Bathurst proved to be a very interesting town and, as we drove out after spending a couple of days there, we were reminded just how civilised it was. On the left hand side of the road a group of women were playing bowls while on the right a game of croquet was underway, all very pleasant.
We headed on down to Victoria through Gundegai, home of The Dog on the Tuckerbox. There is a statue of the dog who I thought was Australia's version of Greyfriars Bobby but he turns out to just be the subject of a rather lewd poem. However, everyone takes pictures of their own dog by the statue and last time we were there, one family were even trying to balance their puppy on a plastic tuckerbox for a photo. 
We carried on through Cowra which is famous for a mass breakout by over 1100 Japanese prisoners of war who were being held there. The ensuing chase was very bloody and over 200 POWs and 4 Australian soldiers were killed before the remainder were recaptured.
Although most towns cannot boast about anything as dramatic as a prison breakout, they all have little slogans or bits of information on the town name signs. So, on through Young (City of Cherries), Wombat (Population 120) then on to Cootamundra, the birthplace of Don Bradman. There is a Don Bradman Museum and a road called Captain's Walk but you will not see a Don Bradman Tea Rooms or souvenir figurines as the family successfully managed to win a court action to prevent his name being used for commercial purposes.
We drove through a little twister, which was quite exciting, then the landscape started to change as we headed for the Snowy Mountains. After endless grey-green eucalypts and brown grass we began to see patches of lush green pine trees on the mountains.
They grow apples up here because the winters are cold enough but they have to shade all the apple trees fron sun and bugs in the summer. One town, Batlow, is home to the Big Apple. As with all big things I have seen so far, this was not very big and a bit of a disappointment, I am still hopeful I may see an impressive big thing soon.
Finally we reached our next destination, Corryong which is at the base of Mount Sugarloaf and across Kosciusku National Park from the Snowy Mountains in the Murray Valley.Our campsite was in Colac colac (pronounced Clack clack) and was possibly the nicest we have ever stayed in. It was completely shaded by huge trees and had a creek running through it. When we used to caravan in England and France I was always after a sunny pitch but I have become Australian very quickly in that regard and now really appreciate any shade.
The campsite was connected to Corryong by a cycle path so we pedalled into town where there was a statue of the Man from Snowy River who is a character in a very long poem by Banjo Paterson, in the less exciting country shows around these parts they have competitions for reciting the poem! We visited the excellent Man From Snowy River Museum which, thankfully, was not just about him. It housed a blanket map of Australia knitted by a local man while he was a prisoner of war in Germany, his captors demanded his pullover to send to their troops and he unravelled it so the could not have it and then set about knitting all kinds of things from scavenged wool, culminating in the map. The museum had also rescued old wooden buildings from the town as they were replaced and out the back were the schoolhouse, the bank, an old cottage and plenty of others from when the town had a population of only a couple of hundred. It was fantastic and well worth a visit.
The afternoon was spent exploring tiny towns on the banks of the Murray, our favourite discovery was Jingellic where it is okay to camp for free on the riverbank below the pub as long as you give the pub your custom, I can't see that being too much of a problem.

At last we have been on the road again after getting in a bit of a rut constantly working on the house. The plan was to go and see Zoe and Shaun around Christmas so we decided to make a bit of a trip of it as it is a while since we have been away and there is so much to see.
So we hooked up the caravan and, instead of the usual trek down via Sydney, we headed west through the Hunter Valley and along the Golden Highway. Part of the fun of travelling along the smaller roads are the signs which can be spotted along the way. The Golden Highway passes through mining country and there were signs warning of the date of the next planned road closures for mine blasting, but my favourites are the naive names the early settlers gave to some of the places. On this road we traveled through Jump Up Creek and Breakfast Creek (no sign of any water in either of them), then we moved on to the signs for towns that always have a bit of extra information or a slogan on them. Jerry's Plains (settled in 1822) - The gateway to horse country. Anywhere that calls itself a gateway to something is just using code for 'there is absolutely nothing actually here'.
We climbed up and up seemingly endlessly as we crossed the Great Dividing Range. The early settlers failed on many occasions to cross the range further south at the Blue Mountains, if they had tried where we were crossing, they may have found it a little easier as the slopes are more gentle here. The funny thing about crossing the Dividing Range is that you don't seem to descend much on the other side because the rest of New South Wales is on a plateau.
We take it in turns to drive which means we can keep on the move for a considerable time, so we carried on skirting Wollemi National Park where a group of trees were discovered in 1994 that had never been seen before, they are massive and are just another example of how huge Australia is if they could be growing unnoticed until so recently. On through Dingo Gully and past Hill End, a virtual ghost town now that used to be home to thousands during the Gold Rush, we finally reached Bathurst where we had booked to stay in the showground.
This was a fun experience, all reasonably sized country towns seem to have a showground, built around the end of the 19th century and this one has put a few powered sites on one of its grassy areas to get a bit of an income from caravanners. We were pitched between the cattle and sheep pavillions. To my delight it was overlooked by Mount Panorama Racing Circuit, home to the Bathurst 1000!
The public can position themselves on pole (as I did of course) and drive around the entire Mount Panorama circuit! It is really tempting to put your foot down but the place is full of speed traps. There is a vineyard within the circuit and the views are sensational, a real must experience for any motor racing fans. The museum is excellent too and well worth a visit.
We will spend a couple of days here then head for Corryong, over the border in Victoria.

Christmas is well and truly on its way here as can be seen by the lights on the houses and Ian has gone to town as usual. He missed out last year as we only had a caravan to decorate but he has made up for it this time and has plenty of competition among the neighbours, it seems that about every third house has made a bit of an effort with some lights. It is very pleasant to stroll around on a warm evening and look at the displays but seems a bit weird still, I don't think I will ever get used to Christmas in summer, Ian never has.
Apart from anything else it is strange that everyone is about to set off on their summer vacation too as the long school holiday begins next weekend, it is an expensive time of year for Australians because everything happens at once.
We still have not made a decision about whether to swelter over turkey and all the trimmings this year or to chuck a couple of prawns on the barbie, we did the latter last year and it felt very unchristmassy so I think the turkey may win.
Zoe is going to join us on a little camping trip later this month so we will definitely be attempting the full roast then. I am currently on a mission to find Paxo in a supermarket without much success so far, maybe I should set up a business importing it for British ex pats.
It sounds like I am complaining but I am not, the weather is gorgeous here at the moment. It seems to follow a bit of a pattern starting at around 26 degrees for a few days then building up and up until it reaches the late 30s or even 40, then there is a huge thunderstorm at night and we drop back down to 26 again and the whole cycle starts over. The hot days appear to generate the most spectacular sunsets too, ranging from all shades of orange to bright pink.
The wildlife changes as the weather gets hotter and we now have a new resident in our garden, a Dollarbird, so called because there is a white disc pattern on the underside of both wings that looks like a dollar coin and can be seen when he is flying.
This bearded dragon was sunbathing as I walked with Monty today, it made no attempt to move even though we very nearly trod on it and just gave us a dirty look, I don't think they are dangerous but I was a bit unnerved by its confidence. 

I flew back into Sydney at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning to be greeted by bright sunshine and blue skies after a very grey and wet month in England. Although it was great to catch up with family and friends it is very nice to feel the sun on my back again. Apparently I missed some extremely hot days, over 40 degrees when everyone just sits around and sweats while talking about how hot it is. I have yet to experience this, the temperature where we are did not get above high 30s last summer but this year is supposed to be the hottest on record so watch this space.
Ian has been very busy while I have been away and has built an excellent bridge from the veranda to the street, cutting out the need to clamber down seven steps then scramble up another seven to get to the front door. This makes things much easier when coming in with shopping or even just returning from the club after a few wines and means we should be able to remain living in this house well into our dotage.
The warm weather has brought about a number of changes while I was away. The birds all seem to have babies and all kinds of trees, shrubs and flowers are in bloom including this monster which has popped up in our garden, it is like a gigantic agapanthus and looks fabulous.
Ian took me to see a discovery he had made at the Tilligerry Habitat in my absence, a Bower Bird had built this little arch (or bower) it is what they do to attract the ladies. They also steal anything they can find that is blue, if you look carefully at the photo you can see the blue contraband displayed around the bower. According to David Attenborough, if you move the blue stuff around, when the Bower Bird returns he will put it back exactly as it was.