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Published: February 25th 2023
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Leaving Wellington, we wanted to visit one of the local regional cities that we inevitably drove through in a rush on our way to and from Sydney, where we had moved to after we left Wellington. Orange was our chosen destination for our first stop, and we settled in to the Canobolas Tourist Park.
Orange is the home of the Wiradjuri people, and in 1822, Captain Percy Simpson established a convict settlement at Blackmans Swamp, now known as Orange. The city is warm in summer and freezing in winter. It snows regularly in Orange during winter, and many a time I played winter sports there, ending up feeling like an icicle.
The climate has enabled the area to be a major apple and pear producer, and a centre for cool-weather wine production. Wineries abound in the hills around the city.
Our first tourist excursion was to drive up to the top of Mt Canobolas, which has great views over the city. The snow gums were the dominant tree on the upper slopes of the mountain, and the scars from the large bushfires that scorched the area in 2018 were still evident. From there we drove down to Lake
Canobolas, and if it hadn’t have been late in the day, we would have dived in the inviting water.
The next day we drove to the Federal Falls Picnic Area, to start the walk to Federal Falls, which we had seen on one of the many YouTube travel videos that we viewed. It was a 4.4 km hike, and it was hard going for two oldies who had lost walking fitness, with my Garmin showing a total ascent of 776 metres. The falls were a bit underwhelming, with barely a trickle flowing, but it was a good start to our bush walking for 2023.
That afternoon a massive storm hit Orange from the south, and our caravan was buffeted by hail, strong winds and heavy rain. There was some damage to the caravan, but not enough to halt our trip.
The next day we met my brother Michael for morning tea at a local coffee shop, before we headed out of town to a small village called Borenore, where we stopped off at Hillside Harvest. At Hillside Harvest you can either pick your own fruit or purchase a bucket of a mixture of any of the fruits
on offer. Kim chose the latter, and was not disappointed. Whilst we were at Borenore, we drove to Borenore Caves, not expecting to have access as the Visitor Information Centre had advised that the bridge to the caves was closed.
Although the bridge was closed, this was no obstacle for these adventurers, and we crossed the river on logs and proceeded to the Arch Cave. As we entered the cave, we only had my IPhone for light, so we trod carefully, until we could feel wind in our face and we could see daylight ahead. We kept weaving our way through the cave and exited the Arch Cave, high above a swollen stream that had carved its way through the limestone hill. We made our way back through the cave, across the river and back to the car. Our final day in Orange, but a visit we enjoyed.
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