HOLIDAYS AT LAST

Boxing day 2011 and it has turned out a nice day, albeit overcast and a little cloudy, but the sun is shining through in spots so should be ok.

It rained for most of the afternoon on Christmas Day so it was just as well that we were inside for most of our festivities but it is now starting to dry out.

We hook up the van today and leave the park for the next month as we trip down south to visit friends and relatives.We are not in a hurry as our first leg is to my niece's place in Somerton just out of Tamworth and about an hours drive from here.

Our plan is to spend the afternoon and night at Katherine and Brett's place which is a huge chook growing farm that he manages and has a lovely reserved spot for our caravan which overlooks the property and the hills.

They have organised a nice dinner for us tonight and we will have a relaxing afternoon and evening with them and their young son Riley.

 



Katherine and Brett's place



 

Settled in for the night



Monday 27th and it rained most of the night. If anybody does not think that the drought is broken then they should come up here and have a look. I am over rain!!!

I took some photos of the rain coming in from the South West.

 

Just had to get into the frame didn't she!!!!

 

Brett manages a chook growing farm and has 8 sheds which house 20,000 chooks each and turns them over 6 times each year and after mortality deliver around 800,000 chooks yearly.

They are a major supplier to KFC amongst others.



This is four of Brett's sheds

 

This is the sister farm to Bretts which is on the same property

Early rise to update the posting and then breakfast and off towards Bathurst for the night. We left Somerton at 8:30am and headed off.

Although the map below shows us going down the New England Highway which was our original plan we actually detoured via Gunnedah for a change of scenery.

We passed through Gunnedah, Curlewis, Breeza, Quirindi and stopped at Willow Tree, which is where the two highways meet near Murrundi, for breakfast and fuel.  After a nice break we headed to Merriwa and then the turn off South to Bathurst.

The countryside was beautiful due to all of the water that it had received and there was a sea of green everywhere you looked.

We stopped at Mudgee for a short break prior to tackling the mountainous road across to Bathurst and our stop for the night.

We arrived at Bathurst at about 3:00pm on Monday 27th December and set up the van at the Big 4 Caravan Park in Kelso and relaxed for a couple of hours before heading into town for dinner at the RSL club.

On the way into town which is about 3-4 kms away the taxi driver described what had happened during the recent rains and showed us where the roads were cut and the damage that had been done to them.

Some of the roads were still covered in water in the middle of town and a contra traffic flow was in force for the main street into Bathurst. It must have been terrible to have been there during the rains.

We had a nice night in town and a good nights sleep and headed off to Canberra on Tuesday at around 9:00am.

The trip to Canberra was a relaxing trip as we had decided that we were not going to travel above 95km per hour. Pissed a few people off but we were happy and relaxed.

The maps we are using on this trip were planned a number of weeks prior to leaving and although they show the general direction we are heading during the trip we made a number of detours for sight seeing.

After leaving Bathurst we drove through Blayney, Mandurama and then to Cowra for a look see. Not a great deal to see but its a nice place to visit.

Next leg of the trip took us to Godfreys Creek, Boorowa, Bowning and down to Yass. We drove through Yass and although we have been there previously it is always a nice place to visit and look around.

The Yass highway passes through Murrumbateman which is a very small whistle stop but has one of the best cool climate wineries in Australia.

It is worth stopping off if ever you pass through this area particularly if you like crisp white wine.

Heading along the Yass Highway we drove towards our next destination which was on this side of Canberra off the Yass Road to my Son's place at Florey.

We arrived at around 2:00pm and set the van up for our  6 day stay prior to heading to Victoria.

Nice relaxing night and Kevin had organised to fire up the Weber for a roast pork dinner and who was I to argue with him - so roast pork it was.

Kevin is in the final stages of building an entertainment area onto the side of his house so we enjoyed dinner sitting in this beautiful big area and went to bed about 11:00pm totally devoid of any idea of the time. Felt it next morning though!!!

Wednesday 29th and off to Bunnings to buy some more things to finish off the entertainment area as he had to build a small wall on one side so that he could attach some all weather blinds to it for protection.

Spent most of the day on that and other little fiddly things, Maree mowed the lawn back and front and Gabriella cut back some bushes and other bits and pieces.

Great day and by the end of it we were stuffed and just relaxed for the rest of it with a BBQ of T Bones which we had won at the Barraba watering hole on Christmas eve.

Thursday 30th and more pottering and working on and off on the entertainment area and general tidying up around it. The Italian connection turned up on Thursday afternoon (Gabriella's mum and dad) so the real fun was about to begin. 

A couple of legs of lamb into the Weber, a stack of veges and salad, the inevitable vino and the laughter began. - Great night was had by all.

Maree and I are the ones on the right!!!

Friday 31st and we finished off the entertainment area and started to load up the furniture which had been in storage so that it could be used without lots of building equipment laying around.

As it was New Years Eve, Gabriella had booked us into a nice restaurant in the city, italian of course,  for a late dinner at 8:30.
The restaurant was just  across the road from the 9:00pm first fireworks launch and as she had booked an outside table we had first class seats for the display.

The fireworks were magnificent.

After the first lot of fireworks we then got down to the important part of the evening - eating!! but first a few snapshots for posterity.

Kevin has the goatee, Gabriella is the mum and Madeline and Daniella make up the foursome. 

So Maree and Kevin had Chilli prawn pasta, Daniella and I had fettucine carbonara, Mario had Spatchcock, Madeline had pizza, Gabriella and Francesca had Involtini.

Absolutely brilliant food - great restaurant. At about 10:30 we moved away from the restaurant to get a nice spot to watch the midnight fireworks. We found a spot on the lawn of the Canberra Law Courts which was off to the side of where the fireworks would be launched.

Rolled out the blankets and the chairs opened the eskys and then the kids had a play whilst we waited.

We had a great time just sitting around and talking, watching the world go by and the kids playing it was just a pleasant warm Canberra evening. At midnight it all happened above the skies of Canberra.

After the fireworks finished we left the park and back to home. A midnight snack and a toddy and off to bed about 2:00am.

So that was our first week away from home. Tomorrow Sunday 1st day of the new year we will pack up  and on Monday head towards Balranald for a week where I will update the blog with  a new posting.

See ya soon


Bill and Maree