Lockhart to Junee

 

After two nights in Lockhart, we packed up and moved on. We drove towards Junee via The Rock which is both a town and... a rock. Had a quick morning tea stop at a quirkily named town of Tootool. We stopped for a few geocaches in and around The Rock. There were a series called 'Drop Bear' which were some sort of teddy bear hanging in a tree, the bear being accessed by a rope and pulley system. Once retrieved, we signed the log stuffed inside the bear! The kids thought this was a hoot!

The Rock Nature Reserve is a 320 metre high 'mountain' which today was shrouded in cloud. We stopped for lunch in the nearby township called The Rock. By the time we left there after lunch we had only travelled 40 km's in nearly three and a half hours! Geocaching had been fun but slowed us right down. Just as well it was only another 70 km's to Junee via Wagga Wagga.

Set up camp at Junee Caravan Park, where we again backed on to some water. We have 3 nights here. Early the next morning the town was covered in a blanket of fog which hung around for much of the day. Like at Lockhart, the early morning gave us a perfect reflection behind the caravan park!

Our first stop this morning was the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory - you could say we were getting our priorities right in what to see and do (and taste) first in Junee!

The factory is in the old flour mill. We did a tour which offered an explanation of how they manufacture organic licorice, chocolate and other confectionary. We got to sample some. Not being a big fan of licorice, the white chocolate covered raspberry lollies were probably the favourite.

An unusual part of the tour was a chance to play some competitive sport - 'Vertical Licorice Bowling' - which involved tossing a rather solid lump of licorice up an old flour shoot, it would then fall/roll down and knock over some skittles. You scored for each knock down, but got extra points for catching the flying skittles! Daz was the most successful at throwing into the chute, Gemma hurled her lump of solid licorice out into the café area... Ethan's nearly landed in the gift shop above....

The picture above shows Gemma's licorice ball enroute to the café through the doorway above Zac!

Another highlight of the factory tour was the opportunity for the kids to pour and make their own giant freckle!

While we waited for their freckles to set, we enjoyed some morning tea in the café, careful not to sit too close to the door in case of more wayward flying licorice balls thrown by eager vertical licorice bowlers in the next tour group... 

We had lunch back at the caravan before heading to the Junee Roundhouse Museum. A large brick roundhouse, the only full circle one in NSW, it was once the largest in the southern hemisphere. It still operates today. Part of it is a museum which is where we spent a couple of hours climbing on board a number of locomotives and carriages.

Lastly today, we had a look at the attractive centre of Junee, particularly the Station Square (below). There are a number of grand old hotels with ornate lace work that surround the square.