Those not mentioned are my least favourite.
It is a two-day trip for driver safety, children and dog comfort.
When I was a Sydneysider we made the one-day trip many times, mostly leaving the Pacific Hwy at Gloucester, gateway to the wilderness country of the Barrington Tops, and taking Bucketts Way to Walcha. Then on to Armidale.
The reward: not only the scenery and waterfalls of the mountain climb but reaching Walcha, which has a disproportionate artistic presence for its small size.
Being welcomed to Walcha, or farewelled, by large public sculptures is one thing, but there are also around 40 other public sculptures along the creek banks created by local, national and internationally recognised sculptors.
Plus, there are 30 whimsical or decoratively sculptured verandah posts in the city centre. They are not to be missed.
You will have noticed I mentioned verandah posts, kept to maintain the historic street scape.
I never understand people who drive like crazy to their destination and don’t notice or visit places of interest on the way.
A packed picnic basket and thermos allows stops anywhere to see and learn about new things, natural or man-made.
We debated where to stay overnight and decided on Wellington, and whether to leave the Hume Hwy at Coolac or Jugiong, a popular stop since the St George Hotel was restored, before heading for Young and Cowra.
Then we debated whether to get to Orange, detouring to the pretty historic gold-mining towns of Carcoar and Millthorpe near Blayney.
Or if we should travel from Cowra, past the commemorative Japanese Gardens, towards Orange, Molong and beyond.
We chose Coolac and the last option, detouring at Canowindra, on the Belubula River, on to its picture perfect main street with original verandahs and posts.
Canowindra has an interesting pre- and post-war settlement history and surprisingly Ben Hall and friends staged four bushranger events in one year, 1863.
I think that I once heard that the proceeds of one of his stagecoach hold-ups had never been fully recovered.
The collection of fossils dating from the Devonian period at the Age of Fishes Museum was deemed ‘world-class’ by Sir David Attenborough when he visited in 2013, so we visited too.
We had a cuppa in Morris Park, landscaped using only palm trees. It is well-used by children and picnickers and looks wonderful.
On our second day, I was confused leaving Wellington because I thought I was seeing a huge lake, knowing that Burrendong Dam was south of Wellington.
Instead, I was looking at twinkling solar panels landscaped throughout recently harvested cropping country.
Wellington North and neighbour Wellington South solar farms cover nearly 11,000 hectares. We didn’t see one sheep grazing underneath.
We made a slight detour into Gulgong, another historic gold-mining town that retains its street scape charm with old buildings, verandahs and posts as enshrined on the original 1966 $10 note.
While Orange has its Banjo Patterson connection, Gulgong claims Henry Lawson.
On we drove, getting sandwiches in Coolah to eat elsewhere, bypassing Gunnedah and Tamworth due to the trailer and finally stopping at Moonbi Lookout above the Cockburn Valley.
It is surrounded by the volcanic Wentworth Mounds and Moonbi Hills, part of the Great Dividing Range.
Before arriving, we had named one hill ‘the perfect hill’ because of its stand-alone, perfect conical shape.
It was ahead of us for some time, so we had plenty of time to discuss it.
The look-out, on top of a huge granite boulder, was made as an employment project during the Great Depression.
A smaller top boulder was exploded, and the rubble reused for the surrounding landscaping seen today.
At this stage we were not far from Armidale, passing the large rock that bushranger Thunderbolt hid behind to plan his escapades.
We didn’t see any koalas crossing. We stopped, as always, for coffee in Uralla, visiting the second-hand bookshop next door.
You guessed it. A week later we came home without the trailer, detouring to Walcha and visiting all the places mentioned but not visited on the way north.
We had four enjoyable day trips and time spent fly-fishing around Armidale with family.
– Suzie Pearce
22°C