Posts Tagged With: boorowa

Day 6 – Canberra to Cowra

We woke this morning to a clear and sunny, although slightly chilly, morning.  The last few days with Katie and Mick have been great, and they both came out to the caravan park with fresh coffee to wave us goodbye.

Clear blue skies leaving Canberra

Clear blue skies leaving Canberra

From Alivio Tourist Park we headed onto the Barton Highway and then onto the Hume Highway before turning off at the Lachlan Valley Way to Boorowa.  At best this could be called a “scenic route” with single lane highway and double lines most of the 100 or so kilometres to Boorowa.  This was quite difficult driving with few opportunities to allow speedier cars to overtake, but having said that the scenery comprised rolling green hills, full to overflowing dams, and plenty of healthy looking livestock.  It was quite beautiful.

Rolling green hills with an interesting sky

Rolling green hills with an interesting sky

We soon arrived at Boorowa and parked at the Rotary Park.  Boorowa is a small country town known for its fine merino wool and for the Superb Parrot.  There are some impressive heritage buildings in Boorowa, including, not surprisingly, some very nice old hotels.

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Boorowa is also very proud of its ANZAC heritage, and there is a substantial ANZAC memorial and a very moving ANZAC walk with a Lone Pine tree and plaques dedicated to servicemen and women who served in the Wars.

ANZAC memorial and Lone Pine walk

ANZAC memorial and Lone Pine walk

After a walk around town we stopped for a very tasty lunch at the Pantry on Pudman.  We’ve been to Boorowa a few times and have eaten at several places in town, but the eccentricity of Pantry on Pudman makes it quite a special place.

Back on the highway after lunch the conditions were very much as before, and we suspect that we had just missed a substantial downpour (for a change) as the roads were wet and there was running water everywhere.  By this time the skies had turned from clear blue with a few white clouds to quite an interesting mix of grey and blue skies and a mixture of cloud cover.

On the way from Boorowa

On the way from Boorowa

Approaching Cowra

Approaching Cowra

We soon arrived at Cowra, which is a place where we have stayed several times.  We stopped at the Cowra Van Park, and secured a nice site backing onto the river.  Not surprisingly the river is quite high, but we are at no risk of flooding.

View from our site at Cowra Van Park

View from our site at Cowra Van Park

After setting up connections for power and water we headed off for a leisurely walk around town.  Being a Saturday afternoon many of the shops were closed for the day but it was great to stretch our legs.  We were especially sad to note that one of our favourite bookshops, where we used to enjoy chats with the owner, has closed down permanently.  Eventually we headed back to Bertha to close up, warm up, and settle in for the evening.

Categories: 2016 Big Maroochydore Adventure | Tags: ,

Day 83 – Cowra to Canberra

This morning was probably the coldest day of this adventure to date. The thermometer was showing 4 degrees when I first got up, but the van soon warmed up with the heater on. We took our time packing up and preparing to leave, by which time the sun was out, the sky was clear and blue, and it was starting to warm up.

The drive from Cowra to Yass along the Lachlan Valley Way is a tremendous driver’s drive. It is basically a series of sweeping curves through rolling countryside on a well maintained road with a few straight stretches thrown in for fun. This drive is interesting for the driver and offers the occasional challenge at whatever speed suits. Importantly the countryside is also interesting, with green fields incorporating slashes of yellow, plenty of cattle and sheep grazing with a few alpacas and goats for good measure. There are a few smaller villages and some very interesting buildings and properties along the highway.

Scenery along the Lachlan Valley Way

Scenery along the Lachlan Valley Way

Morning coffee was at Boorowa. We’ve stopped here several times before for coffee or lunch and visited several cafes and pubs. Today we had coffee at “The Pantry on Pudman”. The coffee was superb and the muffins were fresh from the oven, tasty and not horrendously oversized! Décor was “quirky” with antique furniture, books and magazines, light fittings, paintings, etc everywhere. I’m sure that if I had mentioned to the waitress that I liked the cup and saucer my coffee was served in then it would be immediately for sale! Our friend Diana would love to see this place.

Arriving at Boorowa and Pantry on Pudman cafe

Arriving at Boorowa and Pantry on Pudman cafe

From Boorowa we continued down the Lachlan Valley Way to near Yass, where we turned onto the Hume for a little while and then onto the Barton Highway to Canberra. This stretch is not nearly as enjoyable as our morning drive, although the countryside is still quite interesting.

From the Barton Highway we changed to the Federal Highway and we soon arrived at our favourite place to stay in Canberra, Capital Country Holiday Park, which is actually just over the border in NSW at Sutton. This is a clean and tidy caravan park with plenty of large drive through, level sites and good amenities. There is also a range of cabins and facilities for school groups. Although most of the occupants of caravans and RVs we have ever seen here are in the grey nomad’s age group, there is a jumping pillow, tennis court, outdoor swimming pool and mini-golf, so the younger patrons are catered for as well. Although actually in NSW, it is still only 15 minutes into the centre of Canberra. At this time of year the park is almost deserted, and we have the place pretty much to ourselves.

Capital Country Holiday Park is almost deserted apart from us!

Capital Country Holiday Park is almost deserted apart from us!

Jumping pillow, tennis court, swimming pool and cabins at Capital Country Holiday Park

Jumping pillow, tennis court, swimming pool and cabins at Capital Country Holiday Park

We will be spending several days in Canberra with our daughter Katie who has been living here for a few years, and we won’t be posting daily blog posts during that time.

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: , ,

Cowra to Canberra

We try to take every possible opportunity to visit our daughter Katie and her partner Mick in Canberra whenever we can, so today’s trip was to Canberra.

As we don’t plan our trip with absolute military precision, we had forgotten about the annual Floriade flower show in Canberra and the effect that it has on accommodation.  Accordingly, we couldn’t stay at our usual place at Capital County Caravan Park in Sutton but were able to reserve a powered site at EPIC (Exhibition Park in Canberra).

The alarm went off ridiculously early to give us time to shower and breakfast and pack up and get on the road early so that we could get to EPIC as early as possible.  It’s first come first serve for the best spots and being a bit larger than most vans we wanted to give ourselves the best chance of securing a good spot.

From Cowra Van Park we hit the Lachlan Valley Highway and headed to Boorowa.  Road quality wasn’t great but the countryside was fantastic.  Gently rolling hills with a mixture of bushland, grazing [mainly sheep] and cropping [plenty of canola].  The overall impact was spectacular.

Canola on the way to Boorowa

Canola on the way to Boorowa

Sheep grazing by the Lachlan Valley Highway

Sheep grazing by the Lachlan Valley Highway

We stopped at Boorowa for coffee and to refuel the Ute before continuing down the highway towards Yass.  After Boorowa the countryside changed to be mainly grazing, but it was still quite interesting – the road quality perhaps increased marginally.

After a brief spell on the Hume Highway we eventually turned off onto the Barton Highway towards Canberra.  Compared to other times we have been this way, there was very little traffic and we were able to enjoy the scenery which at this time of year is a quite spectacular patchwork of crops and occasional trees and blossom.

Barton Highway to Canberra

Barton Highway to Canberra

Views to Murrumbateman

Views to Murrumbateman

We arrived at EPIC at about 11.00 am and took a little while to find a serviced flat spot that didn’t have too much mud.  By noon we had found a site, were fully set up and Ann was preparing lunch in the van out of the cold wind.

Set Up at EPIC - Before the Storm

Set Up at EPIC – Before the Storm

Later this afternoon we made our way to the Belconnen Westfield shopping centre to stock up on supplies.  We found it quite strange seeing people walking around in winter clothes!!!!!

Not long after we returned to the fiver the skies opened up and we were subject to quite an impressive storm.

Katie even rang to ask where was the good weather we were supposed to bring with us!  It just shows that you can’t please all the people all the time!

We’ll be in Canberra for a few days so we don’t plan to do a daily blog unless there is something worth reporting.

Categories: 2013 Big Adventure | Tags: , ,

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