I'm backkkk!

We had a nice trip out west, Rhonda, myself and Denny-the-Dog.

We headed out to Cowra and stayed the night in a lovely cabin at Cowra Van Park

We provided our own linen and had an 80 litre Fridge/freezer in the back of the truck with basic foodstuffs. Denny had to sleep outside, tied up, but as it was mild he did not mind too much. We made sure he got lots of 'relief' strolls.

The old 'low level' wooden road bridge is still in place over the Lachlan River and now serves as a pedestrian bridge.

We cooked our own breakfast - bacon, eggs and toast - with the utensils provided and did some sight seeing. We went to the Japanese Memorial Gardens  (Cowra was a Japanese POW camp during WWII and the scene of a notorious 'break out') and also the Cowra Rose Gardens.

We found a little Chinese restaurant in town that had a 'buffet' ("all-you-can-eat") lunch for $AUS9.50 and we also had a glass of wine and a bottle of ice water with our lunch. Very nice and all-up $AUS29.00.

We drove up to Canowindra (pronounced Kan-noun-dra) and re-visited the "Age of Fishes" museum. In the Devonian period, some 410-360 million years ago, the eastern coastline of Australia lay much further west. An extensive river and lake system covered large parts of the continent, draining into shallow seas. What is now Canowindra would then have been a wide flood plain, dotted with lakes and billabongs. It was the 'Age of Fishes', and they abounded in the area. Scientists have been able to reconstruct the fishes found at Canowindra on the basis of the fossil evidence found there. The fauna appears to have been dominated by two kinds of strange armoured fishes, Bothriolepis and Remigolepis , which belong to a long-extinct group called the antiarchs. A third, less common, armoured fish known as Groenlandaspis was also present .

Canowindra is also known as "The Ballooning Capital of Australia"

Its a pretty town, nice wide street and lots of covered verandahs over the shop fronts to protect one from the heat of the day - 32C. We had a counter lunch in one of the local pubs and a cold ale!

From there we drove to Bathurst, The home of the Mount Panorama Race Circuit and the Bathurst 1000 klm race.

It also the home of St Stanislaus Boy's Boarding College (St Stannies) one of the best known rural boarding colleges in Australia and produced many fine rugby players, scientists, artists, poets and doctors.

We stayed at the local Caravan and Camping Park. They allowed 'small dogs' but were hesitent about Denny. They agreed to let us 'camp' in a tent we had with us. It's a truly magnificant park - very posh and 'up-market'.

The swimming pool.

The next day we headed down the road to Wyangala and "The Camp" where we felt more relaxed, comfortable and 'at home'. We stayed two nights and arrived back home tonight!

We purchased a kilo of Tiger prawns (shrimps to my Amerian friends) and some fresh baked bread rolls and are about to sit outside in the twilight hours and enjoy our dinner.

Oh!  In case you are wondering, 'Yes!" I broke the news to Rhonda about the broken camera and its possible replcement ($AUS1,500) and she said go ahead! You little beauty!