Travelling from retreat (Going back in time)

Day 30 of my August blogpost a day challenge (nearly there!)

(Photo heavy)

Five days ago, I did a catch up post from my trip to Australia in April, when I joined buddy kiwikid Sue and we travelled from Melbourne up to Scrub Stitching at Baradine, NSW.

Now I need to catch up on the trip from Scrub Stitching back down to Tullamarine, the Melbourne airport.

We left Baradine and all the lovely ladies at about lunch-time on Sunday. We wanted to get away smartly so that we had finished travelling by dusk which is when the kangaroos come out - and jump across the road - no late in the day travelling for us; crashing into one is a complication non of us need.

We stopped at the Coonabaraban information centre to get a t-shirt for Deana.

I had bought myself a t-shirt there on the way to Baradine, thinking it was a cute Wombat shirt, but later discovered it was a DINOSAUR t-shirt - this fellow was found near Coonabarabran so is world famous in the area...and now I have a dinosaur t-shirt to rival that of the grandies!! (Strictly speaking, it's a marsupial fossil rather than a dinosaur but he's close enough, the locals reckon.) Anyway, Deana decided she needed one too so we got her one :-)

We headed to Cowra, where we were to stay for two nights. 

The area was vey dry and they were all hoping for some rain soon (they got it, thank goodness).

After passing through Dubbo we happened upon a Sculptures on Bikes tour along Banjo Paterson Way which was lots of fun -

The next morning we may have visited the Cowra Patchwork shop (hehe) and then continued on to the Information Centre. As Cowra had a Prisoner of War camp during WW2, there is some interesting history to learn. There was a hologram theatre telling the story of a big prison camp breakout.

We visited other areas of historical interest around the town. 

Beautiful painted water tanks -

A nod to the town 'as it was' on this tank —

Lots of history on this site of the POW camps —

World Peace Bell, back in town —

This photo shows how big it is. It had a beautiful sound but I wondered if the locals get tired of the tourists ringing it!

Sue and I had a lovely lunch at the Japanese Peace Garden cafe —

and then thoroughly enjoyed the walk around the gardens. Very lovely.

There was a bonsai area too —

And a wee museum —

After our two nights at Cowra, we started heading south again.

Because we travel inland/rural Australia we see lots of quirky little things —

Sheep at Boorowa —

Dirt roads! 

A commemoration for a Police Sergeant killed in a 'gun battle' with a gang, 1864, at Jugiong —

Wide open spaces —

We visited the Ettamogah Pub...built/based on a very popular Australian cartoon series.

After our night in Albury we spent a bit of time walking around town...visiting another quiltshop and also Lincraft.

Back on the road again, we went through Glenrowan where there are a lot of Ned Kelly (famous outlaw) attractions. The Discovery Hub was designed to mimic the helmet Kelly wore in his last siege.

Another dirt road. But this one was unplanned and we still have no idea why we ended up on it!

At nearby Benella, more Ned Kelly —

And the most gorgeous mural in a wee church —

One last quilt shop —

Our last dinner together —

The next morning I was on the plane and back to New Zealand. Just reading through our travels, I am exhausted - we covered a lot!

If you've got to the end of this - well done!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Travelling to retreat (Going back in time)

Day 25 of my August blogpost a day challenge

A long one today

One of the reasons I wanted to do this blogpost a day August challenge was so that I could catch up on some events that happened AGES ago.

One of those being Sue's and mine travels to and from the Scrub Stitching retreat at Baradine in New South Wales, Australia. Scrub Stitching was back in April. Sue was very good and posted every day but I never quite got to it.

So here I am - I really want these travels documented!

Sue picked me up from Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine) and after snatching a coffee and finding the car, we were off.

Our first stop was Echuca, about 2 ½ hours away, which is a historic river port town on the banks of the Murray River. 

We stayed at the Campaspe Lodge, which was very close to the river. It was a lovely peaceful spot - until the birds arrived at dusk!

It was close to the Port of Echuca so we had a leisurely stroll along the river bank, marvelling at the Paddle Steamers, other boats, the Flood Tree and detouring for an ice-cream :-)

First night excitement - and the joy of finding GF ice cream cones —

The next day we went on a cruise on one of the old wood burning Paddle Steamers, the Pevensey. The cruise was about an hour and it was lovely.

Steamer accommodation from approx 1915 - people must have been a lot smaller then, it all seemed so tiny!

'All The Rivers Run' was filmed on the Pevensey —

Lots of houseboats!

Trying to perfect our selfies —

Afterwards we wandered around the town, and had a really interesting time. 

(Bottom right photo is a Koala crossing to keep them off the road)

The next day we drove to Forbes. It was a big day's driving but we managed to find a couple of interesting spots to stop at —

The painted silo at Mathoura - we had been there before but approached it from the back of it so we didn't recognise it at first!

We also stopped at the information centre at Deniliquin ...and stumbled upon a modern quilt exhibition which we quite enjoyed - we spent longer than we should have there.

Sue was inspired at Narrandera -

We met up with the Deana and her USA contingent at Forbes - we had a lovely dinner together (no photo sorry) (whew, you'll be saying)

The next morning we all travelled in convoy along the Lachlan Sculpture Highway. This is a permanent sculpture/art trail along a100km length of road.

The first one, the Goana, had us excited about what else we would see -

They were all so different; some we needed to read the information about them to understand them, but we appreciated them all!

A late lunch at Condobolin before the girls headed on to Baradine. Sue and I opted to spend the night at Narromine.

The next day we were on familiar roads and heading to Scrub Stitching at Baradine.

We arrived!

(And I wrote about retreat *here* and *here*)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn