Cassillis to Mendooran

Leaving the dust and the pollution of the Hunter Valley behind us, we headed out the Golden Highway - a little late in the day, but with only a short day ahead of us - making Cassillis our camp for the night.  Having only ever driven through Cassillis once before, it was great to actually take the time to walk this funny but almost extinct little town.

It's not until you walk around some of these little towns that you really get to see what they have to offer.  The towns folk are so friendly and love to pull you up and have a chat.  Tourists being somewhat of    a rarity.

Allan Cunningham, the explorer discovered the district in 1823 and settlement was established through the 1820’s by the predominance of wealthy landholders with the properties (called stations) ranging from five to twenty thousand acres, their pursuits being mainly pastoral. Cassilis is surrounded by the same historic properties today, although some have increased acreage up to 40,000 acres.  The entire village is heritage listed, inlcuding the Royal Hotel, The Anglican Church, the Police Station and Court House and quite a few other buildings.

St Columba Anglican Church

The Old Cemetery of St Columba

Old Headstone

 This old headstone caught my imagination - might be just be me?? but can you see the eyes and what appears to be a face emerging out of the stone?

The Royal Hotel

The Old Police Station and Court House

Catholic Church

Main Street - Cassillis

The amazing tree roots that look like they have been melted down onto the gutter

The Remains of the Old Masonic Lodge

Munmurra River

Camp Ground at Cassillis Rec Ground

Recreation Ground - Cassillis

Great little camp ground for just $10 per night for a powered site and the best hot showers. Take the time to take a break in Cassillis.

Barry At Dunedoo-just making sure he knew where we where going.

Hitting the road again we headed the short 40 kms to Dunedoo. A short stop over for lunch at the local and to stock up on groceries we hit the road for our final few kilometers for the day to Mendooran.  A must see along the way is the famous Ivy Rocks.  The country side is very dry and much in need of rain, and knowing our luck it surely will sometime in the near future.

Ivy Rock

The road to Mendooran is good bitumen road, and once in the town, you follow the signs to the camping ground and with about 6 acres to choose from - you would be hard pressed not to find a suitable site. All with water views of the Castlereagh River.   Just the basic facilities with toilets and a cold shower, but plenty of water and that great opportunity to enjoy that camp fire and enjoy the company of the many other fellow travellers.  So interesting to meet some people and find out where they are going and hear the tales of their adventures along the road.

Our First Night at Mendooran, with Don, Mick, Lorraine and Jenny

When we arrived at e met with Jenny and Mick, first time long term travellers' from Tasmania.  Later in the afternoon, Don and Lorraine arrived from the Central Coast, on their way to Lightening Ridge.  Next thing we are all gathered around a communal campfire enjoying happy hour.  The friendships that have ensured from these few days will be everlasting, we are sure.

Big Full Moon Over Mendooran

Julie, Lorraine and Jenny enjoying happy hour

Don - Telling one of his tall stories along with Peter and Mick

Other fellow travellers joined us later - Julie and Peter Gray from Old Bar - so from what started out as 6 of us - later turned into 12.  What a great time we had and it was really hard for all of us to go our separate ways, over the next couple of days.

The village of Mendooran, with its 300 odd residents,was first discovered in 1817 by John Oxley, on one of first inland expeditions.The small village grew in the 1860s on the old station near the bridge which passed over the Castlereagh River. As at 1866 there were 24 residents recorded in the area. The village was called Mundooran until the 1920's when the name was changed to Mendooran.  The Murals of Mendooran are a main attraction.

One of the 24 Murals of Mendooran

The free campsite on the banks of the Castlereagh River is one of the best you will find, and it is just great to be able to return the favour to the towns people by enjoying a meal at the local pub - the $10 Friday night fillet steak meal being a highlight - the company of the locals, just an added bonus.

Autumn Time

 Autumn is such a wonderful time to be travelling and gives me the opportunity to take shots like this, the colors just so wonderfully inspiring.  Some of the nights getting quite cool now, but the days have just been wonderful

Barry at our Mendooran Camp

We left Mendorran and headed to Brocklehurst, just out of Dubbo.  Another free camp, but not one that I would call our best, and so popular that it is more like  a caravan park.  No water either, which is a bit of an issue when free camping.  Decided to move on to Trangie yesterday after the rain started (see 'told you so lol') as the sites where were very unlevel and causing us some concern, about whether we would be able to get out if it continued to rain.  And rain it did and still is.

So here we are holed up in the Trangie Caravan Park, which is just great - staying for a few days to catch up with family and the washing, before we continue heading westward.

Hope you are all enjoying following our travels and the best is ahead of us.

Follow the links to become a follower of our blog so that you get email updates of our latest blog entries.

Hope to be headed to Hermidale for our next stop and hoping to make Renmark for the 10th of next month for the hot air balloon festival.  We are also booked in for the CMCA rally in Kalgoolie in October which we are looking forward to.

So until next time - family and friends

Nundle Chinese Festival - Easter - 2011

During our stay back here in the valley, we took the opportunity to visit the Nundle Chinese Festival, which is held every Easter.

Nundle’s Chinese Heritage

From the 1850’s to the 1880’s thousands of people came to what was then called the Peel River Diggings which incorporated Nundle, Happy Valley, Hanging Rock, and Bowling Alley Point. Among the rush of people were numerous Chinese; most looking for gold, plus a few came to set up stores and gardens to supply the diggers. Illness or accidents took the lives of many searching the hills, and the Bowling Alley Point and Nundle Cemeteries became their final resting-places while the majority left when gold petered out or new fields beckoned. Some stayed on and became a permanent part of Nundle and district history.

The Government Officials on the Gold Fields of the 1860’s to 1880’s were ‘Englishmen’ and had some difficulty with the Chinese language. The names of Chinese miners were simply written down as they sounded; the result was that what was recorded may not have born close resemblance to the actual names! The word ‘Ah’, a term of respect, was often prefixed to the Chinese names when they were recorded in the official documents of the day.

Today, the Chinese tradition continues on in Nundle, and as you move around the town walking the lovely pathways and  tree lined streets, there are many remnants of the Chines, and hence the Easter Festival each year.  

Beautiful Autumn Trees - line the streets of Nundle

One of the many market stalls - selling hand dye silk scarves

Chinese Musiician playing  the erhu

Chinese Harp

Many street stalls, give the visitor plenty to see and do. Street musicians with their wonderful Chinese instruments like the erhu and the Chinese harp add a distinct flavour to the day.  Many hours can be spent trolling the many goodies in amongst the stalls and the usual wonderful array of antique shops and of course a visit is not complete without a visit to the Nundle Woollen Mills.  Take the time to visit the Nundle Broom shop and survey the wonderful array of kitchen implements and the many different types of hand made millet brooms.

Our usual visit to Nundle is never complete without a visit to the Nundle Pub- specially on a Sunday when they serve their roast dinner - oh what a treat that is.

The celebrate the occasion of the Chinese Festival we visited Mr Lee's Stall and Barry had his first taste of a pork bun - oh  so many years since I have had one of them.

Mr Lees - Pork Buns

The highlight of the day would be the dance of the dragon.

The Mythical Chinese Dragon

Chinese Rhythm Band

The Chinese Dragon

The dragon, a mythical creature, commands a great deal of respect in Chinese culture and has done so for many centuries.

Unlike the dragon in western culture which is a dreaded and feared creature, the Chinese dragon is associated with pleasant things such as goodness, greatness, blessing, boldness, intelligence, abundance and prosperity.

A day that we can highly recommend to all and Nundle is well worth the visit at the best of times.

Our route home took us down Mt Crawney, and one of the last times we came down this road was on a day many years ago - on the day that Barry took me on our first date - Awwwww lol- Still a beautiful drive and one where you can see the biggest displays of wild grass trees - which go for miles down the  road.

Grass Trees

What a nice day out, but time to leave and head back to Aberdeen.  Waiting around to see what is happening with Barry's Dad, who has just gone into the nursing home.

Our plans now are to leave here on Monday and slowly make our way to Western Australia.  Who knows when we will get there - no particular time- - who knows what we will run into when we get past this valley.  Can't wait to hit the road again and start seeing some new things, meeting new people and oh to experience all these new things that are ahead of us.

Will We Ever Get To The Border??

Time to catch up with our news of late, which is not terribly interesting, but still - its all news I suppose. Our last blog saw us on the road back to Aberdeen, and after a nights stop over at Warragamba - the worst!!! caravan park we have ever stayed in- over rated and over priced.  Mind you, when a caravan park has no NRMA rating it is not hard to give it a rating - and this one certainly doesn't deserve one.  We had to run two extension cords to get access to power, if we'd needed water we would have had to cart it, and the amenities block a good five minute walk away - all for $37 a night.  Leaving the next morning we loaded the car onto the trailer for the last time and navigated our way through Penrith and headed up the Putty Road, which I think we included in our last Blog.

We arrived back in Aberdeen on March 25th, in time for Barry's dad's 90th birthday. 

The day went off all ok, but Harry has become very frail, since last we saw him, and his medical condition worsening by the day.  It was great to catch up with the family

Harry With All His Children

The Two Youngest Grandchildren Justin and Kimmy with Pop

Matt, Debby and Alicia with Pop

Barry and I - Helping To Celebrate The Day

The day went off all ok, but Harry has become very frail, since last we saw him, and his medical condition worsening by the day.  It was great to catch up with the family and we ended the day with a nice meal at the pub up the road for dinner that night.  All in all a good day.

As most would know we had decided to sell the trailer and buy and A frame tow hitch, heavy enough tow the courier.  We ordered it from Melbourne and had arranged to have it installed in Newcastle, so it was back to Newcastle we headed, back to our old and great friends Barb and Ian. Always made to feel so welcome at their home and Barry and Ian enjoy their afternoon happy hours everyday.  We are blessed to have such good friends.

Barb and Ian

The Braking System Inside The Car

Barry Checking Out The New A Frame

The A Frame took about 2 days to install and is quite amazing with a wireless braking system.  All just done with plugging the system in the car into the cigarette lighter in the car and this communicates with a similar LED system on the dash of the bus.  When not  towing it all swings back up against the back of the bus and locks in place.  All very impressive and will hopefully make life much easier for Barry, rather than loading and unloading off the trailer.

After the installation it was off the the RTA engineer for certification - that's whole new story.  This isn't required in any other state other than NSW and the certification is only good for 3 months  all for a $350 for half an hours work!!!  But prior to having the RTA check done it was off to a mechanic to have a brake test done - should try taking something this big for a brake test in the middle of Newcastle - makes life interesting - thats for sure.  Anyway passed with flying colors.

A couple of new tyres and a wheel alignment later and we were able to leave Newcastle - some what poorer!!!  (that is after paying registration and insurance on the bus as well).

Camped at the Aberdeen Rodeo grounds, which is one of the best free camps anyone could possibly want. Water laid on and if you are lucky enough the council workers will come around and let you into the shed to run a power cord - so what more could you want.  Mostly have the place to ourselves, but Friday night we had the company of the Queensland Polo Cross team, who left very early the next morning on their way to the Royal Easter Show.

Have spent a lot of the last week trying to help Sandra and Kay clean out Harry's unit - who is now safely within the confines of the Strathearn Nursing Home.  A huge relief for us to now head off, knowing he will be looked after and safe.  But boy the amount of stuff that has had to be cleaned up and sorted out is unbelievable.  Still some to do over the next couple of days, but nearly there now. Had a lovely day off yesterday and had lunch with Sandra and nice couple of hours it was too.

The Easter bunny even happen to find us down here too and Barry has now nothing to show for it, an now will have to sit here and watch me slowly!!! plow my way through my two boxes of Cadbury Favourites - which could be anything up to two weeks - slow torture, I think you could call it. lol.

Starting to wonder if we will ever get past the NSW border, but after this week, that is it - due west is where we head.  Mum and Dad coming over here for a few days next weekend and after that we are off.  Planning to just slowly make our way to Broken Hill and across to South Australia, and a few weeks of making our way across the Nullarbor  Plains - so much to see along there and a great site to check out is right here -

http://www.abc.net.au/eyre/nullarbor/default.htm?site=capricornia&date=%28none%29

So looking forward to heading off and seeing some new things and get this camera going.  But a few things to deal with this week before we get going and we hope you will enjoy keeping up to date with our travels as we go.  Our timing is not all that good as we have been delayed so many times, as we were hoping to get up north of Western Australia during the winter, but our plans will have to change and we will just take it as it comes - Day by Day.

Having visitors for lunch today and have the camp oven going now ready to enjoy some good company and food.

Spent Saturday at the Nundle Chinese Festival, which will be our next blog, so some more reading for you coming up real soon.

BigRedBusTouringCo.com: The Joys Of Life On The Road!!!

BigRedBusTouringCo.com: The Joys Of Life On The Road!!!: "It's been awhile since our last blog, and must be about time we bought it up to date. The last blog, found us down on the south coast of NS..."

The Joys Of Life On The Road!!!

It's been awhile since our last blog, and must be about time we bought it up to date.

The last blog, found us down on the south coast of NSW in the small town of Milton.

Unfortunately, the weather kept us pretty 'bus bound', and it just seemed intent on raining and raining.  Much to our displeasure we therefore didn't get much of a chance to do a lot of sight seeing.  During our time down on the South Coast, we did manage to see a fair bit- but our map has a gap in between Sussex Inlet and Milton - oh well - always have to save something for another time.

The highlight had to have been our days around Hyam's Beach - such a wonderfully untouched piece of Australian earth - but to be able to afford to live there is beyond our financial means or dreams.

We stayed in Milton until the March 21st, when we packed up and headed up towards Nowra - a whole 60 kms - were we booked into this caravan park.  We had the bus booked in to have a service done on the generator at the Winnebago place there.  The weather just closed in and rained more and more.  (The South Coast received over 300 mm over a 24 hours period).  The radio was telling us most of the roads north were closed due to the floods, so we were not sure where or what was ahead of us.

We awoke next morning to a day of brilliant sunshine and so it was looking hopeful.  The fog lay thick over the valleys and the Shoalhaven River and such a stark contrast to the day before.

Sun Rising Through The Fog Over The Shoalhaven

Sun Rising Through The Fog

Sunrise Over The Shoalhaven River

Shoalhaven Bridge

Another Shoalhaven Sunrise

Arriving at the Winnebago place we left in the ute and went to do a few things around Nowra - amongst them to find out about road closures etc, but whilst there we tried to find out more information in regard to whether we are supposed to be carrying a log book - we were there for over an hour and the RTA guys get a big thumbs up from us for being so helpful - after not being able to find the information we were after we left, with a promise that they would ring us when they found out the correct information.  True to form, they did ring us later that day - and no- we don not have to carry a log book Mr Policeman that tried to book us up near Murrundi!!!  - and we have the evidence to prove it now - so we can travel with peace of mind...So yet another issue that we can lay to rest.

The generator was finished by 11am, so we were able to get an earlier start than we thought and so headed off up the highway towards Wollongong.

We had  decided that I would drive the ute and go ahead of Barry as I had the GPS.  Along the way, there was a huge morton bay fig tree on the south side of Kiama which is one the biggest and most beautiful trees that we have ever seen.  I called Barry up on the radio and said that I would just pull up and take a couple of photos and then catch him up. 

The Magnificent Morton Bay - The Cause Of All the Trouble!

The view from the Car Park Where I Had Pulled Up

Well, that is pretty well how it was - I got out of the car and took a couple of photos and got back in the car and headed off.  Well - that was the last I saw of him!!!  We had checked out the maps and had decided that we would take the Campbelltown exit - as it was the most direct route to Campbelltown - but all the way along Barry had it in his head that it was the Picton Road we had to take.

I was sailing along and tried calling him on the radio and the last I heard of him was some sort of muffled reply with the word Bulli in it...no reception after that.
I really didn't think it would take to much to catch him up, along the highway, but no such luck - he had just disappeared.

I took the Campbelltown exit and got to Campbelltown where I sat and waited for him- after about 1/2 hour there was still no sign of him, so decided to head back the way I had come - back through to Appin.  I just to had to hope that he would ring me on the mobile.  I got about 12 kms from Appin when he rang me on the phone - where was he???  He was at Wilton and yes he had gone up the Picton Road!!!  But in the mean time he had missed the turn off to Campbelltown and ended up at Heathcote!!!!..Of course it was all my fault lol.
We then had to then double back and head to Wallacia which took us another hour, when if we had got to Campbelltown we were only 30 kms away from the caravan park.  Needless to say - someone was not very happy.  An experience to notch up - thats for sure.  Barry has no idea of direction and doesnt seem able to take in some details of things, especially when it comes to taking directions - like as in maps directions.

The caravan park at Wallacia was just the biggest rip off - charged us $35 for a powered site which we had to reach with 2 extension leads - we had no water other than what we could carry by bucket and the showers etc were right up the end of the caravan park.

We made it up the Putty Road and out to the farm ok.  We had to come back as the bus is due for registration, and yes it was not!!! simple.

A stop at the Halfway House on the Putty Road was always on our list when travelling this road, but was burnt to the ground a few years ago, and at long last someone has bought it and done some interesting things there now the Unity Sculpture is of particular interest.

 

Big Red Parked For Lunch At the Halfway House - Putty Road

Part of The Burnt Out Ruins of the Halfway House

Ned Kelly Mail Box At The Halfway House

The Unity Sculpture At the Halfway House - The Front is male

The Other Side is Female - very cleverly done

As you know Big Red is registered in QLD - we were originally told that we would not require an inspection (as QLD has different rules to NSW).  But no....we had to have an inspection - Barry was all set to head off to QLD the next day, but on suggesting a phone call we had it sort of all sorted. Qld roads sent us a form which required that we could get it done here, then send the form along with the report back to QLD.

We booked the bus into Corbets for 10am - we were still there at 4!!! yes 6 hours we were there.  The bloke doing the inspection was 2 hours late to begin with.  The inspection went ok, until such time as he checked the fuel gas tanks - they have to be checked every 10 years - as it turned out - they had not been done when it was sold to us - (big mistake on behalf of QLD roads) and so it was off to Newcaslte as that was the only place we could have it done. This was after they charged us $235.00 for the privilige of waiting 6 hours! Even charged us half an hours labour for the time it took him to make a phone call to Newcastle to find a gas inspection place - thats when my blood started to boil- could have at least let us talk to the guy and book it in to save us an extra phone call - seeing as we were paying for the time anyway.

Fortunately the guy that did the gas inspection was only just down on the corner from Barb and Ian's where we stay.  We had a full load of gas on and to do the inspection the tanks had to be empty, so the trip down to Newcastle used some of that, so that is when we arranged to go to Taree and meet up with Mum and Dad, which was really lovely.  It took us a while to use up the gas but a trip back via Morrisett and Corrangbong sorted that out.  The tanks got inspected the next day and all was good. (Big Sigh of relief). 

We decide then to return to Muswellbrook to finish off the paper work and send it through to QLD - a fax and a few phones later and all is sorted - we are now registered for another 12 months and will certainly be checking out the different state registration rules as we travel over the next few months.

A nationalised ruling for the registration and drivers licences in Australia is much warranted!!  Would certainly save people such as ourselves a lot of unnecessary stress and worry.

As you know we were selling the trailer, which we did last Sunday when the fellow came out to the farm and picked it up, and we  have now ordered the A frame.

The A frame is on its way from Melbourne and we had to book it into to have it fitted, which is also just near Barb and Ian's.  It arrives on Monday, but they cannot fit it in to be done until the 11th, which is a nuisance!  - they want the car for 3 days, and so that ends our any thought we had of trying to get to Canowindra for the hot air balloon festival, or even thinking about getting to the CMCA rally at Deniliquin. Oh well - there will be other years, but still a shame as we were really looking forward to it.

So here we sit, nearly 12 months after having moved into Big Red, still sitting in Muswellbrook - waiting - waiting to see what is in store for us.

Stay tuned and become a follower of our story - would love to have you on board.