Junee to Temora

 

Our time in Junee continued, with a morning spent geocaching all over the town - this included a trip to a lookout hill, the cemetery, a couple of parks and even a little maze. The picture below shows Ethan holding one of the hiding spots, which is inside this fake rock!

It being a nice sunny day after the early morning fog, we went for a walk along the Federation Trail near the caravan park, the kids enjoyed a scooter ride. Later in the afternoon we went to the 'Broadway Museum' - nothing to do with the famous Broadway of New York - simply the street the old 1914 hotel was on that has been turned into a museum of all things old and Junee! We then had another wander around the town centre, loving the old architecture of the station again and the many old (and large) verandahed pubs with lacework trimmings.

 

Back at the caravan park we had a nice reflective sunset off the water of the small ornamental lake we are camped by.

 

After packing up ready to move on to our next destination, we went and visited Monte Cristo - a beautiful old homestead overlooking Junee. It is apparently, the most haunted homestead in Australia which made the smallest two children unsure about wanting to go in! We did go in, they were fine, we did not see any ghosts! It has been wonderfully restored. The furnishings are big and heavy looking, the wall papers, drapes and carpets are quite dark, adding to the eerie feel of the place!

 

The grounds were nice, and included some old carriages in the stables as well as the other outbuildings associated with a well to do property such as this - the servants quarters. 

 

After our time at Monte Cristo, we left Junee and headed towards our next destination - Temora which was only 58 km's away. So we stopped and found 3 more geocaches on the way, including one at a quiet little place called Junee Reefs - site of some gold mining many years ago. Now it's just a community hall. We enjoyed lunch there.

 

Once in Temora, we set up camp at the Temora Airfield Caravan Park, literally a few metres from the airfield! A couple of Cessnas came in and landed, taxiing almost to our rear window! Spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the very impressive Temora Rural Museum. This place had a huge variety of exhibits, much of it outside.

 

 

We had visited nearby Cootamundra about 8 years ago and looked around Don Bradman's birthplace. Today we found his home for his first 3 years - its an old timber slab hut that has been moved and reconstructed as part of the Temora Rural Museum...

 

 

Only opening in March of this year, the museum also houses the NSW Ambulance Museum and contains a bunch of ambulances from different eras. This was a highlight of our time here.

 

There was an old school house which the kids enjoyed role playing in...

 

We got back to the caravan around sunset - the sunset across the airfield was magnificent. While enjoying it, a loud roar announced the arrival of a Sabre Jet - out for an evening fly. Over the next 20 minutes or so we were treated to some acrobatics, fast fly overs at low altitude, all with the back drop of a colourful sky!

 

Tomorrow we are visiting the Temora Aviation Museum, our main purpose in being in Temora. It is also one of their flying days, so providing the weather is good, we should see some more planes in the air!