Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Forbes, NSW July 4th 2024 Easy trouble free run, except for fairly long stretches of 80Kph roadworks from Cowra to Forbes. Drove straight into what used to be a Big4, now privately owned. Young fellow, Joel, and his wife having a ‘go’. The park is a picture and I hope for them that they do well. Apparently Joel’s parents own the van park just outside Atherton where he grew up, so he’s very familiar with how a van park works. Judy relaxing into holiday mode. Forbes NSW One of the reasons I was keen to come to Forbes was to visit the Lachlan Historic Village, which I had heard was finally reopened. How disappointing to find that even though the brand new information place has reopened there using the name Lachlan Historic Village, the village itself is still very much closed and fenced off. The reason cited is that it’s build on top of the 1860’s gold diggings and is particularly unstable and hence dangerous. The lady on the desk seemed to understand my situation after I explain...

  Parkes, NSW July 7 2023 Finally we were able to tear ourselves away from Canberra and home, heading north again, seeking some warmer weather. This time we were heading to Parkes for our first night, a run of about 300km. We stopped at Boorowa for a break, but the cafe that we had ‘discovered’ a few years back on a BMW run, was unfriendly, cold and had nothing to eat that took our fancy. We wandered back up the road, stuck our heads into a cafe we didn’t recognise that only sold pizza, and ended up back at the bakery. We were only going to get a take-away coffee but succumbed, yet again, to the temptations of a rock-cake. A pleasant enough run up to Cowra, then left and right to continue following the Lachlan Way toward Forbes. We pulled up at Goolagong, a tiny town at the junction of the road that goes either to Forbes or Orange, and made ourselves a sandwich in the van. It did occur to us that it was now colder than Canberra and starting to rain. After lunch we pushed on to Forb...

Forbes NSW Finally at last, escape from the Canberra winter which seems to have been colder than I remember. But away at last in the bright sunshine and looking good for a nice run out through Yass, Boorowa, Cowra and on to Forbes. The sunshine lasted as far as Yass and then the clouds came over and the wind picked up. We stopped at Boorowa, as has become our habit when travelling this way, for a coffee. My resolve to avoid sticky buns and muffins melted at the sight of my all-time favourite: a rock cake. We went for a bit up and down the Main Street, and were surprised at just how many more shops and businesses were closed and gone. It seems such a perfect place for a rural-change from city life I can't see why it seems to be dying. I have to say however that the  frigid freezing wind and sleet that drove us back to our car was less than pleasant - about as pleasant as finding yourself almost parked in by two other traveller people. The goose in front, with his big rig and sup...