Blogs from New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 9

Heading for Wollongong, we were surprised as we drove past Lake George. The lake was full to the brim, the first time that we had seen that much water within it’s banks. The full lake was much larger than we imagined it could be. After settling in to Windang Beach Tourist Park, being a hot day, we headed for the beach to have a cool off swim. The beach was relatively calm, and the water was a good temperature. Windang lies south of Wollongong at the entrance to Lake Illawarra. The name Windang is aboriginal for "scene of a fight". With the weather the next day not being so inviting for a beach swim, we decided to tick the box of walking over the Sea Cliff Bridge. First we drove to Stanwell Tops lookout, and after ... read more

After packing up in Orange, we headed for Cowra, stopping off on the way for morning tea in the historic hamlet of Millthorpe. The town dates back to 1823, and is classified by the National Trust. The majority of the town’s buildings have been fully restored to their original condition, and it was interesting to walk around the streets. It was actually the decline of the town after WW1 that saved many of the buildings from the redevelopments that the larger country towns suffered. We drove on to Cowra, which had it’s beginnings in 1844, known at that time as "Coura Rocks". Around 1847, the township site became known as Cowra, and in 1849, was proclaimed a village. We set up our caravan at the Cowra Van Park, and then walked across the low level bridge ... read more

After spending a week with my elderly parents in Wellington NSW, helping out around the house and yard, it was time to hit the road again with our caravan. I have included a photo of The Blacksmith Shop, where my grandfather, father and uncles plied their “Smithy” trade, located next to our family home in Wellington. I have previously mentioned about researching our family history this past year, and that research has revealed that my great great grandfather, Charles Cullen, and his brother Daniel Cullen, Blacksmiths by trade, left Ireland and embarked on their voyage to a new land (Australia) in the 1850’s. Charles sailed from Ireland on the “Agincourt” in 1852 with his young wife, Mary, and Daniel sailed on the “Daniel McIvor” in 1856. I searched for a suitable Blacksmith poem to include in ... read more

Today we took a trip to the Blue Mountains, specifically the The Scenic Skyway Katoomba. They have various things to do here, a cableway, railway , walkway and skyway. It was a reasonable drive, it took us around 90mins but we did stop off at a national park on the way as there was a viewing area which overlooked some of the flood damage they’ve suffered here recently. It was amazing to see what the force of water can do, large trees had been knocked flat, the tarmac from the road was missing completely in some parts. All back to normal now though. We stopped at another high up area overlooking this a bit further on, it must’ve been quite a sight when the water was at it’s worst. At Skyway, there’s free parking in a ... read more

After a final stroll on the beach we said goodbye to the Gold Coast and headed further south. Our aim today was to reach Port Macquarie which was quite a distance – almost 500km’s and over 5 hours driving without any sightseeing detours! We travelled along the coastline at the start of the journey to find one of the lookout points. We found Lores Bonney lookout which needed a bit of a climb up some deep steps. We started making our way slowly up while another guy was heading down…. Just over halfway we were hoping that it was going to be worth the climb…. Got to the top and other than the bushes obscuring part of the view, it was a reasonable view of the Gold Coast. Once we’d caught our breath we turned to ... read more