This drive was one of our longer days at around 340kms, but
we were not in any hurry.
The plan was to take our time and stop at a couple of towns along the way before reaching Moree for our check in at the EconoLodge Motel at 2:00pm
This is the only motel I had booked and as such will not
have much of a kitchen. The website
stated that the room is equipped with a kettle, toaster, fridge and
microwave. The motel has a bar and grill
restaurant onsite, so we planned on having dinner there.
We packed up and left Dubbo around 9:00 and travelled to Newell Highway with our first stop being Gilgandra about 1hr up the road. We got out and stretched our legs and headed off again to Coonabarabran. We pulled into the Information Centre for a toilet stop and a look around. It was a surprise to find a large display all about a dinosaur skeleton that had been found in the area in the 1970’s. It was very interesting to read the story.
Our next stop was Narrabri, we found Woolworths to buy a couple of bread rolls for our lunch. We had left over roast pork in the Engel from our dinner the previous night, but the bread was “buried” in the “kitchen bag” and we decided it was easier to buy bread rolls that pull the car apart ? Woolworths was just past the Information Centre which sat on the banks of the ?? River. It was a lovely place to have our lunch. Even though it was again 38 degrees, there was a bit of a breeze and our picnic table was in the shade of a large gum tree.
After lunch, we had a look around the Information Centre and found that the area has a number of farming activities including wheat, barley, chickpeas, sorghum, cotton and canola. As well as these crops, there are large farms of meat sheep and pigs. We bought an ice cream each and hit the road again for the last stretch of the Newell Highway to Moree. The fields here are HUGE. I am sure it would an impressive sight to see the crops growing. As it is the height of summer now, the crops have been harvested and are waiting for new plantings when it gets a bit cooler.
For much of this drive, we followed the train line and passed many big grain silos and loading facilities to fill the huge trains. These trains were as long as the coal trains we had seen in the Hunter Valley, but obviously grain is much lighter than coal as these trains did not need engines to push the trains as well as lead engines.
We arrived at Moree and our motel at just after 2:30 We asked about the restaurant only to be told
it was closed for the Christmas break ☹ WE were told
where our room was and back in the car, we thought we would not go out for
dinner, but would find Woolworths and get a could of microwave meals for
dinner.
We found our room and got a lovely surprise…A double hotplate!! As well as a microwave. ? We are so easily pleased ? That changed our plans somewhat. We went over what food we had left and made a plan to finish everything over the next two days before we get back to Brisbane where we have buffet breakfast everyday and are planning eating out a lot at some nice restaurants.
We found we had 8 eggs and half a loaf of bread – so it will be eggs of toast each for the next two days. We will stop for lunch between Moree and Toowoomba at Goondiwindi. We had a couple of potatoes and carrots left, so we only needed to buy some “green vege” and some meat for the next two dinners. We found a nice tray of two porterhouse steaks that were more than large enough that we only need one ½ steak each per night and I bought a little bunch of broccolini.
After putting our groceries in the Engel, we found the attraction we had come to Moree for… The Mineral Spa Pools.
This area is well known for its artesian springs and the Aquatic Centre has two large heated pools. We paid our admission fees and had a lovely soak in the warm water. If you have ever put Epsom Salts in a bath, you will be familiar as to the relaxing properties of dissolved minerals. It was very nice ? We got out of the pool and drove back to the motel for dinner and a quiet night. The combination of a hot day, long drive, and the spa pool saw us both getting sleepy and we turned the lights around 8:30pm
Although we had not been affected by the bushfires at all this day ( we have mostly blue skies) our family has been in the danger zone at Dalmeny on the south coast of NSW. We had been trying to contact them but they had no reception. Finally, we heard from them that they had got out and were on the way home. What should normally be a 2.5 hour drive, took them 7 hours, but at least they were home and out of immediate danger. We still have some family in the danger zone, but hopefully everybody will be OK. These are some photos of our daughter-in-laws Dad’s house taken just before they left. Scary
We awoke in our Zoofari Tent after a very comfortable nights sleep. Although yesterday was so hot, we went to bed with the air conditioner on full at 18 degrees and the fan on full speed just to get to sleep, at some time through the night we pulled the doona up as obviously the temperature dropped to an ” acceptable” level.
We had set our alarm early so we had plenty of time to have showers and “wake up” cups of tea to be ready for our 6:45am morning tour of the zoo before breakfast.
We had another great tour with our informative driver/guide. On this tour, we had close up, behind the scenes viewings of rhino, lemur, and cheetah ….
before moving on to an immersive viewing of the elephant’s morning routine.
https://youtu.be/l2-Q3tMSWH0
The gorgeous boy we were introduced to had previously been a working elephant in a Thailand logging camp before being brought to Australia. We all marvelled how this intelligent giant has such a close bond with his keepers. It was awesome to see how this large boy, was more than happy to have a shower and show his teeth, feet and ears up for inspection to his keepers. In the video above you can see how much he enjoyed his shower. You may also notice how he fills his truck with water and then squirts the water into his mouth.
After the tour, we were delivered back to our tents for a quick freshen up and a full buffet breakfast. Back in our tent after breakfast, we packed up and checked out. We had admission to the zoo again today, but we decided it was again too hot, so we chose to leave and visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service centre instead.
The RFDS Visitor Experience is a new attraction and was very informative. There were lots of interactive displays explaining the history of the RFDS from its humble beginnings in the 1920’s right up to the great service of today. I highly recommend calling in if you are ever in Dubbo.
Our AirBnB for this evening was supposed to be at a local home . Our host rang early in the morning to tell us that she had had a problem with a broken glass door at her property, but rather than cancelling our reservation, would it be Ok if we would stay at her friend’s AirBnB close by. I said that this was Ok as long it was going to cost us any more.
We found our way to the new (much larger) accommodation via a quick stop off at Woolworths for food and the fuel stop outside.
We were happy to have a quiet afternoon in the airconditioning and literally a “Netflix and Chill” evening. 🙂
We had a relaxing night watching TV and I wrote my blog post. I also Googled a bit about the history of Kandos. It had proven to be a larger town than we had expected, so we figured there must have been something happening in the past.
We were correct, it turns out that Kandos is a town which was created in 1913 to exploit the limestone in the area.
It became a huge producer of cement which gave it the nickname “The Town That Built Sydney”. The cement works closed in 2011
We had a relaxed start as it was only a short 190 kms to Taronga Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. We were really looking forward to today, as we have booked to stay AT the zoo in a tent right with the animals.
We arrived at the zoo around 10:00 and found the check-in desk. We knew we could not get to the Zoofari section of the zoo until 2:00pm, but we allowed admission to the zoo for 2 days, so we planned on looking around the zoo before our “Zoofari” Adventure. We were given directions of what we needed to do for the Zoofari and also a map of the zoo. Our accommodation package included bike hire to see the zoo, but bikes and I dod not mix well – there is often blood !! I was initially told we could upgrade to a golf cart, but the lady at the ticket counter said this was no longer an option 🙁 We were looking for the place to hire the golf carts when I noticed on the map this….
CAR???? So we went back to the ticket office and asked. Yes!! you can drive your own car around the zoo. They keep that little nugget of information somewhat quiet. She told us where to go to access the zoo circuit and we were off. First stop was Meerkats !!! Yay!! We spent a good amount of time watching these cute animals. We did notice that it was super hot even for Meerkats. In all the TV docos we have seen, we have not seen Meerkats flatten themselves out in the sand like this.
After the Meerkats, we looked at a number of other exhibits. It was SO hot it was not a comfortable day at all. In between each stop, we managed to catch a bit of a reprieve in the car, but as the car was in the sun at each carpark, it took a while to cool down 🙁
By 2 o’clock we were well and ready to head to the Guest House for Zoofari and check in and get out of the 41 degree heat.
We were shown to our “tent” and were glad to be told that the airconditioning was on ready for our arrival.
The tent/room was quite luxurious with a king sized bed, lounge area and full ensuite including a bath. From the deck out the front we could giraffe, zebra, rhino, ostrich, eland and blackbuck….oh and kangaroo 🙂
From our 2:00 check in we had a bit of relaxation time. For us, this included a cold shower and trying to feel sort of “normal” Both of us had a bit of a headache and did not feel “well”.. We figured we had a bit of heat exhaustion from being out at the zoo. 🙁
We had been left an itinerary in our room, so we knew we had to be at our “bus stop” at 4:00 for our first tour.
We boarded our tour “bus/truck” and had a very informative tour of the zoo.
We arrived back at “camp” with time for quick freshen up before heading to the GuestHouse for our included dinner. On arrival at the GuestHouse, we had canapes and wine tastings before being invited to take our seats for dinner.
Dinner was multiple dishes which were delivered in large share platters which we all passed along the table. Dishes included Roast lamb, Meatballs and noodles, Chicken and vegetables, roast veges and salad
After dinner, we went back to our tent and marvelled at the animals right in front of us. It really was like being on an African Safari. Before turning in for the night, we set an alarm so we did not sleep in because we had a 6:45am tour before breakfast.
We awoke to a rare phenomenon for this trip…BLUE SKY… We could only hope that the firies were getting some reprieve.
We only had a fairly
short drive today, so we took the advantage of a slow start, and, with clear
skies, we took advantage and headed back up to the Three Sisters to get a
better view than we had a couple of days ago.
WOW!! What a difference. We were even able to see across the valley to Scenic World. We had not even noticed it before behind the smoky veil.
From Echo Point, we headed to one of my “must see sights” The Hydro Majestic” Hotel. I had seen a documentary of the history and renovation of “Foy’s Folly” awhile ago and always wanted to see it. It did not disappoint. Such a gorgeous example of an historic 5 star hotel.
We booked a $10 tour
and were lucky enough to be the only 2 so our guide was able to answer any
questions we had.
From the top of the escarpment we noticed that there was still an active fire in the valley below and in the time we were at the hotel, it had obviously intensified a far bit ☹
We had a lovely dinner in the “Boiler Room” restaurant before continuing to our accommodation in the little town of Kandos.
On the way, we stopped off at “Historic Hartley” a cute little village that was built in the late 1800’s to service travellers on their way to the goldfields in the Bathurst area.
My fires app showed
me that there was a large fire in the forest near where we needed to go, but
the app showed that the Castlereagh Highway was open, but may be slowed for crews
to do clean up after the fires. After
doing a bit more “googling” we decided that is was safe to take the
highway.
Seeing plenty of traffic on the highway made us more confident that was no danger. We finally came to the area of the fire and there was evidence of a MAJOR fire. We could only imagine the hell it must be fight these intense fires, but we marvelled at how homes, sheds and buildings had been protected.
It was long until we found our accommodation for the night. “Bowers Hideout” is a bungalow at the back of an old shop. Our host had let me know that he would be away, but had given perfect instructions to access the property.
We had organised dinner provisions, so there was nothing to do but relax and prepare for the next day and Dubbo Zoo
Today we travelled around on the Hop-on-Hop-off bus. It was another very hot day, with temperatures of 37 degrees forecast, so we made the choice to basically stay in air conditioning as much as possible. We walked down through the little village of Leura browsing the pretty shops. We found a lovely chocolate shop housed in an old church. Of course, we had to sample a couple of their handmade chocolates. 🙂
We found the bus stop and had a few minutes to wait for our ride to Katoomba. We had decided to get off at “Stop 3”, The Gingerbread House and then walk back up the street for morning tea and then to the Carrington Hotel for lunch.
We had a look at the Ginegerbread House, which is also housed in an old church.
Back up the road onto Katoomba Street, we again just browsed the shops and came across a cafe that had Devonshire teas. Perfect for morning tea.
Next stop was the lovely Carrington Hotel. This historic hotel was built as a fine establishment in 1883 and remained popular for most of its life. It was fully renovated in the 90’s, reopening in 1998 after an eight year renovation. You can read about the history of the hotel here
We were a bit early for lunch, so we made our way back to the bus and thought we might have lunch at the cafe at “Scenic World” As we are both not great with heights, this was not a Blue Mountains attraction we wished to do, but we thought the view from the cafe would be nice. I asked the bus driver, if we could have lunch there without having to pay admission. He said yes we could, but looked at me and said “Why would you? It will like a disturbed ant’s nest there today!” ??
When we pulled up at the bus stop there to let off a number of passengers we understood what he meant. We saw there were men directing the carpark and turning people away as the carpark was full. On top of that, here were at least a dozen full tour buses parked. “Disturbed Ant’s Nest” would probably be an apt description.
We thought we would have a look to see how many people were at the 3 Sisters, but again it was very busy. Jimmy the driver suggested we try the “Leura Garage” We thought that would be a good option as it is literally across the road from our hotel, and backs onto Woolworths. We had a nice pizza and a couple of glasses of local wine ( one of which was free with our bus ticket) topped up our food socks for a couple of days.
We got back to the apartment around 3:00pm. I did a load of washing and we had an easy afternoon. It had again been very smoky and hot. Although neither of us has any asthma, both of us felt tired from not breathing “properly”
We were both falling asleep on the couch so decided to just go to bed… it was 7:30pm!!! I thought we would be up at some ridiculous hour of the morning, but we woke at just after 6:00am We MUST have been tired.
We had a really good stay at our last night’s stay. Even though I had booked this thinking it was
just a “place to stay” to break up the trip…it turned out to be one of the
nicest AirBnB’s we have been in so far ? Super
comfy bed, lots of thoughtful inclusions…great space.
We had a later start because we slept so well and woke later. As we were on a rural property, we kept our showers really short and after a quick breakfast and a farewell chat with our host, we headed off to Bathurst. Again the sky was full of smoke, but no fires in our path. On our way out of the driveway of our AirBnB, we noticed that their dam was also bone dry. We were glad that we had minimised our water usage as best we could.
Is there anybody that goes through Bathurst without driving around the famous “Mount Panorama”? Anybody who has driven this iconic course will tell you it is nothing short of awe inspiring. We see it so many times on TV, but to drive it yourself makes you realise the skill the race car drivers have. (it is also REALLY hard to stay below the 60km speed limit of this public road)
Just off the racetrack is the National Motor Racing Museum. The museum houses a number of Race Cars and Bikes that are synonymous with the history of the Mount Panorama circuit. I grew up watching many of these race heroes so it was a fun time seeing the displays.
From Bathurst, we headed east toward the Blue Mountains. The
area has been wracked with a number of catastrophic fires over the past few
weeks, but we have been so fortunate to be not affected. We have been thanked on a number of occasions
for travelling and helping the communities.
Although the drive from Bathurst to the Blue Mountains was
very smokey, we only saw the evidence of one very small fire on the side of the
highway. It is a credit to the “fireies”
that all the major highways have been kept open for the majority of the time.
We arrived in Katoomba around 11:00am and stopped off to buy our “hop-on-hop-off” Bus ticket for the area. This double decker bus stops at most of the attractions is much easier than driving and trying to find parking at what are usually very crowded places.
Our accommodation ( a sister hotel to our Hunter Valley hotel) was in Leura, just a short drive in the next village from Katoomba. We were lucky that our room was ready before the official check-in time, so we were able to put our things in the room before crossing the road from the resort to catch the sightseeing bus. The room we have booked had a spa bath and we were anticipating that a good relaxing soak in the tub would be nice after a day of sightseeing.
As the bus gives us unlimited travel for the next 3 days, we had decided to go directly to “Echo Point” to see the “3 Sisters” that are is most famous for. We knew there were cafes at the lookout where we could have lunch before doing the rest of the sight-seeing tour.
When we arrived at the Echo Point Lookout stop, there were a couple of tour buses parked and the lookout area was very crowded, so we decided to have lunch first, then come back to the lookout.
Hop On – Hop Off Bus
Hot Dog..and…
Fish and Chips for lunch
We had a nice lunch and had plenty of time to get to the lookout before the next bus was due. Of course because of the fires we did not get the best of the views. I did have to laugh as this view matches my other non-picturesque views of the Swiss Alps and Toowoomba’s Picnic Point. Oh well…at least I may be able to return ?
3 Sisters – Blue Mountains
Picnic Point- Toowomba
Alpenhorn -Swiss Alps
Back on the bus, we took in the sights with a view of where
would come back to tomorrow. We chose to
get off the bus at a couple of stops before the stop opposite our hotel, and
have a look at the shops of Leura Village.
As we walked “home” we made a quick stop at the local
Woolworths to pick up a couple of steaks for dinner.
The aforementioned spa bath was quickly filled with warm water
and Radox Bath Salts and we both enjoyed a good relaxing soak.
After dinner, we planned out the next day using the “hop-on=hop-off” bus and watched a little TV before turning in for the night.
We were correct, it turns out that Kandos is a town which was created in 1913 to exploit the limestone in the area.
