17th May 2018–Cowra

Distance: 306 Km
Fuel: 32 L

Left this morning just after 8.30am, easy pack up because there was no TV aerial to take down – according to my app the nearest transmitter was over 60 km away so I didn’t bother putting it up.

The sat nav took me to Dubbo on the main road but then decided that a country road was quicker than the main road to Cowra. Fine by me, usually less traffic but on the downside few rest areas. Looking at the map the difference must have been marginal. When you take into account that these back roads tend to wind more than main roads thus keeping to the speed limit is impossible so any time saving is probably an illusion but it was a nice drive.

I stopped at a small town called Yeovil (one pub, one store) and bought a coffee – which was very good.

Didn’t stop in Canowindra because I was there not that long ago (>>>Click Here<<<) but continued on to Cowra again a place I am familiar with.

Chose a caravan park about 3km out of the centre of town and after setting up went for a drive for fuel and a look at some of the attractions.

First visit was to the WWII POW camp where the infamous Cowra Breakout occurred when Japanese prisoners attacked the guards and tried to escape or die in the process.

Next stop the Peace Bell.

Finally a trip to the Bellevue Hill lookout in the centre of town.

10th November–Canowindra to Home

Distance: 409Km
Fuel: 48L

Set off for Wollongong at about 8.30am, it was a pretty uneventful trip, drove south at first via Boorowa to get to the Hume Highway near Yass and continued on that heading north until Picton Road.

Arrived home about 1pm, unloaded the car but the camper will be sorted out tomorrow.

Filled up with fuel at the local servo – the most expensive fuel of the whole trip at $1.38/L – How does that work?

Statistics for Trip

Total distance: 2927Km
Total Fuel: 318L
Average Fuel Price: $1.30/L
Average Park Cost: $28.58/night

9th November 2017–Out and About

Distance: 166Km
Fuel: 44L

Drove to Cowra to visit the Japanese Garden – we have previously visited the POW Camp and the War Cemetery but for some reason haven’t visited the Gardens before. As they opened at about 8.30pm we left straight after having breakfast and arrived at about 9am.

They are beautifully laid out gardens over a fairly large area with a mixture of flat and hilly terrain.

After a couple of hours walking the grounds had coffee and carrot cake in the cafeteria before setting off for Grenville the town where Henry Lawson was born.

I have visited before and it is one of those lovely country towns where time has stood still. Driving past an Enhance petrol station was pleased to see diesel at $1.22 a litre so filled up ($1.37 in Canowindra and $1.28 in Cowra). That should get us home tomorrow.

After looking around for a while set off cross country back to Canowindra to visit The Age of Fishes Museum. Never been before… I mean fishes? Pah! Big mistake…

It was absolutely fascinating – all about fossils found in 1956 by a bull dozer driver rebuilding the road who realised that these impressions in the rock might be important. They are the fossils of fish from the Devonian Period 360 million years ago when life existed in the water but not on land, when the fish were first developing lungs as well as gills. It preserves over 3000 fish from a drying pond. The admission fee included an audio visual package which was worth taking. The visit took well over an hour it was so interesting.

Afterwards walked around the town centre looking at the old buildings before returning to the caravan park at about 4pm.

8th Nov–Coonabarabran to Canowindra

Distance: 328Km

Lazy start with only just over 300km to travel.

Tom Tom took us on all the back roads with absolutely no traffic to speak of, a really nice way to travel through little villages, bush and rolling farmland. All along the route were ‘animals on bicycles’, clever and funny at the same time.

Stopped for lunch at a tiny place called Cumnock; the local ‘supermarket’ was also the hardware, paint supplier, Post Office and cafe. Ended up having a couple of homemade pies, coffee and tea all of which turned out to be quite good.

Arrived in Canowindra (pronounced without the ‘i’) early afternoon and found the caravan park. It’s a small council owned park with a caretaker who is also the local taxi driver; as he was out just rang the phone number on the office door and was told to pick a site; he would pick up the money later.

Sure enough after we had set up and had some tea he turned up. $22.50 per night, three nights for the price of two – free clothes washing machines, dryer, BBQ, nice clean toilets and showers – how good is that? Pity we can only stay two nights.

Took advantage of the free washing machine and dryer before a quick trip to the local IGA for milk etc.