney, where pretty much we went and checked out the two obvious icons, went on a ferry and caught the train home. We WERE planning on a trip to the Blue Mountains, but the caravan park folk said it'd be a waste of time because the weather was so awful :(
On the ferry. Not to Manly, as that took to long, and the train trip in was over an hour.
Obvious icon #1.
This is where the ferry went - Luna Park! But it was closed (yet again, some awesome planning from chief navigator!) but I think they were holding some kind of conference or something there, as you could walk in. So we did!
Deserted fairgrounds are just a little bit creepy......
The 100+ yr old merry-go-round was amazing in its detail.
Toilet break photography?
Sydney Opera House Barbie!!! Woohoo! J, of
course wanted one...... but at $60 a pop, we meanly made her go without.
Obvious Icon #2 - I give up trying to jump in these photos......
Luna Park and the Bridge taken from the ferry back
The kids were fascinated by these - they had some light show on with displays all around Circular Quay, but I think most of them only worked at night.
And that was about it for Sydney!
DAY 38 (1st June): Left Camden and again headed north. Plans for the Katoomba and Lithgow's zigzag railway foiled AGAIN by the weather, so we headed up through Wollemi National Park, to Muswellbrook (pronounced "Musclebrook"!!!) to Scone. As in Stone Scone, not Gone Scone.
Cool little letterbox dude along the way, who happened to live with.....
....this..... um...... thing. Called "WO-MAN". Look closely. He/she is a bit undecided.... They were at this old roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. Go figure!
The drive scenery.
This Big Blue Heeler at Muswellbrook, where the Blue Heeler breed was developed. I didn't know that Heelers are a cross between a dingo and a Blue Merle? Anyway, he was in desperate need of some TLC, as you can see.
Then we stopped for the night in Scone, the horse capital of Australia! Which they LOVE to promote. The "Public Conveniences" are labelled "colts" and "fillies". They have pennants from every light post in the main street telling the passer by of their capital status. And......
The restaurant is also appropriately themed. Went over the Stock Horse Museum, which was interesting enough, and stayed at a caravan park that was somewhat under-par. Lets just say that they'd bought themselves a laminator, and had let loose with the signage.... and they weren't of the motivational kind.....
DAY 39 (2nd June): We left the delightful Scone, and headed on bound for Tamworth. On the way...
Cool town sign :)
Not technically a Big Thing, as it's a life size Kangaroo on a big rock, but included because J spotted it as we turned a corner in Wallabadah, and insisted we return to take a photo of the Big Thing she'd seen.
Then at Quirindi, we stopped for a break at this lookout. Why? Because....
....this was it's name! We just HAD to go look out at Who'd A Thought It Lookout! :D
We noticed we'd left the mountains behind at this stage.....
Then we called in at Gunnedah, the "Koala Capital of THE WORLD"! I guess if you figure you're the Koala capital of Australia, you might as well take on the world as well. All I can say is that if you're GOING to say you're the capital, best you have more than ONE koala nearby! Different type than we saw in Victoria, much "beefier". The bouncer-type....... I kept the chopsticks hidden.....
Dorothea McKellar also came from around these parts - this is a statue of her. Of course we got the poem.....
Miss J being a bit cranky-pants!
Next stop Tamworth, where we saw this li'l birdie.
DAY 40 (3rd June): Of course, being in Tamworth meant that our first stop had to be.....
THE BIG, GOLDEN GUITAR! Yee-harrrr! And yes, there were blokes walking down the street with gen-u-ine cowboy hats on. I want one. Pete's not so keen.
Behind the guitar, they had a wax museum of all the country stars, and their history. It was surprisingly interesting.
We left wanting to tune the radio into the local country music station, but would you believe it, we couldn't find one! In TAMWORTH! Maybe we didn't spend more than 30 seconds looking....
On the road again, and we paused at Moonbi, to chicken it up with the Big Chook.
Then on through Armidale, and we drove the Waterfall Way to get to Coff's Harbour. Now, I take it back about the rain. All that rain meant that the waterfalls we stopped at were spectacular!
These are the Upper Ebor Falls. Then a 600m walk further took us....
Through some more scenery......
...and spectacular mountain vistas......
.... to the Lower Ebor Falls.
Upper and Lower. It moves through such a huge drop, its hard to see the perspective in the photo.
These were the Dangar Falls, near Dorrigo. Again, glad for the rain, they're evidently quite ordinary if it hasn't been raining!
From Dorrigo, the real descent to the coast began, much to Pete's disgust! More steep, twisting roads to navigate, with a wife sitting next to him periodically saying things like "Oh, look at that, that's lovely" when he couldn't look. We stopped at the Newell Falls on the way down, and when we stepped out of the car, all we could smell was burning brake pads!
This was the view from the stop.
Finally we arrived at Coff's Habour. And Those adventures will just have to wait for next time!
Hope you're all well,
K, P, M & J
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