Hi all,

Yes, yes... I know we've been a bit quiet on the blog updates, but since leaving Barmah National Park we have spent a bit of time in Ophir which has absolutely no phone / internet coverage. So, here's what's been going on for the last couple of weeks....

We left Barmah early, aiming for Temora in NSW that night. We travelled along the Murray and crossed into NSW at Corowa, over the bridge on the Murray and out of Victoria. It was a bit of a non-event as there wasn't a sign to indicate our entry into NSW, which Kathy was most disappointed about. From there it was on to Albury where we picked up the Hume Highway until we got to Gundagai. We only went that way as we figured it was kind of on the way to Temora, and we should do the tourist thing and have a look at the dog on the tuckerbox... so we did... and it was rather average. It's a small statue of a dog sitting on a box. At least there is a plaque there that explains the significance of the dog-sitting-on-a-tuckerbox scenario. Apparently, way back in the 1850's or there abouts, a bloke by the name of Bullocky Bill was on his way to Gundagai with a few other blokes and a heap of bullocks. The story goes that the bullocks and the cart they were pulling got seriously bogged. Bill had a run of bad luck trying to un-bog his bullocks, a broken wheel and some bullocks broke free. Then when he went back to his camp he found his dog "sitting" (or worse) on his tuckerbox. The blokes he was with thought it was hilarious, and in good Aussie fashion proceeded to make jokes about Bill's "sh!tty" luck. One of them even wrote a poem about the event which, over the years got cleaned up and turned into a folk song - the dog on the tuckerbox. So there you have it, more useless information to clog your brains with.

After the obligitory photo was taken, we left the boring Hume and drove toward Junee. This was much better driving, narrow, winding country roads through the hills. A stop at the Junee licorice and chocolate factory was in order for some free tastings, then on to Temora where we parked in the airport campground. The next day was a washing and shopping day, which we completed by lunch because I wanted to see the Temora Aviation Museum. I had heard a lot about this museum over the years, it is the largest collection of airworthy flying warbirds in Australia. Unfortunately they were not flying any of the aircraft until after the new year, but the museum was quite interesting. One of the volunteers working there was kind enough to let me have a closer look at one of the Spitfires they have. This particular Spitfire saw action over France in WW2 and was used during the filming of the Battle of Britan movie. We had a bit of a look around Temora that arvo, stayed again in the airport campground that night and headed off early the next day. Leaving Temora we drove through Young, Cowra, Canowindra and Orange, then took a drive out to Ophir, about 30km from Orange. Ophir is the site of Australia's first gold rush in May, 1851. It is a small area centred around Summer Hill creek and the surrounding steep hills. The gold rush lasted a meer 15 months, during which there were up to 5,000 miners working the creek and digging holes in the hills at any one time. We camped right next to the river on the site of the Ophir township. There is nothing there now, not one shop or hut, just the diggings and some impressive tunnels and cuttings. We explored a few of these cuttings, one of which is rather huge. The men cut into the side of the hill about 2 metres wide and 30 metres horizontally, and ended up 23 metres below the ground level. This entire chunk of hillside was removed and crushed to obtain the gold from the rock. They then proceeded to dig a series of tunnels from the end of this cutting, boring into the hillside and tunnelling for more gold. All dug by hand. The photos and video do not do it justice, just amazing, all for some shiny rocks.

We stayed at Ophir for Christmas day, it turned out to not be as busy as we had thought. Only a few people came out for the day and we had one family camp over night, but it was all very enjoyable. We cooked ourselves a roast pork in the camp oven in the fire, with roast spuds in aluminium foil to go with it. Topped off with some of Mum's apple sauce that we brought from Traralgon, sitting by the river in brilliant sunshine with a beer and wine, made for a very enjoyable way to spend Chrissy day. Boxing day was grey and rainy. We tried again at a bit of metal detecting for gold but got rained on before we could get any big nuggets, so we called it a day and had a lazy arvo in the annexe watching the rain. Kathy tried and tried to find gold over our time here, but without any success, although we did find two very small flecks of gold while panning, and I mean small, half a pin head sized. We were thinking of staying in Ophir for New Years Eve, but by now we were looking for a change of scenery, and it was decided to head north and have NYE at Lightning Ridge.

So, we packed up early from Ophir and drove the back way to Hill End. This track was fantastic. It is rated as 4WD only and did not disappoint us. The track was quite steep and rocky in some spots, nothing compared to what we have done in the Pajero before, but with the camper in tow it is a different story. The track wound its way along the side of some very steep hills and ended up crossing the Macquarie River. Our first river crossing for the trip was a rocky, 50 metre wide, bullbar deep crossing. Both Pajero and camper had no problems at all. A steep, low range climb out the other side eventually flattened out and then we meandered our way through farmland and on to Hill End. This would have to be our favorite section of travelling for our trip so far. It took us two hours to do 70km, but it was well worth it. Unfortunately, both the video camera and the SLR were locked away in the storage unit, and by the time we remembered that we should be taking a photo or video of this track, there was no where to stop and get them out. Oh well, we'll just have to back again one day and do it all again. We stopped in Hill End for a cuppa and a walk around, again a gold rush town, but a lot of history is well preserved and interesting to look at. We had a look through the museum which is in the original 1850's hospital and then headed for Mudgee, on to Gulgong, Dunedoo and we stopped for one night at Gilgandra. A quick washing and shopping excercise was completed this morning and then off to Lightning Ridge.

We have only just set up our camper and had a dip in the pool, so we haven't yet seen much of "the ridge". It's not as hot here as expected, only 32 degrees, it is normally 40 at this time of the year... Tomorrow we will have a walk around town and explore the towns quirky-ness. We will spend NYE here and see how long we stay after that.

Happy New Year to you all. Have a safe and enjoyable one.

Paul and Kathy.