Tuesday 21st February - Young, Cootamundra, Junee

Might not have done much yesterday, but a busy day today.  We drove back to Cootamundra to pay a visit to the Don Bradman Museum.  This was quite an impressive display.  The volunteer on duty was quite a character!  Very helpful, full of information and most hospitable.

Bradman's Birthplace

Bill even had his photo taken next to a bronze bust of Bradman.  We spent several minutes watching a short video of Bradman's life and career.  It really was something to know we were standing in the very room in which Don Bradman was born.
We bought a few more souvenirs of our visit.  Next door there was a memorabilia display which we went to look at for a few minutes.  Lots of "olden day" things - some of which we sadly remembered from our easrly years - in about three rooms.

Bill and the Don

We had a bit of a look around Cootamundra as we tried to find the Captains' Walk.  We eventually found it, and spent a few minutes strolling through the park and admiring the bronze busts of all the Australian Cricket Team Captains.

Captains Walk

We left Cootamundra and headed for Junee.  We looked around Junee a bit, then went out to the Roundhouse Railway Museum.  I think the man who spoke to us thought I might not find it very interesting, but I assured him that I had been taken along on train rides, especially steam trains, since I was a child.  I do actually like trains.  I drew the line at climbing up and down steps to look inside the engines and carriages.  Left that to Bill.  As well as the real trains and carriages there was a wonderful model railway set up.

Model Railway at Junee

Steam Engine at Junee

Roundhouse at Junee

As it was getting on we headed for the Junee Railway Station where the old refreshment room was doing service as a cafe.  Had lunch there.

Junee Railway Station Refreshment Room

Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory

We also visited the Junee Licorice factory.  We opted not to take a guided tour - rather we just had a bit of a sticky beak through the viewing windows as they were extrudung some licorice.  They were just starting a run, and had to chop off the first few centimetres of the licorice rope that appeared. One of the employees gathered up the off-cuts and offered us a piece each.  It was nice licorice.  They also make chocolate, so I bought Mum a box of chocolate covered ginger, and me a box of chocolate covered licorice.
We drove back to Young. On our way back we
saw part of the Bethungra rail spiral. This is a unique spiral path taken by the rail lines so the trains can cope with the steep hill.  We didn't actually manage to get to the best viewing spot, but we did see one of the tunnels and some of the track -you could tell it was a loop.

For dinner we went to the Australian Hotel.

 

Australian Hotel

When we came out into the street after dinner Bill took this photo of the building opposite.  Not sure what it is, but it sort of a facde above a series of shops.

Sunday 19th February - Tumut to Young

Again we were ready to leave the park around about 9:30.  The day was again hot and sunny, but OK in the car with the air-conditioning.  First we stopped at Gundagai - where the dog sat on the tuckerbox. We went into the shop to have a look, and bought ourselves a couple of souvenirs - a small replica of the dog on the tuckerbox, a small glass dog, and just as I was walking out I happened to spot a Winnie-The-Pooh plate.  I thought it said $15 so I decided to buy it - it wasn't until the lady had wrapped it that she said "That will be $35 thank you."  I debated whether to say I didn't want it, but decided that I really did, so I bought it anyway.

Next we stopped at Cootamundra.  We went to the Information Centre at the Railway Station.  We bought a Bradman hat and some cherry jam.  We also had some lunch there.  We were told that the XPT train from Sydney was due in a few minutes.  We waited for a while, but then there was an announcement that it was running 20 minutes late, so we set off again.  As we continued north it occurred to Bill that the train should be coming towards us at any time.  We stopped at a spot where we could see the train.  Another man had had the same idea.  Unfortunately when it did arrive it was travelling quite slowly, not like the fast train we expected.  Bill thought it might have been travelling slower due to the heat.

We then continued on our way to Young.  Again we had rung the caravan park previously to make a booking for an ensuite site.  We stayed at the Young Tourist Park.  It is a lovely park, shady sites, concrete paths and 'driveways' on the sites and really nice ensuites.  An added attraction was the bunnies that lived in the park!
There was a short-lived but quite fierce thunderstorm in the evening.  We decided to have sandwiches for tea instead of going anywhere.