So where is the dog?

The morning dawned bright and sunny and before long we were driving into the Main Street of Gundagai to park and explore. We picked up a leaflet with a self guided walking tour and decided this would be our best option for a quick look.

We spent the next couple of hours learning a lot about Gundagai and loved the old buildings with historical significance.  The War Memorial in the Park pays tribute to all wars since WW1 and there are 51 trees planted to represent the local boys who lost their lives.

On a lighter note the next sculpture we found was Dad and Dave with Mum and Mabel standing tall and looking smart in the park beside the information office.  

But nowhere could I see 'The Dog on the Tuckerbox.  Of course it's not here, it's 'five miles from Gundagai' or is it 'nine miles from Gundagai' as a story in the old photo gallery told us.  Two writings, one poem and one song, had both quoted different distances so who is right - I guess we will never know - but we did find the old fellow sitting on his box at the 5km mark.  Sadly surrounded by every type of tacky tourist paraphernalia there is but I stopped anyway, took my photo and left very quickly. 

Continuing on we stopped next at Cootamundra where we found a lovely tidy town and a link to Don Bradman.  This is said to be where he was born and we drove by just to say we had.  In the local park we found The Captains Walk where the path is lined with the busts of every Australian Cricket Captain since time began.  Even our latest Michael Clark is there but with no names or dates yet.  Hope it won't be too long for that to happen - time for a new era methinks!

Harden was our next stop for lunch in the park and we were soon on the road again stopping at Young for a quick look in the Tourist Information Hub housed in the beautiful old Railway Station building.  Couldn't find what we were looking for there - I will tell you later - so we continued on to find our next stop for the night.

This time we were going to 'free camp' and see how the van handled that.  Using an App that Bill had found, Wikicamps, we followed directions and found a lovely spot at Farleigh Reserve right beside the Lachlan River just outside of Cowra.  There were five vans there already but with plenty of room we were much further apart than you are in Caravan Parks.  Just a toilet here and peace perfect peace for an afternoon and evening of rest and relaxation.  What more could a nomad want?

Everything worked well, dinner was cooked with gas, lights and music AOK and not a noise to disturb us through the night.  A free camping success story I'd say.  Bill found a pair of Currawongs nesting right beside us so of course he was in heaven both that evening and the next morning.

Difficult though it was to move we had to do just that after breakfast as we drove into Cowra for a look the the renowned Japanese Gardens.  

We spent a couple of hours here walking through and enjoying the gardens and the serenity of the place.  Being early in the morning was a plus as we had the place almost to ourselves and really beat the tourists.  When it was time to leave there were four vans and two buses in the car park- perfect timing I would call that!

We drove on from Cowra heading for an overnight stop in Lithgow.  We passed through Blaney and Bathurst only stopping at a roadside lay by to make and eat our lunch.  I was on a mission to get into Lithgow in time to do some washing as we needed it to dry before we headed into the Capertee Valley and were off the grid for five or six days.

We arrived mid afternoon, set up on a site overlooking the owners farmyard so had ducks, geese, chooks and goats for our neighbors, very cute and surprisingly not noisy at all.  I did the washing and hung it out and then we went for a quick sightseeing tour of Lithgow's Hassan Wall lookout.  This is said to be the highest lookout in the Blue Mountains and the view from here was just spectacular.  

The new lookout has only been constructed in the last year and from it you can see where people used to wander.  Suicidal I would think but now a lot safer.   Just opposite the new lookout you can still walk to an older 'window' lookout and we did this too.  All views were just amazing and so worth the drive.  

We returned home to watch the washing, settle in for the night and look at where our next few days were going to take us.  The following morning we had breakfast with the goats, I washed my hair and Bill filled all the water tanks and then we were on our way to our next stop Glen Davis camp ground in The Capertee Valley.

until then............