Mudgee to Cowra

 Sunday 18th September


After the heartstopping match last night between the Swans and Collingwood it was a relief to wake up and confirm the Swans win was real.

Previous experience has taught us that a full day wine tour is not a particularly smart move so we opted for the half day, so we started the day with a drive to Windamere Dam which like most watercourses out here was full to overflowing. It was completed in 1984 to meet irrigation, stock and domestic needs in the Cudgegong Valley. I was pleased to see about a dozen Great Crested Grebe in full breeding plumage flirting on the water.


As we returned to town I was saddened to take a call from Robyn, wife of my birding friend Rob, to tell me he had passed away on Friday. Rob has been a marvellous mentor on Australian birds and was full of encouragement and information. Ballina U3A will miss him immensely.

RIP Rob.

Meanwhile we had been offered the chance to join the morning wine group (of 2) for lunch. After our pickup, we collected 2 young English girls to complete our group for the day. After a bit of introductory chat we realised that these young backpackers had served us at the Spring Ridge pub 2 nights ago! They are doing their 3 month rural stint to satisfy their visa requirements but had already determined that after just 2 weeks a rural Australian life was not part of their long term plans.


By the time we had visited 3 wineries and 1 distillery we were both ready for an early night.

Monday 19th September

Last time we visited Sofala was many, many years ago and the enduring memory was of a windy, steep, terrifying, dirt road. Happily it is now tarred all the way from Mudgee to Cowra and was quite comfortable towing the van.

We stopped for a walk in the village which is an old gold mining town. Although it's pretty quiet these days there are obviously a few creative folk in the population. We found one of them hard at work on her mural and I don't think I've ever seen such a tidy collection of junk!


Next stop was Bathurst and of course we had to take the van for a lap of the track. A lot more sedate than the last time Michael whizzed around there on his motorbike. Work crews were busy with preparations for the upcoming race meeting and we were amazed at the infrastructure. When we were flag Marshall's many years ago we were lucky to get a mound to stand on, certainly no shelters, chairs etc.

Like many highways this one bypasses many of the little villages so we took a little tour into Carcoar. This appears to be another village that has been taken over by B&Bs and trendy shops, but being a Monday the only thing open was the Doctors surgery.

Everything is vibrantly green after all the rain and the canola crops are stunning.


Once settled in to Cowra we visited the information centre and watched the hologram story about the Cowra Breakout. 231 Japanese soldiers died and 5 Australians were killed making it the biggest breakout during WW2. Oddly it was prompted by plans to send some of the Japanese prisoners to Hay. When I was at school here it was never mentioned, still too fresh in some people's minds I suppose. We spent the rest of the afternoon revisiting my youthful years. 








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