November and December

 Trying hard to update my blog and slowly getting there! Some of my adventures from November and December.

Having had a bit of a space theme with our trip to the Warrumbungles- visiting the Parkes and Siding Springs telescopes, I decided the Tuesday Girls needed to visit the site of the tracking station at Honeysuckle Creek. Kerrie and Deb had never been and it had been a while since I had been.
Naas Valley at the Apollo Road turn off was looking lovely and green following recent rain.

The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station is no longer there, but a few years back they put up signage to commemorate the significance of the area. The forecast was for a hot day but up at Honeysuckle Creek it was cold and misty so we needed our jumpers.

I was reminded what a lovely spot it is. I have ridden my bike up a few times over the years but haven't done any walking so enjoyed a walk through the bush.

There were still a variety of wildflowers to be seen.

For my birthday a few friends went out for lunch at Les Bistronomes at Campbell for lunch. We enjoyed a very yummy lunch.

Another Tuesday Girls adventure took us into the National Gallery where we got to see the new "Ouroboris" which was recently installed.

View from the inside

And from the outside

Always love seeing the Pear sculpture

 And this is the Within Without art installation.

From without

And within

We really do live in a beautiful city with things so easy to get to.

I recently went up to Guthega in the Snowy Mountains with Bill for an Astronomy weekend at the Brindabella Ski Lodge. Unfortunately it rained all Friday night and Saturday, and so the telescopes never left the van. They did do some talks on the Saturday, Bill did a talk in the morning on an Introduction to Astronomy and another CAS member did one in the afternoon on an Introduction to Astro Photography. Was interesting to see Bill in Astronomy mode- quite different to what he is at home. He was in his element talking abou the stars!

I did manage to get out for a 5km walk Saturday afternoon. It looked like it had stopped raining, so I headed out, it did shower on and off but I had my umbrella and rain jacket. It was lovely getting out after being cooped up all day. Mountain country is just something special. This was quite the suspension bridge, one person at a time!

This was the Snowy River, not to far from its source.

Heading Back to Canberra

 We left Mudgee early as heavy rain was predicted throughout the day, fortunately it didn't really eventuate till we were nearly home. The countryside was lovely and green.

On our way to Bathurst

After Bathurst we headed the back way towards Crookwell through lots of little towns. We stopped off at Tuena when we spotted this community café in the local hall. Friendly locals with some yummy home made cakes and slices we needed to sample. Picked up some local eggs and jams as well.

 Then a short stop at Crookwell before heading on to Gunning where we had our final stop before heading home to Canberra.

Good to be home after our Warrumbungles adventure- where too next time is the next question!

Mudgee

 We left Coonabarabran on Thursday morning  heading to Mudgee. It was interesting going home a different way, going on roads I had never travelled on before and visiting towns that were just names on a map. We headed through Binnaway and then onto Coolah. The countryside was green and lovely.

We stopped off at Coolah for morning tea then headed towards Mudgee.

We stopped off to do "The Drip" walk, it was just lovely, green and lush, we walked along the track with the cliffs on one side and the Goulburn River on the other side. At various points  you could hear the water dripping off the side of the cliff- thus the name- The Drip.

 Very picturesque and one of the nicest short walks I have done. Then it was on to Mudgee where we are staying the night.

 First stop was the Mudgee Honey Haven for lunch and some shopping. Everything honey you could think of. The honey ice-cream was just delicious. Lots of different types of honey to taste.

Then it was the High Valley Cheese Co where we enjoyed a cheese tasting. We tried 5 different feta cheeses and other cheeses they hand make, it was hard to decide what to buy!

We settled into our motel and went for a self guided tour of the beautiful buildings around Mudgee.

This is the Post and Telegraph Office built in the 1860's.

This was an old bank.

The Town Hall, now the library.

Another old bank now a solicitors office

One of Mudgee's many churches.

Mudgee really is a very pretty town.

Warrumbungles Part 3

 It rained the whole day- our last day in Coonabarabran, at least we got to see some of the range the previous day. Our guided walk of the Warrumbungles was cancelled, instead we were transferred to a tour of the telescope in the afternoon. We began our day with a walk around the town, stopping off at the Feather's café for our morning cuppa.

Some of the buildings and murals around the town

We decided to take the scenic drive that took us past the Hickey Falls and into the western entrance to the Warrumbungles

We found an Emu Farm

With some rather wet emus.

Then it was onto the Warrumbungles, this viewing platform gave us a bit of hope

 things might be drying up,

However not the case. Disappointingly, no walking in the Warrumbungles today.

Up to Siding Springs for our rather damp tour.

Ironically this location was chosen for the Siding Springs Observatory because it had the highest number of cloud free nights- just not when we were visiting!

We learnt lots and it was an interesting tour.

What we should have been able to see!

As you can see it was not going to be happening today.

Where the dome opens so the telescope can see out to those beautiful clear night skies, that we never got to experience!

Oh well, we made the most of the weather and enjoyed our day anyway.