Canberra to Chaffey Dam

EPIC Van Park campsite

Wed 6 Mar - today we set off to Canberra for four nights.  Surprisingly Canberra has little in the way of quality caravan parks.  Checking into EPIC (Exhibition Park in Canberra) aka the Show Grounds we found an OK spot at the back over looking the animal stalls from the Canberra Show just two weeks ago.  The only action in the park at the moment is trotting horse training.  The park is full but they don't squeeze the sites close together so it feels pretty good.

Latest three Victoria Cross recipients

Over the four days we visited the War Memorial, which is always both moving and fascinating and Old Parliament House.

Old Parliament House had a great display of all the country's Prime Ministers and stories of the times they lived and what their term was most renowned for.  We could walk freely through both the House of Representatives and Senate chambers as well as the offices of the politicians.  

Next day we traveled south of Canberra into the ACT's beautiful national park.  Camp spots abound and with 160 klm of walking tracks to choose from we consulted one of their friendly Rangers to narrow down our options.  The winner was a 6 klm walk to Yankee Hat Cave - one of only two sites with aboriginal paintings near Canberra.  We had a great walk through lush green fields filled with hundreds of kangaroos and rabbits.  The latter being under control orders with baits set beside their enormous warrens.  

Yankee Hat walk

Yankee Hat Aboriginal Rock Art

After this experience we had a snack back at the start of the trail watched by a very itchy enormous buck eastern grey kangaroo.  He was dozing under a tree right where the table and chair was for us.  He slowly moved away and I can say that I was pleased he did  - he was huge.

Black Mountain Tower

Travelling back to Canberra we drove up to Black Mountain which has the needle Telstra communications tower atop.  Being 2.30 pm and yet to have lunch we caught the lift up the the tower and a fine light lunch  looking out the windows across the whole of Canberra.

If this wasn't enough, it was followed by dinner with friends, Kerrie and Mark Hayes,at a very busy Chinese restaurant followed by a walk around the Parliamentary Precinct to see the buildings transformed by laser lights.  

Old Parliament House

 Arriving home at 11.30 pm, which is very very late for us pensioners we fell into bed with the alarm set for 6 am.

6 am came around too quickly but up we got and went to the shores of Lake Burley Griffin to watch the Canberra Balloon Spectacular - one of the top three (or the third best) ballooning events in the world.  About 30+ balloons went up including Darth Vader, a turtle and a rooster.  The day had clear skies and light winds - just perfect.

Arriving home we went to the Canberra EPIC markets being held 300 metres away.  I went home almost immediately as this was just too much excitement.  Julie came home with all sorts of goodies including some of the best vanilla FUDGE we have had - and that says a lot!

The rest of the day was just doing the washing, washing the car and getting ready for our yet to be decided destination tomorrow.

Sun 10 Mar – not having seen all Canberra and its regions have to offer there is enough left to justify us coming back again.  We broke camp and set off for Flat Rock – a free camp approximately 20 klm north of Oberon just south of Bathurst which is north of Canberra.  We have started our trip towards home wanting to be back by the Wednesday before Easter.

Flat Rock

Getting to Flat Rock involved some of the steepest driving we have done with the van on the back.  At one point we were in 1^st gear grinding up a very steep road for 10 minutes.  Katoomba and the Blue Mountains are just to the east of us so the mountainous terrain is to be expected.  Flat Rock is very pretty with a big flat rock mostly damming the creek in front of the camp area creating rapids.  It’s lovely listening to the constant roar from them during the day and particularly at night lying in bed. 

Speaking to a couple from the Gold Coast who had been here for 4 nights, the weekend was very busy with about 12 separate camp groups and lots of day visitors.  Being Sunday night most of them had left or were packing up to go leaving only 6 camps remaining.   Four of the groups left early Monday morning.

Swiss bike riders

Two pushbike riders from Switzerland arrived about 5pm.  They are travelling from Sydney to Alice Springs and have 6 weeks to do it in.  They had travelled 50klm today.  After riding all day through the hilly terrain in the region, one of the pair dug out a skipping rope and proceeded to skip for 10 minutes then do exercises before setting up the tent, gathering firewood, cooking dinner and doing some washing in the creek.  I felt sorry for him so after getting another beer I tried not to let him see it.

The couple from the Gold Coast also had a fire and they kindly invited us down for a chat around the campfire.  A lovely night was had swapping details of good camping spots and caravan ideas.

We spent two nights here and the morning we left we started talking to a couple of ladies travelling together in a camper.  One was right into fishing and talked her way into getting a trout fishing lesson yesterday from an ex-Canadian guy who travelled three hours from near Sydney just to come trout fishing here at Flat Rock.  At sunset - 7.30pm - he had a three hour drive back home.  By the way he caught one trout! 

Tue 12 March - Leaving Flat Rock we headed for Lake Windermere and the Cudgegong Waters Caravan Park.  The place is huge and virtually empty.  We chose an unpowered camp spot with nearly 270 degree views.  Perched high above this pretty dam we were entertained by the many water and land birds going about their daily lives. 

Lake Windermere Campsite

View from our campsite

I decided to give our generator a go for the first time on the trip.  I had just about filled the wash-water tanks at a van park tap before we set up so I started the genny and did a load of washing.  It worked a treat so we now have confidence that, given a water supply, we can stay remote for ages.  

We decide to stay only one night here which is unusual for us.  The place just wasn't pretty enough for us - joke.  

Timing our trip home and taking into account weekends etc we set our sights on Chaffey Dam - Bowling Alley Point Recreation Reserve - some 300klm north and just south of Tamworth.  We were recommended the place by the Gold Coast couple we met at Flat Rock who had stayed there for two weeks.

Wed 12 March - Chaffey Dam.

The day's travel was along quiet back-roads through picturesque scenery which took us to Mudgee for morning tea and then to Willow Tree for lunch.  We arrived at Chaffey Dam around 3pm.  The place is lovely and we were able to get a good spot under trees and overlooking the Dam.  There is drinking water (near green footbridge), flush toilets and $1 showers.  It costs $5 per car per night to stay here - a bargain.

The place is peaceful and given there is an enormous area to camp in our neighbours are over 100 metres away.

Chaffey Dam campsite - view from van

The days remain warm and the nights cool - great camping weather.

Fri 15 Mar – Chaffey Dam to Apsley Falls National Park

Our time at Chaffey Dam was highlighted by a drive up to Hanging Rocks; a lookout at around 1200 metres overlooking the valleys and farming lands below.  The countryside is a picture as a result of recent rains from the tropical cyclones and deep lows that flooded the coastal areas in recent months.  We followed this lookout with a quick visit to Sheba Dam - a free camp beside a little dam high in the mountains – just to see what it was like for future reference.  It is very pretty with limited sites along the side of the dam - probably good for a couple of nights stay.

Hanging Rocks

On the way to these sites, from our campsite, we drove along a dirt road that follows a stream that feeds the dam ending up in the picturesque town of Nundle.  This winner of NSW’s Tidy Town competition is very quaint with great old-time shops and a good and busy pub selling coffee and counter meals.  A lot of gold prospecting goes on in the region and the aptly named Fossickers Caravan park is well located on the banks of the stream we followed from home.

Arriving back at our camp for a late lunch we relaxed and watched the water birds feeding on the dam.  Late afternoon the breeze came up so I rolled the awning up and we retired for the night when the sun went to sleep and the cool night air arrived.  With clear skies and a long way from any major town, the night sky lights up with millions of stars.  Cloudy constellations can easily be seen either side of the bright Milky Way that stripes its way across the sky.