A (Much!!) More Recent Road Trip...
We are back from a few days away, in country New South Wales - around the town of Orange, to be precise ((Orange, as the name suggests, is in a fruit-growing area. Ironically, the area is best known for apricots, apples & grapes!!). Long-Suffering Partner found a company called In2 The Wild, who offer 'tiny' cabins in rural settings that are off-grid - running on solar power, bottled gas & whatever firewood you can collect without chopping down trees!
'Isabella' in the valley below Lidster Hill, about 20 minutes from town...
As you can see from the photo, the clouds were rolling in, but we'd had a good drive out, via the main highway over the Blue Mountains, through the towns & villages we haven't seen for over a year, due to... well, you know. We even took Laura for a 2-lap spin around Mt Panorama, home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race. Neither of us are really racing fans, but well... if you build it, we will come. There were crews all over the track, painting, repairing & generally sprucing the place up, as this year's race is only a few weeks away & the crowd will be bigger than expected, after not being able to attend last year's event because of... well, you know. Unfortunately, it also meant that there were a couple of police cars patrolling the track, so we weren't able to get Laura's 2.0 litre diesel engine cranked up
The cabin is indeed tiny, with a small bathroom, featuring a waterless, compost toilet, a 2 burner gas cooktop but no oven, a 2-seater 'dining' table & a cushioned bench with storage underneath that, allegedly, could be pulled out & converted to a bed, though we failed to figure out how. Fortunately, there was also a double bed mattress 'upstairs' - which was accessed by a ladder at the end of the kitchen bench & about 75cm at most from the rooftop. Any bedtime shenanigans could mean a concussion!! It also meant we should be really certain about wanting to get up for a drink or something in the middle of the night - not an easy crawl/climb/stumble/headlong plummet in the dark...
That said, it really was a fun 2-night stay. Not quite camping, not quite a motel & nice to see I hadn't lost my fire-making skills, nor my love of a good BBQ
We'd brought the cameras & tripods, with the idea of getting some Milky Way photos, but the Moon was a little too bright & the sky a bit cloudy, so we didn't really get much of note. My iPhone got the shot of the night, really...
And another phone shot, once the moon 'set' behind some trees
The actual reason for our trip was our 9th wedding anniversary - but any excuse to get out of town will do. Anniversary Day itself (we got married on 10.11.12 - which doesn't work in American date format, so just go with it!) was when the rain ramped up a bit
Perfect time then, for a little sight-seeing!! Mount Canobolas, an extinct volcano, was just down the road a bit, the highest peak in the area, so ideal to have a look around, even in the rain right??!!
Wrong... the higher we drove up the mountain, the more the rain, mist &... let's just call it what it was - cloud closed in & reduced driving visibility to about 10 metres & the view at the top to less than that!! Still beautiful though, in an eerie kind of way & definitely worth the careful trip up... & back down
So we headed into Orange for a bit of a look around & dinner supplies, with the bold hope of being able to use the firepit &/or at least the barbecue. When the town is called Orange, you know there'll be at least one place that's...
Right next door though, is the Community Information Centre/Museum, which is surprising in a different way...
Not the kind of architecture you expect in an 1800s country town...
In between visits to the 2 shopping centres, each built around one of the two major supermarket chain stores, we also found a bakery/café, a local butcher & the ubiquitous Dan Murphy's bottle shop, so anniversary dinner was planned & provided for. Let's try some of the local wineries then... many of which turned out to be closed, as it was a weekday & raining & those that were open wanted to charge a $10-20 tasting fee, which was non-redeemable, even if you were buying lots of their wines. Hang on - let us get this straight... you want me to pay you money, to try your wine, then pay you even more money to buy it?! In practice, this meant that if I liked their Cabernet Sauvignon, or Semillon, which sold for between $30-50 per bottle, depending on the vineyard, I'd really be paying $40-70... or at least a hefty surcharge on the full, or half-dozen I may want... A bold, but foolhardy strategy in a region that has a giant Dan Murphy's in it, where I found a regional Merlot for $25 so bought 2 of them
Look, I understand that times have been hard, with the Plague lockdowns & the bushfires, the generational drift to the cities & all, but if you want people to come back to the region & spend their money, you can't take inspiration for your marketing strategy' from the region's most notorious 19th century Bushranger!! If you want to charge a tasting fee, that's fine - it helps offset the wine you lose to those who just want to come in, drink & leave without buying - but if someone actually wants to buy a bottle or 2, or 6, or... then surely the tasting fee can be waived, or at least taken off the total purchase price. Otherwise, you might as well have someone dressed as Ben Hall at the entry gates, brandishing a pistol & demanding we hand over our wallets
Back at the cabin, it was time to start our anniversary celebrations, so we opened the wine & cheese...
Yep, we know how to be fancy...
... & get a fire going. This was a challenge, as it had been raining pretty constantly & there wasn't anywhere around the cabin I could keep the firewood effectively dry enough... & there wasn't really room inside for the wood either. The small bits of kindling I foraged from the surrounding areas was, of course, wet as well, but we had a healthy supply of fire-starter cubes & 2 boxes of matches, so the theory was that the fire-starters would dry the kindling enough for it to ignite, the heat from which would dry the smaller bits of wood enough to get going, which would help to dry the larger pieces I placed around the fire, so they could burn later
Half an hour later, after about 12 fire-starters, about 20 matches, some huffing & puffing & not a little colourful language, this was as much flame as I could muster...
Of course, I had about 4 cubes going at once, but they didn't even dry any of the twigs & kindling pieces enough to get the rest of the process underway. As soon as the cube burnt out, the flame did too. Then it started raining again, so we admitted defeat. Fortunately, the BBQ ran on gas, so we could at least cook the steaks & corn cobs, both of which turned out extra juicy, not just due to my cooking, but also to the fact that the BBQ area wasn't under cover, so everything got wet, including the Cook
The next morning was our last in the Cabin & we had some visitors as we were packing up
The plan was to head for Dubbo, home of the Western Plains Zoo, which we love visiting, but the weather forecast suggested that Dubbo & surrounding areas were in for a thorough drenching. Given that we were sort of in that 'surrounding area', we decided to head home a day early. The creeks & rivers were already rising...
... so while I know Laura's all-wheel-drive is dependable (having given it a thorough test in outback New South Wales last year!!), she doesn't float very well. Time to go!! We took the Bells Line of Road on the way back over the Blue Mountains, which is my preferred route, but has only recently re-opened after parts of it were washed away in last year's wild storms, which had, at least helped put out the bloody fires!! Australia - land of extremes!! The rain found us as we climbed into the mountain foothills & mist & then cloud closed over & reduced visibility to brown-trouser levels, especially along the high ridge section, where you know what's on either side of the road you can't see very much of... But I love that kind of edge-of-your-seat-and-abilities driving, even if it is a bit mentally taxing... Back home via Windsor on the other side of the mountains & a take-away dinner, before collapsing into a bed with a higher ceiling clearance than the last couple of nights!!
'Isabella' in the valley below Lidster Hill, about 20 minutes from town...
As you can see from the photo, the clouds were rolling in, but we'd had a good drive out, via the main highway over the Blue Mountains, through the towns & villages we haven't seen for over a year, due to... well, you know. We even took Laura for a 2-lap spin around Mt Panorama, home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race. Neither of us are really racing fans, but well... if you build it, we will come. There were crews all over the track, painting, repairing & generally sprucing the place up, as this year's race is only a few weeks away & the crowd will be bigger than expected, after not being able to attend last year's event because of... well, you know. Unfortunately, it also meant that there were a couple of police cars patrolling the track, so we weren't able to get Laura's 2.0 litre diesel engine cranked up
The cabin is indeed tiny, with a small bathroom, featuring a waterless, compost toilet, a 2 burner gas cooktop but no oven, a 2-seater 'dining' table & a cushioned bench with storage underneath that, allegedly, could be pulled out & converted to a bed, though we failed to figure out how. Fortunately, there was also a double bed mattress 'upstairs' - which was accessed by a ladder at the end of the kitchen bench & about 75cm at most from the rooftop. Any bedtime shenanigans could mean a concussion!! It also meant we should be really certain about wanting to get up for a drink or something in the middle of the night - not an easy crawl/climb/stumble/headlong plummet in the dark...
That said, it really was a fun 2-night stay. Not quite camping, not quite a motel & nice to see I hadn't lost my fire-making skills, nor my love of a good BBQ
We'd brought the cameras & tripods, with the idea of getting some Milky Way photos, but the Moon was a little too bright & the sky a bit cloudy, so we didn't really get much of note. My iPhone got the shot of the night, really...
And another phone shot, once the moon 'set' behind some trees
The actual reason for our trip was our 9th wedding anniversary - but any excuse to get out of town will do. Anniversary Day itself (we got married on 10.11.12 - which doesn't work in American date format, so just go with it!) was when the rain ramped up a bit
Perfect time then, for a little sight-seeing!! Mount Canobolas, an extinct volcano, was just down the road a bit, the highest peak in the area, so ideal to have a look around, even in the rain right??!!
Wrong... the higher we drove up the mountain, the more the rain, mist &... let's just call it what it was - cloud closed in & reduced driving visibility to about 10 metres & the view at the top to less than that!! Still beautiful though, in an eerie kind of way & definitely worth the careful trip up... & back down
So we headed into Orange for a bit of a look around & dinner supplies, with the bold hope of being able to use the firepit &/or at least the barbecue. When the town is called Orange, you know there'll be at least one place that's...
Right next door though, is the Community Information Centre/Museum, which is surprising in a different way...
Not the kind of architecture you expect in an 1800s country town...
In between visits to the 2 shopping centres, each built around one of the two major supermarket chain stores, we also found a bakery/café, a local butcher & the ubiquitous Dan Murphy's bottle shop, so anniversary dinner was planned & provided for. Let's try some of the local wineries then... many of which turned out to be closed, as it was a weekday & raining & those that were open wanted to charge a $10-20 tasting fee, which was non-redeemable, even if you were buying lots of their wines. Hang on - let us get this straight... you want me to pay you money, to try your wine, then pay you even more money to buy it?! In practice, this meant that if I liked their Cabernet Sauvignon, or Semillon, which sold for between $30-50 per bottle, depending on the vineyard, I'd really be paying $40-70... or at least a hefty surcharge on the full, or half-dozen I may want... A bold, but foolhardy strategy in a region that has a giant Dan Murphy's in it, where I found a regional Merlot for $25 so bought 2 of them
Look, I understand that times have been hard, with the Plague lockdowns & the bushfires, the generational drift to the cities & all, but if you want people to come back to the region & spend their money, you can't take inspiration for your marketing strategy' from the region's most notorious 19th century Bushranger!! If you want to charge a tasting fee, that's fine - it helps offset the wine you lose to those who just want to come in, drink & leave without buying - but if someone actually wants to buy a bottle or 2, or 6, or... then surely the tasting fee can be waived, or at least taken off the total purchase price. Otherwise, you might as well have someone dressed as Ben Hall at the entry gates, brandishing a pistol & demanding we hand over our wallets
Back at the cabin, it was time to start our anniversary celebrations, so we opened the wine & cheese...
Yep, we know how to be fancy...
... & get a fire going. This was a challenge, as it had been raining pretty constantly & there wasn't anywhere around the cabin I could keep the firewood effectively dry enough... & there wasn't really room inside for the wood either. The small bits of kindling I foraged from the surrounding areas was, of course, wet as well, but we had a healthy supply of fire-starter cubes & 2 boxes of matches, so the theory was that the fire-starters would dry the kindling enough for it to ignite, the heat from which would dry the smaller bits of wood enough to get going, which would help to dry the larger pieces I placed around the fire, so they could burn later
Half an hour later, after about 12 fire-starters, about 20 matches, some huffing & puffing & not a little colourful language, this was as much flame as I could muster...
Of course, I had about 4 cubes going at once, but they didn't even dry any of the twigs & kindling pieces enough to get the rest of the process underway. As soon as the cube burnt out, the flame did too. Then it started raining again, so we admitted defeat. Fortunately, the BBQ ran on gas, so we could at least cook the steaks & corn cobs, both of which turned out extra juicy, not just due to my cooking, but also to the fact that the BBQ area wasn't under cover, so everything got wet, including the Cook
The next morning was our last in the Cabin & we had some visitors as we were packing up
The plan was to head for Dubbo, home of the Western Plains Zoo, which we love visiting, but the weather forecast suggested that Dubbo & surrounding areas were in for a thorough drenching. Given that we were sort of in that 'surrounding area', we decided to head home a day early. The creeks & rivers were already rising...
... so while I know Laura's all-wheel-drive is dependable (having given it a thorough test in outback New South Wales last year!!), she doesn't float very well. Time to go!! We took the Bells Line of Road on the way back over the Blue Mountains, which is my preferred route, but has only recently re-opened after parts of it were washed away in last year's wild storms, which had, at least helped put out the bloody fires!! Australia - land of extremes!! The rain found us as we climbed into the mountain foothills & mist & then cloud closed over & reduced visibility to brown-trouser levels, especially along the high ridge section, where you know what's on either side of the road you can't see very much of... But I love that kind of edge-of-your-seat-and-abilities driving, even if it is a bit mentally taxing... Back home via Windsor on the other side of the mountains & a take-away dinner, before collapsing into a bed with a higher ceiling clearance than the last couple of nights!!