Back to the Real World ...

Man it sucks being back at work! On the *free* bus trip in to work this morning, I saw lots of ppl in their business attire ready for work (Matt included :p) and it made me sad .. it felt like first day back at school/uni after holidays .. except instead of weeks of bumming around, it was 5 busy but really fun days ...

I ended up taking over 400 fotos but I probably won't upload them as it'll take too long :p And I dont think most ppl are interested in these areas we went travelling to, but I'm still going to write about it even if it's just for my sake :o)

Hill End
The first day of our trip, Alan and I headed to Hill End, an old goldmining town ... We took the Bridle Track to get there, which is this rough, narrow road (most of it is unsealed) - we travelled up quite high and I would have been heaps scared to drive such a route (esp when the odd car would drive in the opposite direction where the road was really really narrow and on the mountain edge!) We got a great view of the Turon River though and the scenery was beautiful!

We stayed overnight at the Village Camping Ground at Hill End - there were 2 camping grounds .. one was isolated but wasn't as nice and clean, whilst the village one was more popular but really well kept .. I was surprised that there were quite a few tourists at Hill End, I thought it'd be completely dead :p

There isn't that much to do/see there, but enough to keep one occupied for at least a day .. lots of old buildings and mines - we went exploring some of the mines, but most were covered up .. We did have a tour of Bald Hill, where you get to go through a section of a mine, then climb 10 ladders (30 metres) upwards ... As well, we also explored Golden Gully, where they have arches and caves - heaps cool but apparently quite dangerous too :p

Mudgee
We next headed to Mudgee, but only to buy some wine :p Not like we have a clue about wine ... It was nice there, though we only spent about an hour at most in the town :p

Dubbo
We camped at Dubbo for the next 2 nights at the City Caravan Park - we kinda splurged and rented an ensuite/powered site .. It meant that we had our own little block with a toilet/shower/sink which is not normal at most camping grounds :p

We visited Dubbo Zoo twice, as the pass allows entry on 2 consecutive days .. That was good as we were really buggered after the first day (it wasn't scorching hot, but still quite a sunny day) and we did heaps of walking .. the zoo's relatively big and you can get around it by driving/walking/riding a bike (i wanted to hire a bike but it was a bit too expensive) - we would park the car, and walk around and go down various paths, but we also did a lot of backtracking to get back to the car which was a bit exhausting ...

I was disappointed with some of the animals - mainly the cats like the lions/tigers/cheetahs as there weren't many of them, and most of the time they were sleeping/hidden .. but there were animals which made up for it ..

Firstly, there was the giraffe - we went to the feeding both days and got to feed this beautiful giraffe called Andrea :o) Then there were the otters and meerkats, who we watched being fed .. we also watched the tortoise being fed, but it didn't really move that much nor did it really eat :p It would munch on a leaf, but cos it had no teeth it didn't have much luck pulling it apart .. so it kinda mangled the leaf and wet it more than ate it :p There was also the wombat which was so adorable when sleeping:


But, my funniest moment at the zoo was in the deer pen .. I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to animals, and one of the deers was looking at me and seemed to be walking at me .. I moved away and it kept following me, so I hid behind Alan and Alan's like "don't be scared!", when it went for Alan and started biting his shirt :p I was too slow with the camera, so we went back the next day to see if the deer would do the same - I ended up capturing it on camera this time round :p the problem is, the 2nd day the deer was eating grass when we arrived at the pen, so Alan ended up with grass all mashed into his shirt and a bit of a hole too :p











I really enjoyed the zoo though - the last time I was there I was about 3 and don't remember any of it ...

Wellington Caves
After Dubbo, we stopped at Wellington Caves .. they have 2 cave tours and a mine tour, but we opted for one of the cave tours as we had seen enough mines on this trip :p We took the Cathedral Cave tour which was heaps nice inside and the tour guide was very entertaining ..

Orange
We went back to the B&B we stayed at last year - last year it was only a couple of months old, and so we wanted to see what it was like a year on .. and it was still just as great (though much pricier) than when we last went! The first time we went, the place was un-rated, but it's been rated since and it's now 4.5 stars .. though apparently the rating system is a bit silly and it's to do with the number of coat hangers available and the placing of light switches :p

but the views were just as nice, the rooms still clean and well kept, the hostess friendly, the breakfast superb (omg the poached cherries and honey madelines were fabulous!) ..

We also went and bought cherries at Rossi Orchards .. we bought from them last year but their crop this year isn't as good due to too much rain (all the cherry orchards have been having the same problems) .. we bought 2 x 5kg boxes each (their best quality cherries), and also got to pick some ourselves - $2/kg but we got the ones we picked for free as we had already bought boxes of cherries :p

Wentworth Falls
On the way home, we stopped off at the Blue Mountains and went on one of the walks at Wentworth Falls (the National Pass?) which had been closed for a while .. we didn't complete the whole track but what I saw was spectacular! It was soo nice there, and the weather right for walking - not too hot, not too cold .. We went down to one watering hole/waterfall before having to climb all the way up - a bit of a walk back up but definitely worth it!

I really should post some more fotos of our trip - might sort through some of the good ones and post them up somewhere :o)

Anyhoos, that's enough about my trip .. Next week will be the first 5 day week for me in a while - dont know how i'll survive .. can't wait for the Australia Day holiday to come :p