Visiting Relatives and Alpine New South Wales

Those of you who have followed our travels will be aware that we give a high priority to keeping in touch with family and have done so more frequently as we have all aged. We have seen this as a responsibility partly, at least, brought about by our frequent moves, particularly the move to Brisbane about forty years ago.

Increasing age does not make travelling any easier. We had suggested to my two remaining siblings that Victoria was a long way from Brisbane and that they might make the task easier for us by meeting us half way, or at least some of the way. Earlier this year they called us on the offer. I am always on for a trip to the alpine regions outside of the snow season so we agreed that meeting at Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains was a suitable compromise. The southern most relatives to visit on this trip live at Bowral in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Not that much further to Jindabyne.

But it was a close-run thing with the snow season. A week after we visited, areas around Thredbo, not far from Jindabyne, had snow.

Poplars by the highway south of Glen Innes

We chose the New England Highway as our route to Newcastle where our first call was to be made. A drive through the Granite Belt and New England areas is not to be missed in Autumn. The colours did not disappoint but our opportunities to see them did. We were delayed for an hour just south of Wallangarra by a two-vehicle collision that blocked the highway for over an hour. Darkness accompanied our arrival at Armidale for the night and low cloud and drizzle greeted us next morning for our drive to Newcastle.

Autumn colour opposite our motel in Armidale.

The next morning, Friday, we first called on sister-in-law Marjorie in her retirement home that overlooks Lake Macquarie. We then moved on to call on Ruth’s sister Judy and Alan her husband at West Wallsend. Finally, after a call to brother Ivan’s newly completed grave at Ryhope cemetery, we completed our journey to our daughter’s unit in Erskineville, through Sydney Friday afternoon peak hour traffic.

Visiting Rainbow Lorikeet on Briony’s sixth floor balcony rail.
Newtown street scene. I don’t know why the young lady was sitting there.
Lots of quality graffiti artwork. It adds to the ambiance.

We spent a quiet morning on Saturday. In the afternoon I walked to near-by Newtown to do some street photography. On Sunday morning Briony accompanied us to brunch at Mount Annan Botanic Gardens Café where we met Ruth’s sister Dorothy and her family. We returned via Costco at Casula for some bulk shopping. Later in the afternoon I spent a couple of hours photographing birds and humans at Sydney Park which offers wetlands and an elevated viewing position overlooking that part of Sydney. The park is right across the street from Briony’s unit.

View from the top of the hill in Sydney Park. Looking towards Redfern.
An Australian Darter at the Sydney Park wetlands.
Family group at brunch at Mount Annan.

An 8.00 AM departure saw us at Ruth’s younger brother’s home at Bowral for a coffee stop. Wallace is in advanced stages of a wasting disease that has robbed him of movement and speech but not mental capacity. But he never complains and communicates to the best of his ability. Ruth is particularly close to his wife and her sister-in-law Ginny. The visit was both a sad and happy time.

Bernard and Aileen had arrived at the caravan park at Jindabyne where our cabins were located when we checked in. So we had a bit of a chat over a cup of tea and went out to dinner. We were at Jindabyne for three nights. We dined at three different eating establishments on the three nights and spent the days seeing the sites.

The Snowy River near to its source.

On Tuesday we drove to Charlotte Pass, diverting to visit the Guthega power station and follow the Snowy River until we turned into a gravel road that took us back to Kosciuszko Road at Smiggin Holes.

Charlotte Pass viewed from the lookout above the resort.

The car park at the lookout above Charlotte Pass village was busy but we grabbed a parking spot for long enough to walk the board walk to the lookout that gives such a great view of the Kosciuszko range, including Kosciuszko’s peak and the Snowy River making its way through the valley at is feet, to the dams that interrupt is path to the ocean at Marlo in Victoria. This view always makes me want to don my hiking shoes and take off into the mountains. Instead, we drove to the village for a late morning coffee, or in Bernard’s case, a cup of tea.

The pipeline leading to Guthega power station.
Jindabyne from the Mount Kosciuszko Road.
Jindabyne Dam that holds back the waters of Lake Jindabyne on the Snowy River.

After a stop for photographs of Lake Jindabyne and the town we visited the dam that holds back the waters of the lake. Water levels are quite high as we could see as we drove over the road the previous day. The dam serves as a platform for the main road into Jindabyne and the Snowy Mountains.

On Wednesday we drove towards Thredbo on the Alpine Way, first stopping for a look at Crackenback Resort. What a beautiful place, with attractive accommodation huddled around the lake. A Eurasian Coot completed the picture as it coasted across the calm waters, creating its own ripples.

Reflections of Crackenback Resort on Lake Crackenback.

Before calling at Thredbo, we drove on to The Pilot Lookout, Dead Horse Gap and the Cascades on Dead Horse Creek. Reports have it that wild brumbies can be seen at Dead Horse Gap, although a place so named seems an unlikely place for brumbies to gather. The only thing of note was a sign advising that a section of the park was closed for vermin eradication. Perhaps the brumbies had been warned, although the sign did say that they were excluded from the cull.

The Cascades on the Dead Horse Gap Creek near the junction with Thredbo River.
The Thredbo River near the alpine resort town of Thredbo.

We drove into Thredbo but found it to be largely inaccessible due to tourists and tradesman who had got there before we did and areas barricaded off by witches’ hats by the workers. We had intended to ride the tourist chair lift that takes visitors to the main skiing area and the track to Kosciusko but we could not park close enough to the lifts to make that an achievable objective.

We hadn’t even managed to get ourselves a cup of coffee, so we returned to our units for a soup and toast lunch and a cup of coffee. It was good soup weather, although better than we expected. Both touring days provided brilliant blue skies and temperatures in the low twenties. Nights were cold, well below 10C.

The view towards Thredbo from Dead Horse Gap on the Alpine Way.

On Thursday 27th April we departed Jindabyne, Aileen and Bernard for a few days at Merimbula and we to return home but by an indirect route. We had enjoyed our few days together and departed resolved to repeat the exercise before too long.

The western end of Lake Eucumbene at Providence Portal.

Ruth and I drove back to the road to the Snowy Mountains Highway and Tumut. We drove through relocated Adaminaby and stopped in at Providence Portal where water from elsewhere in the mountains runs into the western extremity of Lake Eucumbene. From there we paused for a comfort stop at deserted Kiandra, then proceeding through Tumut to Gundagai, where we stopped for lunch.

Tumut is the location of much of the work on Snowy Hydro II but we saw little activity, most of which was off the beaten track or underground.

Cowra sunset.

We spent Thursday night at Cowra, proceeding through Blayney, Bathurst and Lithgow and along the Bells Line of Road to Mount Tomah to visit the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens. Two previous attempts to visit had been frustrated by fog and rain. The wait was worth while. The garden is actually a series of small gardens comprised of mostly trees and shrubs with fountains and rockeries with waterfalls and pools. There is an excellent visitor centre with a very handy café.

Autumn in Mount Tomah gardens.
Fountain Terrace, viewed through the archway at Mount Tomah.

We journeyed on through Kurrajong, Richmond and Windsor to Vineyard where we spent the night at a large hotel with an attendant motel. A very nice seafood dinner ensued.

A damp morning followed for our drive along the Putty Road to Singleton. The Grey Gum Café at Putty normally teams with motor bikes on weekends but motor bike riders had been discouraged or delayed by the wet. We shared the establishment for coffee with a couple of motorists and a solitary motor bike rider.

Our overnight objective was Tamworth with a side trip to Nundle. Nundle is one of those towns to which signposts point as you drive by down the main road. We knew of it from our regular use of the New England Highway and my transport days involvement in the New England area. More recently, for some unknown reason it had started popping up on my Facebook news feed.

Nundle is a small and attractive farming community with the addition of a historic woollen mill, one of the last operating in Australia. The mill is still owned and operated by its original founding family who started it over a century ago. The brilliant Autumn foliage really lifted the town on what was by then a very dull afternoon.

With the day drawing in we drove up to Hanging Rock Lookout with rain threatening to return. To be able to see the hanging aspects of the rock clearly required a different vantage point but the lookout did provide great views of the surrounding mountains.

Entrance to the Nundle Woollen Mill.
Part of the manufacturing equipment at Nundle Woollen Mill.
Autumn colour in the park at Nundle.

On our drive to Tamworth, we passed Chaffey Dam on the Peel River, of interest to me because of my involvement in the transport of materials to the sight during its construction.

Rain had returned by the time we reached our Tamworth motel and the forecasts made it clear that the precipitation would continue next day. We had planned to visit a couple of other places connected with my earlier association with the area but when we realised that we could still cancel our Inverell motel we decided to do so and head home a day earlier.

More New England colour near Glen Innes NSW.

We departed Tamworth with the clouds well below the surrounding mountains. Rain and drizzle continued but by the time that we stopped at Glen Innis for coffee the temperature was up to 10C. By lunch time at Warwick it had reached 15C. Once we had crossed the Great Dividing Range it increased further. We arrived home on rather a balmy evening, reminding us of one of the reasons that we live here.

So, another successful trip of around 3,500 kilometres completed with most objectives achieved. We don’t have any other travel plans currently although we will probably do something else in the near future. What ever it is we will keep you informed.

The Family Responsibilities Tour – Part 1

Note: A video covering the material in this post can be found at the foot of this blog post.

Apsley Falls in full flow. Walcha NSW.

On 23rd November 2021 I lost both my eldest brother, Ivan, and my brother-in-law Colin, my only sister Aileen’s husband. Colin passed in the morning, Ivan in the early evening. Ivan was in the northern suburbs of Newcastle and Colin at Moe in Victoria’s West Gippsland region. There was no connection in their deaths, just one of life’s coincidences.

Covid-19 was at its high point, with borders closed in some states but not in others. We could have travelled to NSW, possibly to Victoria, but we would not have been permitted back into Queensland. We faced a real travel ban. So we had to provide our condolences and the support that we so much wanted to give by phone call, email and text message. We decided that as soon as possible after borders opened, we would travel south to visit grieving relatives and graves.

The opportunity came in March. With borders open and three vaccinations completed we headed south on 12th March, just four days after what would have been Ivan’s 88th birthday celebration.

Apsley Gorge. Walcha NSW

Our intention had been to first spend a couple of days with friends in Ballina, but they had been evacuated a few days before due to flooding of the Richmond River, which had closed the Pacific Highway from Ballina to south of Grafton. Their home was not inundated, and they returned to it after a couple of days, but a visit was not practical so soon after the floods, so we opted for the New England Highway.

Our first family call was to Marjorie, my sister-in-law, who requires constant care and who had gone into respite care in a retirement home in Bulahdelah, which is located about an hour north of her home in Newcastle. You will possible have read of Bulahdelah in the pages of these blogs. It is the town near which I spent the first 15 years of my life and where I met Ruth, my wife of almost 60 years. Ruth, of course, has been part of all the travels covered by the mobilesheathers.com blogs.

Apsley Gorge. Walcha NSW
Forster-Tuncurry Bridge on Wallis Lake

We spent the first night in Armidale. On day two we drove south to Uralla and there turned to join the Oxley Highway at Walcha, to reach the coast again. When we travel for almost any reason we are touring and taking in sights and points of interest along the way. We had been hoping for some early Autumn colours in the roadside trees so were a bit disappointed by the lack of colour, but the area had not progressed far into Autumn but it was very green from recent rain.

But just east of Walcha the Apsley Falls were at their thundering best. On our previous visit, back in our caravanning days, the drought was it its height and there was not even a trickle of water on the falls, just a pool of brackish water at the bottom. Viewing facilities at the falls are excellent. Ruth was able to make her way to the main viewing deck and was able to see as much as I could. There are some good walks at the falls, but time did not permit. We had appointments to keep.

Wallis Lake, Forster NSW

We paused for lunch at Wauchope and made it to our motel at Forster, at the mouth of Wallace Lake, in good time. Time to fit in a walk! So, with camera in hand, I set off for the bridge that spans the lake at a narrow point between Forster and neighbouring Tuncurry. The bridge is about one kilometre long with a hump on each end to allow boats to pass underneath.

Resort building beside Wallis Lake

An area south of Forster, Tiona, was a favourite holiday destination during my childhood, as it offered a range of options for my fishing loving Father. There were two ways of getting there from where we lived back then. If we came via Tuncurry the car and trailer (containing our camping equipment) would be loaded onto a small punt which was pulled through the meandering channel to the other side. Now the sand bars that shaped the channel carry the pylon foundations that support the bridge.

The bridge provides a scenic vantage point for both towns, Wallace Lake, and the entry to the lake from the ocean. Ever watchful for sea birds I noticed an Eastern Osprey making long sweeps over the lake in search of dinner, or perhaps a late lunch. After several failed attempts, it landed on a bridge street light and remained on its perch as I walked past taking photos of it. A call at the ocean beach and it was time to return to the motel for dinner.

Wootton School now a community centre

The easiest route from Forster to our next call at the retirement home at Bulahdelah was to fallow the Pacific Highway but a more interesting way was to leave the highway south of Coollongolook and followed The Wootton Way to where it re-joins the highway just north of Bulahdelah. This detour took us past a school that I attended for a couple of years during primary school and past the property on which I and my family lived for about 5 years prior to moving to Victoria when I was 15.

Tall strait trees

The school is now a community centre and the town much smaller than it was 70 plus years ago. The road is sealed as, for a time, it was the Pacific Highway. Further on we drove through magnificent stands of white-trunked trees, typical of the area. Further on we came to the property where our house stood near the road. The house was moved shortly after we vacated. New owners built further back on the property, behind the tree line and have operated a farm stay business for many years.

The old shed in which I milked the house cows

We arrived at the nursing home in good time next morning to complete the Covid safety procedure before visiting sister-in-law Marjorie. We found her in good spirits despite having been told a few days previously that the nursing home was to close thus causing uncertainty about her future. We stayed for morning coffee and lunch before making our way further south. Happily, Marjorie’s future accommodation arrangements were settled a few days later when her two daughters completed arrangements for her to take up residence on the top floor of a facility near Lake Macquarie in Newcastle, where she will have views of the lake as well as, we hope, good care.

Bulahdelah Alum Mountain
The sloping lawns of the Lake Macquarie Memorial Park

We stayed two nights at Warners Bay, our motel overlooking the northern end of Lake Macquarie. Ivan is buried at Lake Macquarie Memorial Park at Ryhope, just a few hundred metres off the Pacific Motorway, south of Newcastle. A very convenient location for paying our respects during future trips south.

Warners Bay viewed across the lake

We met Ivan’s two daughters with their respective spouses at the park. They showed us to the grave site, already almost covered with grass. The plaques are under way and should be in place when next we call. The grave is in a pleasant area on the side of a gently sloping hillside. The entire garden area appears to be well kept and will continue to be so. We left the cemetery and drove to the sports club in Toronto where we lingered over coffee with nieces and nephews that we rarely see.

White-necked Heron at Warners Bay

The afternoon was fine and sunny so we parked, and I took a walk on the path provided between Warners Bay and Speirs Point. It is not always possible to keep up my walking schedule when we are travelling, so such opportunities are not to be missed. As a bonus there were birds to photograph, including a White-necked Heron, a first sighting for me.

Next morning, Tuesday, we took the short drive to the home of Ruth’s elders sister Judy and her husband Alan, at West Wallsend. Judy has mobility problems but maintains a positive attitude which is most demonstrated by her determination to keep travelling. So over lunch we discussed, as well as family, travel plans and experiences. Visit over, we headed for Sydney.

Cronulla Beach

We were to have spent two nights with our daughter Briony at her Erskinville home, but she had come down with a non-Covid virus that we did not want to catch. A quick change of arrangements took us to the Travelodge at Bankstown, a bit of an experience as it is also the Bankstown Sports Club. Temporary club membership was bestowed upon us so that we could use the facilities of the club.

Coffee shop at Cronulla Beach

On our second night with Briony we had planned to meet Ruth’s youngest sister Dorothy (Dot) for dinner. So, a quad became a threesome at the NEM Riverwood Vietnamese restaurant, for good food and a good old family catch up.

Ferry terminal at Bundeena

To fill in the intervening day we revisited old stamping grounds from the first period of joint residence in Sydney during the time of my appointment to East Coast Transport at Botany. We started with morning coffee at Cronulla, right on the water on a lovely sunny morning. We then drove past Miranda Fair, where we used to do our shopping and stopped for a look at our former residence at 4 Tulong Place, Kirrawee. This house was built on top a couple of huge boulders, with views over the Royal National Park. Every time I see this house, I wish that we still lived there.

Bundeena main street

Next, we drove into the Royal National Park to the town of Bundeena on the southern shore of Port Hacking. This was to have been our lunch location but, after a largish morning coffee we were just not ready for more food. After looking around Bundeena we returned to the road through the park that leads to its southern coast entrance at Otford. At this point you will find one of the best scenic lookouts in Sydney. Otford lookout has an elevated viewing platform, heaps of parking space, a kiosk and views over the coast and from Sea Cliff Bridge to Port Kembla. We had a snack there before driving back through Stanwell Tops and Waterfall to Bankstown and dinner.

The following morning, we left Sydney early and drove to Bowral in the Southern Highlands of NSW, to call on Ruth’s youngest brother Wallace and his wife Ginny. Wallace is in advanced stages of a degenerative disease (similar to Parkinson’s disease) so our visits are relatively short. We joined them for lunch and family news. These calls are always sad and happy events because you never know if each one will be the last.

View from the Monaro Highway

Our destination for the night was Canberra. We were joined for breakfast next morning by grandson Jeremy who now works in the National Capital. The remainder of the day was spent driving via the Monaro Highway to its junction with the Princes Highway at Cann River. Then the run through the East Gippsland mountains and Orbost brought us to Lakes Entrance for the night.

There is always bird life at Lake Entrance, so the long lens got some use that evening and again on my walk next morning. Swans and Pelicans predominate, but there are many others. After leaving Lakes Entrance we detoured to Metung for morning coffee, lunched in Traralgon and arrived at our accommodation in Trafalgar in time to unpack and go out to find some dinner.