Home to Canowindra

 

SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER

We left early for the almost two hour drive to Lithgow, on the other side of the Blue Mountains. Stopped here for coffee at The Tin Shed café. What a great little spot. Very popular, we were lucky to get a table. Good coffee and a great slice of in house baked pear and raspberry bread. Yum!

Next stop Bathurst only a short drive away but a decent place for an early lunch.

And what a lunch it was! The Hub was a great find! Lovely people, good food, lovely atmosphere. Unfortunately, we were unable to sit outside in the gorgeous pergola covered area. As I suspected, it was good to be early. I did not know what time we would get there so did not book. Many had. Lots were turned away after we arrived.

Onwards through a region showing signs of recovery after three years of drought. Rolling green hills, dams looking reasonably healthy after solid winter rains signs of hope for the farmers.

We stopped at Blayney Wind Farm, built in 2000. We need more investment in such projects.

Driving deeper into sheep and wheat country, it is pleasing to see dams here full to overflowing. The deep green fields of wheat on one side of the road, bright yellow fields of canola on the other. Flocks of sheep here and there. It is also pleasing to see quite a lot of trees. All in all the landscape is very easy on the eye. As we head west, I’m sure the rolling hills will change.

We arrived in Canowindra and checked into our motel before heading into town to go to the supermarket. Canowindra is only a small town, the main street is close to 100m long, but it has a plethora of pubs – we saw four offering dinner within that 100m stretch.

After our visit to the supermarket, we walked to the end of the main street. The museum was sadly closed. Another time. We did find the Ben Hall monument. Alongside the Belubula River, the monument tells the story of how bushranger Ben Hall and his mates “held up” Robinson’s Inn, for three days. Paying for food and drink for everyone locked in with them!

The Belubula River is a tributary of the Lachlan River, which in turn flows into the Murrumbidgee. On this trip, we are following branches of the most significant river systems in the country, the Murray-Murrumbidgee-Darling, which I learned about in high school geography. It is one of the largest systems in the world.

Dinner at the Canowindra Hotel was very good.

Canowindra Hotel