NSW road trip begins

It may be winter, but that has not stopped us from setting off on a road trip into Southern New South Wales. Left home on Saturday and stopped for lunch at Gooram Falls, between Merton and Euroa. The falls were tumbling across the boulders with gusto after all the recent and current rain.

Our first overnight stop was at Chiltern - where we stayed in October. A nice little caravan park by Lake Anderson. We set up camp and went in search of some local geocaches. Zac is holding a 'nano' cache below that we found on a metal statue of two ladies overlooking the lake.

Another was found on the platform of Chiltern station - as were a couple of rusty penny farthing sculptures that screamed 'climb aboard'!

Saw a historic old red brick homestead called 'Lake View House' which was built in 1870. At one stage the home of the Richardsons, whose daughter became the author known as Henry Handel Richardson. Their jonquils were out in full bloom!

We geocached around Chiltern until the sun went down... literally!

The next morning we hooked up and drove north, crossing the Murray River near Howlong - a famous crossing point as this is where Major Mitchell crossed on his inland expedition. The rain was on again and off again all day, but fortunately was off again while we set up camp at the lovely little caravan park at Lockhart. We had the place to ourselves, right by the water. The caravan park entrance saw a rusty dragon sculpture - there were many sculptures around town.

After another period of rain, we walked up the nearby main street of Lockhart. Lockhart is known as the 'verandah town' as a way of promoting itself to tourists. Its wide main street and wide verandahs do live up to this. The entire main street is classified by the National Trust.

Overnight the rain cleared to a clear sky today - it was freezing cold, with ice all over the car and grass. We were warm and snug in the caravan though.

Went for another walk up the main street of Lockhart - it really is impressive. Much of the original shop signage is still in place! The Blue Bird Café has been around for donkey's years, having been started by a Greek family as an oyster bar. 

We drove just out of Lockhart, around 15 kms to Galore Hill Nature Reserve, a 200 metre high 'mountain' amidst all the flat of the NSW Riverina. We drove to the top and enjoyed the magnificent views. Found another geocache up there too!

There's some history to this place, with the infamous bushranger Mad Dog Morgan said to have hidden in a series of caves. We set out to find and explore them along some rough rocky paths...

Daz & Ethan enjoyed some morning tea on a rock while taking in the view and discussing all manner of interesting topics...

 

Back off the 'mountain' we found a geocache on part of a disused rail line, just off the Sturt Hwy (between Wagga Wagga and Narrandera). This was significant because it was our 100th geocache find!

Back in Lockhart for lunch and an afternoon wandering around town, finding more geocaches, several more sculptures out of rusty metal. We also went and enjoyed milkshakes at the Blue Bird Café which was quite retro with its fixtures and fittings!