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Published: September 27th 2014
If there is a long way to go from A to B, we will try and use it. That was the case over the past two days. We had stayed at a free camp a little out of Gilgandra and having crossed town, we headed for a little town called Gooloogong.
We had heard from David and Mary that this was a good little camp with power and water available for a gold coin donation.
Having set up our van we walked the streets of Gooloogong, and 3 minutes later we had seen the sights. Having said that, the park adjacent to the caravan park had quite a bit of history from a settlement perspective. This town like many was a railway come rural service town, but with rail uneconomic, the town, pub and rural supply shop is pretty much all that is left. You wouldn't want to get your car serviced at the Shell Servo. I doubt if the last mechanic there had heard of electronic direct injected petrol engines.
The country side in this area, and even more so from Gooloogong to Cowra and south is very good agricultural land. There are thousands of hectares planted
in canola. The early plantings are now in full flower giving a radiant glow across the land scape.
There is also large herds of cattle, sheep and goats, and the odd alpaca for good measure. We stopped to take a picture of one of the canola fields close to Gooloogong, but Mrs Cow across the road was most upset that she was being ignored. Photo taken, and she nodded her head with approval.
As part of expert planning (not) we timed our visit to Cowra right on the day of the annual cherry blossom festival at the Japanese Gardens.
Cowra has a particular reason to remember the Japanese as this was the site of a Japanese prisoner of war camp. From the National Archives we read:- "
On 5 August 1944, Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) housed in the detention camp in Cowra, New South Wales staged a breakout. Armed with improvised weapons including baseball bats and sharpened mess knives, they stormed the perimeter fences and overcame the machine gun posts. Never likely to be successful, the breakout resulted in the death of 231 Japanese prisoners with a further 108 wounded. All survivors were recaptured in the surrounding countryside in the days that followed.
Four Australians were killed in the breakout – Privates Benjamin Gower Hardy, Ralph Jones and Charles Henry Shepherd. Lieutenant Harry Doncaster was killed when ambushed during the recapture of the prisoners. Hardy and Jones were posthumously awarded the George Cross."
The Japanese Gardens are dedicated to peace and friendship, and are worthy of a visit any time of year. As mentioned, Saturday was the Cherry Blossom Festival Day which meant that there were all sorts of cultural activities in the park lands as well as the beautiful blossom. It would seem that this year, someone forgot to give the date to many of the trees which were just budding. However, others in the park produced a splendid display, even if they too had rushed a little to get dressed up.
Talking of getting dressed up, there were sumo wrestlers, dancers, singers and of course the refined ladies of the Japanese tea House.
In the gardens was a graphical presentation of distances from Cowra to many other cities. We were 1200ks from Brisbane, and still 4,500ks to Perth. But since we drive crooked miles, we had better add another 1000ks at
least.
Now, I must warn you that if you are of child bearing age, avoid Cowra. The water there has magical properties that produce incredible multiple pregnancies. Well, if you want a minimum of quads, go to Cowra. We met a Mr and Mrs W Duck at the park. Mr Duck was strutting around as proud as punch, but Mrs Duck was looking a little weary with stress after her latest pregnancy. She had 19 ducklings!
So luck was with our half done planning, letting us enjoy the festival day.
Oh, I forgot to mention a slight navigational problem in Cowra. We had set Tom Tom to go to an RV park on the way into Cowra, and with great pride and precision he announced that we had arrived at our destination. And he was right. From there to the Japanese Gardens we used a dual navigation system, the Marg marg and the Rob Rob who were to read the sign posts and navigate to the gardens. We got to the critical set of traffic lights and a dispute arose over turning left or continuing through. The driver opted to follow the previously well tried and tested
Marg Marg navigation and it was just as well that we did. Not because this was the correct way to the gardens, but rather we went up a steep hill to a lookout over Cowra where we could look down on a really beautiful field of flowering canola. A magical intense yellow contrasted with the dark green of trees and adjoining pasture.
Any way, that road eventually met up with the overlooked left turn road which took us directly to the gardens.
In our original plan, we were going to stay in Grenfell at a free camp. However, others had told us that the local caravan park owner was shooing people out and down to his pay park. So we moved on south.
We headed south from Grenfell and headed for Griffith via Rankins Springs. Now it takes longer to say the name than pass that little town, but with fuel a little low we stopped for diesel.
Then down the last 50ks to a beaut overnight park by the river/canal on the outskirts of town.
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Mum & Dad
non-member comment
Well done
Enjoyed the views and commentary. You never know what you can find in the quiet little places off the beaten track so to speak.