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Published: October 4th 2010
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27th - 29th September
Monday morning came and we needed to get going on our journey down to Mansfield. We loved the Coffs Harbour area and had really enjoyed our stay there. We decided to take the most direct route which meant following the coast road towards Sydney, which is also a motorway but is often very busy. We needed to fill up with diesel in Port Macquarie but could have kicked ourselves when just outside the town it was much cheaper. It seems a bit bizarre - we’ve noticed before that prices seem to go up in cities so it’s something to remember for the future. We stopped for a tea break at Lake Cathie and had lunch in Hawks Nest which was just the other side of Tea Garden. We thought we might find a nice ‘tea garden’ in Tea Garden but, alas, no. However the café in Hawks Nest did a very good Greek salad (with chips) so that suited us fine.
We often pass the time on these long journeys by listening to CDs and more often than not it’s the music of Mo Mac ‘n’ Me, an Irish folk band Graham used to play
with. Graham had to leave the band when we moved to Moira. They have regular gigs in the South Gloucestershire area and, realistically, especially with his health issue, it was too far to travel. Graham was replaced by Phil and, just before we came to Aus, we were able to see the new band perform when they appeared on stage at Thornbury Carnival. They sounded as good as ever and have expanded their repertoire. Since then they have added a fiddle player to the line-up and, coincidently, it’s my old boss, Andy Graham. We have known Andy for a long time and were aware that he was an exceptional fiddle player who played with other bands so we never thought he would want to join MM&M! They’re rehearsing for a new CD which we’ll look forward to hearing on our return.
We carried on down the coast and, as we had decided to tackle the Sydney suburbs the following morning, we stopped at a very pleasant little place called ‘The Entrance’ but we never did find out what ‘The Entrance’ was the entrance to!! We had never been to any of these places before and they all had something
to offer. We stayed in the ‘Jetty Motel’, virtually water-side, and there were indeed a couple of old jetties not far away which we strolled along that evening. There were quite a lot of large jelly fish around one of the jetties - they were probably not harmful but I don’t like them anyway.
The next morning we had another stroll through the water-side park before continuing on our journey. We had decided not to use the freeway toll road to get through part of the city as it’s a bit of a nuisance trying to pay the toll afterwards as these days there are no toll booths. It was definitely a slower journey and it probably cost us half an hour.
I’d made sandwiches and we had our lunch picnicking at the lookout high above Mittagong. We then drove on into Bowral which is a very special Aussie town because it’s where Sir Donald Bradman grew up. For those not into cricket, Sir Donald is generally accepted as the greatest batsman of all time and had a test average of 99.94. We visited the museum which is full of very interesting information and nostalgic displays. It was
amazing to learn that cricket is believed to have evolved from a game played by shepherds in southern England to pass the time while they were guarding sheep. The first certain reference to the game was in 1598. The museum is right next to the Bradman Oval which is where the young Donald Bradman first learned how to play the game. At his Shepherd Street home, young Don developed a solitary game where he would repeatedly hit a golf ball with a cricket stump against the curved brick base of the family water tank. Using the house wall as one boundary on his off-side, he managed to construct ‘Test’ matches in his head where he, as the batsman, would pit himself against the unpredictable balls ‘delivered’ by the tank stand. His repeated application to this game, using the challenging tools that he’d limited himself to, acutely developed his hand-to-eye co-ordination. He could easily have become a top class tennis player but chose to concentrate on cricket. We were very pleased that we took time out to visit Bowral and the museum.
Reaching Yass, we stopped in the park for an afternoon tea-break. I went for a quick walk to
take a photo of the very impressive Court House and beautifully painted public toilets. After that we battled on until Gundagai, another lovely old town, where we stopped the night. Gundagai has a few claims to fame: Five miles out of town is the ‘Dog on a Tuckerbox’ which is a memorial to the early pioneers and on Wednesday morning we drove back along the highway to visit it. Over the years there have been many versions of this poem:
As I was coming down Conroy's Gap,
I heard a maiden cry;
'There goes Bill the Bullocky,
He's bound for Gundagai.
A better poor old beggar
Never earnt an honest crust,
A better poor old beggar
Never drug a whip through dust.'
His team got bogged at the nine mile creek,
Bill lashed and swore and cried;
'If Nobby don't get me out of this,
I'll tattoo his bloody hide.'
But Nobby strained and broke the yoke,
And poked out the leader's eye;
Then the dog sat on the Tucker Box
Nine miles from Gundagai.
We also diverted through town to find the two old bridges that are now very popular tourist attractions. These are the Prince Alfred
Bridge and the Railway Bridge. The Prince Alfred Bridge was built in 1867 and was the first easy way for people to cross the Murumbidgee river. Today it is the longest timber bridge in Australia, measuring 921 metres from one end to another. The Railway Bridge was built in 1902, and is another bridge recognised for its length, at 819 metres.
We got back on the road and rolled into Holbrook at teabreak time and there in the park was an amazing sight: a submarine!! You may wonder what on earth a submarine is doing in a park 400 kms from the coast? After it was decommissioned by the Aussie Navy it was donated to the town in 1995. The town’s original name was Germanton but during World War I anti-German sentiment led to it being renamed Holbrook, after British Navy Submarine Commander Norman Holbrook, who torpedoed a Turkish battleship in 1914 in the Dardennelles.
The submarine was literally covered with school children who were on a day out from Albury but after a while they left so we were able to have a good wander round it. We diverted off the motorway and stopped for lunch in the
historic town of Beechworth. We did want to have a pie in the famous Beechworth Bakery but it was just too busy (school holidays) so along the road a bit we found a 'tradional English tea shop' which didn't do pies but maybe that wasn't such a bad thing! We managed to get into the bakery later and bought a huge 'Beesting' cake, two smaller ones and a quiche.
Our lovely friend, Wilma, had offered to put us up in Wangaratta that night. She had been out to lunch with her three daughters celebrating one of their birthdays, Marion’s, but we hadn’t been there long when she arrived back at the house with Rita. Brenda, Wilma’s other daughter who we met a few months ago in the Cotswolds (UK) had to return to Melbourne. It’s always good to catch up with Wilma and she is always interested in what we’ve been up to. We went to a local hotel for supper and even had a go on the pokey machines! We spent a lovely evening reminiscing.
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Ann & Bruce
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Wonderful to read about Sir Don. As we are 'into cricket' it was very interesting.