Country Escape
Day 1
The Shell Service Station at Bowenfels was a busy place on Saturday morning. With 11 RRC vehicles and 23 people stocking up and ready to go for a weekend Country Escape. After coffee, fuel and last minute lollies, we were off in convoy following John & Tracey and heading west along the Great Western Highway. Our route took us through Bathurst and on to Orange where we had morning tea in the very green and tranquil Cook Park. After this relaxing break, we took the road past Lake Canobolas and up to the top of Mt Canobolas for a great view over the countryside (although a bit hazy) and a close up look at the forest of communication towers located 
there We then took the forest tracks down the mountain where we experienced a bit of light off-road driving and managed to get the cars dirty. Back on the tarmac, and we were off to Canowindra, then to Cowra and the Olympic Park for lunch. Tracey warned us that we would need change for entry to the Iandra Castle tour that afternoon so quite a few people found they were forced to buy ice creams to get the required small notes (or that’s what they said).
After lunch, we set off for Greenthorpe and on to the imposing Iandra Castle. Along the way, many of the wheat fields were being harvested. The headers used in the harvesting are huge machines and we found they’re even bigger, close up, when we came upon a convoy of them coming the other way. Also, the grain storage silos we passed were very busy with trucks lined up to deposit their loads. In the middle of this beautiful wheat country, is Iandra Castle and it really is an imposing mansion. This Edwardian estate was built by George Henry Greene in the early 1900’s and, besides the huge main house it also includes a large separate stable. Nearby, on the grounds, is St Saviors Church (1886) which was built in memory of the Greene’s son who died at five years of age. We joined an interesting tour of the estate which gave an insight into the original construction and the faithful restoration undertaken by David Morris since the 1970’s. The scale of the estate (and the restoration) is massive. As an example, the castle has 53 fireplaces. George Greene originally brought out 400 skilled tradesmen from Britain to build it… imagine what that would cost now!
After our very interesting stop at Iandra, we were back on the road, through Young and on to Cootamundra and the Wattle Tree Motel, our comfortable accommodation for the night. We then had a short stroll down to the Globe Hotel for dinner and a very enjoyable meal. Our thanks to John & Tracey… it had been a busy day. Looking forward to the cherry picking tomorrow.
Day 2
8.15 am departure from our Cootamundra motel accommodation saw us driving off to a scheduled cherry picking experience. The day was thankfully cloudy and started out with an ambient of 26 degrees Celsius- a pleasant relief from the heat of the previous day. We were booked in
to “Ballinaclash” which is a family run orchard and vineyard on the Wombat Road just 6 km from Young in the “Hilltops Region”of NSW. On the way we passed through “Wombat” a town with a population of only 200. A sign at Wombat proudly announced Cootamundra as the birthplac
e of the great Donald Bradman.
The journey from Cootamundra took us through some great wheat country where interesting patterns on the fields were seen which Warren explained were tractor wheel marks remaining after harvesting. Warren and Julie have had considerable experience on the land and we regarded their comments seriously on this trip – sometimes Warren has been known to be less than sincere with his trip radio commentary but this time he seemed quite accurate and wise (mostly). As we got closer to “Ballinaclash” we came across more and more cherry farms most of which were offering DIY cherry sales- in other words you supplied the labour and the farm provided a plastic bucket and you were then free to spend as long as you wished picking as many cherries or apricots as you liked. Seems like a good business proposition for the owners as well as the public.
When we arrived at our destination we were surprised to see so many cars and people ready to do the DIY cherry purchase. We joined them of course and “had a ball”. A high- light was clambering onto the back of a table top truck which was equipped with hay bales for most of the se
ating and a “first class” section featuring some 1970’s soft lounge seating! The truck took us some distance over a hill to more cherry tree areas and to the apricot trees. What fun all this was – and an experience that none of us had had before.
The fruit was fabulous and most of us would confess to having eaten nearly as much as we collected to declare for payment! The cost proved to be about one quarter the supermarket prevailing prices!
At 11.00 am we were finished and as we headed off to Crookwell for lunch the temperature started to climb – 29 degrees C as we hit the road. The journey to Crookwell took us through a golden landscape showing us both harvested fields and fields not yet ready – some green and therefore moist- wheat sown later than some making a colourful contrast to the otherwise golden scenery. It was observed that close to Crookwell the surrounding paddocks suddenly took on a greener look. Also coming into Crookwell was sobering signage reminding all of the horror of bush fires, stating that some 30,000 sheep had been killed in recent bushfires in this location – the sign urged us to be responsible and be aware that it is easy to inadvertently start a horror bush fire!
By the time we settled at a park in Crookwell for lunch the ambient had reach 32 C and the winds were increasing in intensity. After lunch the convoy headed for home and proceeded in increasingly strong winds and temperatures- extreme bushfire weather. The Crookwell windmills were “enjoying” the strong winds and the “props” were turning like fury! A coffee and cake stop at Mittagong concluded a great weekend. Temperature had climbed to 40 plus by this time. Thanks again to Tracey and John for running another great trip.