Around Central New South Wales

 

We have been meandering around the Dubbo and surrounding area for nearly a month now with the exception of a week at home and have seen some amazing places and country.

We stayed at a little off the beaten track town called Gulargambone.  This town has a population of about 600 people, 1 caravan park, a little bar/pub and 1 1/2 supermarkets.

Even though we generally steer clear of caravan parks this one came highly recommended and as there was quite a bit to see in the area, we decided a four day stay was called for.  On checking in the owner asked me for an extra $10 a head for dinner that night as they have a communal camp oven roast beef.  I said great and handed it over and at 4 pm we lined up for happy hour round a huge fire loaded with camp ovens full of roast beef and vegies.

Soup on the next night with left over vegies

A unique way to hide the dump point

Round came Bernadette and David with plates of corn chips, melted cheese and sweet chilli sauce as an apertiser followed by a call to line up for some of the best roast beef and vegies I have tasted in a while, along with damper to soak up the gravy, for the 20+ caravanners sitting round the fire with our glasses of wine, cups of coffee and cans of Amber liquid.  This was repeated again on Wednesday Night and on the other days they came down at 4pm with either damper fresh out of the coals, scones, or cake.  As I had no wine one night they even supplied that at $10 a bottle with their own label on it.

 

Down the back was a run with alpacas, geese, chooks, sheep, goats and turkeys which came up to greet you if you walked past.  Every afternoon, the sky bussed pink and white as a few hundred galahs swooped down to feed on the grass seeds at the back of the park. 

 

The town is so named for the aboriginal name for "place of many galahs" and it certainly lives up to its name.  For many kilometres along all roads into town are some artistically made corrugated iron 2 mitre high galahs and they are scattered through the town also.  This little place should be a must on anybody's list for quant little Aussie towns with such friendly towns people and bird life.  Gulargambone, we will return.  After my short stay at home Stuart hung around Dubbo and got the van serviced as we have had it nearly 12 months already.

 We then headed to Gulgong for their annual Henry Lawson festival, held over the Queens Birthday long weekend.  We had been through here a few months ago and looked forward to a return trip.  The streets were closed off and market stalls were set up on both sides of the street for 3 blocks as the little town of Gulgong came alive to celebrate the journey Henry Lawson's parents made from Grenfell to Gulgong when he was only a few years old.  Mid afternoon on Saturday the horse riders came through town after a 2 week treck on horse back and in horse drawn carriages re-enacting the epic journey many years ago. 

This was followed by a parade of bands, floats and marchers any large town would be proud of.

Henry Lawson and I  He looked very much like images of the man himself and I looked a little like the real thing also

A very good brass band along with a group of marching girls from Sydney also marched and also put on a display.

 

While in the area we got the car and van serviced and finally got the water situation fixed as since we bought the van we have had problems getting water into our tanks.

Of course a must was a visit to Taronga Western Plains Zoo where they keep the animals in as near to their natural habitat as possible.  They also run a very pro active breeding program for the endangered animals as well.

At one of our many free camps where we had an open fire I tried an idea I was told about where, by putting a small shovel of coals under the chair it warms you up.  Let me say it really works.

Coals, no flame!

Going home for Zac's 18th and catching up with Stuart in Lithgow on Monday 13th