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.

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!

Bendigo

The last couple of days of our Bendigo trip were quite busy. The weather was fantastic and we made the most of it! We visited the 'Central Deborah Gold Mine' and did a Mine Experience tour.

 

We all put on hard hats and travelled 61 metres underground to wander an old mining tunnel. There are kilometres of mine tunnels under Bendigo stretching down well over 200 metres in depth.



 

We then wandered around the other displays back on ground level, including some gold panning. It was then to the top of the Poppet Head we went!

 

After lunch we went and toured the Tram Depot - where they not only store the Bendigo trams, but they restore and repair trams from all over the world. They often fix them up then send them off to other tourism destinations.

 

Our tram ride ticket used yesterday was valid for 2 consecutive days, so we rode a complete circuit again, this time on the quaint old number 17, the 'toast rack'. Had to explain to the children why it was nicknamed that and what a toast rack was / is... when was the last time anyone used one of those?

 



 

Zac punching a hole in our tickets... helping out the conductor.

 

This morning we drove a few kilometres up the Calder Hwy from Marong, heading north/west and then took some very little used dirt roads to do some 'Geocaching' - treasure hunting using a GPS and looking for deliberately hidden boxes or containers which contain note pad to log your find, plus sometimes some small 'treasures' to swap. The kids love this new pastime! Caches are generally hidden in hollow stumps / logs, under bark, hanging from trees etc.

 

 

This little journey got us to some remote little spots we'd never have known about if it wasn't for Geocaching, so it was a great experience. Loved this old truck parked under a tree!

 

One of the Geocaches was near the 'Great Stupa' which is a massive Buddhist temple under construction on the land of 'Old Sandhurst Town' - the former old village, like a mini Sovereign Hill. A different experience, but we got to go inside the concrete temple, with hardhats and have a look.

 

 

Driving back to Bendigo, we got some pictures of Sacred Heart Cathedral which we'd visited on the first day here, which was drizzly and wet. It looked so much better today!

 



 

We walked around, the kids scootered around Lake Weerona to finish the afternoon.

 



There was a nice sunset out the back of the caravan park tonight, followed by a great view of the Lunar Eclipse! A pleasant evening... heading home tomorrow.