Mudgee to Lightning Ridge

New York, London, Paris, Mudgee, Rome………

We left Bathurst for Mudgee on Tuesday 20th, a trip of 236km, and after the stops mentioned in the last blog, we arrived in Mudgee greeted by another beautiful day.

I remember Mudgee from being here for my cousin Evan’s wedding some 20+ years ago - and I have to say that it’s lost some of the quaintness I remember. I think that Victoria has more picturesque winery towns than Mudgee - but we needed a rest (yes, its stressful all this travel) so we set up for a few days.

Wednesday was spent with a walk around town, washing of the car and our usual cocktail hour.

On Thursday, we mapped out 5 wineries to visit from the tourist map. Feeling adventurous (and the affects of constant eating and drinking), we decided to cycle to them - a total of 34 kms. Off we set with our agreed plan of action. Passing the gate of the second winery on the list, enroute to the first on the list (7kms), we decide to take a detour for lunch (there goes the plan). After lunch and few glasses of their reserve shiraz, we then headed to the first one on the list, which was now the second. Very quiet at this one and we got chatting and tasting with the winemaker. Needless to say, the third, fourth and fifth never eventuated. In fact I’m not sure how we got back to town. I do remember Wes trying to stand on the seat of his bike and ride no handed down the highway and he had no scratches the next day, so I presume he didn’t come off!

The next morning was relatively quiet - no surprise there, but we did manage to play golf on the most perfect of afternoons. Between us and the birdlife, we almost had the lovely course to ourselves. We finished this off with a visit to the pub on the way home to celebrate parring one hole each.

On Saturday we set out on the 178kms to Dubbo, through the historic villages of Gulgong (this town was depicted on our first $10 note for those that aren’t that old) and Dunedoo. We went for a walk around the historic buildings and sites in Gulgong. Dunedoo is described as being the Aboriginal name for swans, but I personally think they were ‘taking the mickey’. Not much to this town, its on its last legs being so close to Dubbo.

First up on Sunday morning in Dubbo was the weekly washing, then we packed lunch and jumped on the bikes and rode to the Western Plains Zoo. This is an open range zoo and so we rode between the animal enclosures for a few hours. It was good fun, not to mention much needed exercise. As we could feel the outback slowly closing in on us, where food choices diminish at the same rate as the population, we lashed out on pizza and the local bowling club bistro for dinner for the two nights we were here.

I went to the gym on Monday morning, while Wes fuelled up (this was becoming a scary experience with the current fuel prices) and then we left for Lightning Ridge (378kms). We passed through Gilgandra and Coonamble (where we stopped for lunch by the river).

We checked in at the Lightning Ridge Hotel Motel & Caravan Park for 2 nights (yes the picture this conjures up is spot on). This is just like a frontier town with the characters to match. Most people here live in humpys on their mining leases (50' x 50') - dwellings held together with a wing and a prayer made of everything from corregated iron, to old trams, to cemented bottle walls.

While we were here, we did a mini bus tour of the town and the opal fields, a tour of the Black Hand mine (where the kitsch wall carvings were done - see photo), went to a local 3 act tourist play at the Black Queen where of all things we saw a $1Mil+ antique kerosene light collection. We went back and had coffee with owners next day. We swam in the Hot Mineral Baths with the locals, went to the pub three times (well we were staying on site!).

We had planned to stay only two nights here, but ended up staying for 5. This place is so addictive I will have to drag Wes out kicking and screaming tomorrow- he wanted to go and get a mining license and we don’t even particularly like opal! We have met the most amazing locals - it would take 3 pages to tell you the stories we heard and describe the total experience, especially with Gwen (see photos of Gwen and Wes, and me and orphan kangaroo). This town and some of the people have affected us like no other has. Incredible.

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