The Rest of March

We are now well into autumn and are still experiencing rather warm weather for this part of the world, with most days being in the mid to high 20s C.  We aren’t complaining, as it has been lovely to sit on the back verandah or be out and about.

The other morning we were treated to a pretty spider’s web in the back yard.  It didn’t stay this way for very long and later in the day I noticed that a bee had been captured in its clutches.

Despite the warm days, the mornings are starting to be cooler and we have had our first couple of foggy mornings.  That is a sign of things to come, as Bathurst is renowned for its pea souper fogs.  At the moment they are still rather atmospheric and disappear quickly.

Our street trees are starting to change colour.  Some further down the street are already fully yellow and losing most of their leaves.  It is funny how the same species of tree varies in the rate of the colouring.

We had a nice outing Saturday a week ago.  Our local visitors centre and council coordinate the “Autumn Colours” program of events.  Many are heritage related and we like to join in on something each year.  This time we took part in a historic walking tour of the village of Rockley.  It is out towards where Mick grew up and he knows the area very well, but thought it would be interesting to learn more of the history.

The tour started in the early afternoon, so we decided to partake in lunch at the Rockley Pub, now owned by the chef Matt Moran.  

Our lunch was delicious.

I’ll just share a little bit about the village.

The war memorial features a clock that has an inscription under it which doesn’t make much sense.

It turns out that it was originally positioned on the wall of the original Abercrombie Shire Council chambers, which is now a private residence.

“Calais Villa” has an interesting history.  It was built in the 1880s by one of the prominent early settlers, William Brownlow.  He was a Nottingham lacemaker who had moved to Calais in France and married Sophia over there.  In the mid 1800s the French Revolution made it difficult for foreign lacemakers, so many returned to England, but there were also problems there, so a large number were offered free passage to Australia, but had to make the commitment that they would not use there trade over here, which is rather sad.  Anyway, he went on to be a very successful farmer.  Their house has a beautiful garden that we have visited a couple of years ago during Rockley’s open garden weekend. 

You can read about it in more detail here.

Both the churches were designed by Edward Gell, a well known colonial architect.

The Anglican Church is a lovely building and had beautiful windows.

We weren’t able to enter the Catholic Church, but it is another lovely building.

The old post office building is also now a private residence.  The manual telephone exchange was housed here and we both remember having to speak with the operator to connect to people out that way on the phone.

The School of Arts hall has recently been upgraded to meet modern standards. Built in 1890, it was the first commission of early Bathurst architect John Job Coleman, at the age of 20.

The tour finished with a delicious afternoon tea at the museum, housed in the original flour mill building.  It capped off a very enjoyable afternoon, hosted by the lovely ladies of the museum.

We took the scenic route home, which is always something we like to do.  We really are blessed to have such a labyrinth of quiet country roads in the area. By the time we arrived home we were driving through some nice rain and ended up receiving just over an inch of gentle rain overnight.

I had a very social time that weekend, travelling out to Oberon on the following day to catch up with a good friend for lunch.  

I have to share a photo of the chocolate mousse we treated ourselves to.  Isn’t the presentation perfect.  It tasted pretty good too.

Yesterday, we actually went for a motorcycle ride.  The Vintage Club from Sydney hold a week long rally in Bathurst each year in the week leading up to Easter.  We often join in on the Good Friday ride to Oberon.  Yes, back to Oberon.  I have been out there four times in the last two months.

Sadly, we had a little off on the bike.  We overshot a turn and when attempting to do a u-turn, at no speed at all, Mick lost his footing and we toppled over.  The only damage to the bike was a broken brake lever, but while lifting the bike Mick tweaked his back just a little.  Not too bad, but enough for him to decide that we will not ride a solo bike two up any more. So, an end to an era after many thousands of miles travelled together on Sophia.  

From now on, when we go together, which is most of the time, we will take Olga the old girl BMW sidecar and Mick will keep Sophia for riding on his own.

We still completed the ride yesterday and still both love being on the bike.

On a happier note, today is Easter Sunday and our neighbours over the road have their three young granddaughters visiting.  Mick drew a little map of our front yard and we gave each of them an individual treasure map to find one of the Easter rabbit bags I made full of chocolate.  It was a bit of fun.

It appeared that our Easter egg collection on the dining table had been breeding like rabbits before we filled the bags.

Happy Easter.

A Rather Pleasant Day Out

As we have hardly used any of the motorcycles for the last few years, I haven’t even listed going for a motorcycle ride as a goal this year.  Particularly, in the summer we don’t really like going on the bikes, preferring it when the weather is a little cooler.  Well, today, the weather was rather pleasant, being in the mid 20s C, and as we had nothing planned, so we decided to take “Olga” the old girl out for a run to a local pub for lunch.

Our destination was the historic O’Connell Hotel, which has only recently reopened with new owners after being closed for a few years.  Of course, we couldn’t take the direct route, could we.

We travelled via some minor country roads to the village of Tarana before looping back to O’Connell.

There were two pretty little timber bridges along this road, but they are currently both in the process of being replaced by more modern, structurally sound versions.  It will be better, but also sad to see the old ones go.

The rattly timber bridge over the railway line still remains.  

The road goes beside, over and under the main western railway line.

This picturesque cottage is being restored.  I love its name “Paris”.

It was so nice to still see the landscape looking so green, especially in January and after us having weather forecasts of a hot and dry summer…….not that summer is over yet, by any stretch.

There was a good crowd at the pub.  

It dates back to 1865, which is fairly old for a timber pub around these parts.

The food was delicious and they have several beers from Bathurst’s local brewery on tap, which was good to see.  Mick does enjoy their Pale Ale.

As seating was at a premium, another couple sat down with us.    We got chatting and it came up that we were on the sidecar.  They laughed, as they had been having a look at Olga out the front.  It turned out that they are in the area farm sitting a place just down the road from where we used to live and they own a Ural sidecar.  We ended up having a lovely hour chatting away about the various places we have both travelled and also motorcycles.  An unexpected  bonus to our lunch.

Eventually, we decided we had better head home, of course taking the scenic route, rather than the direct one.  

Firstly, along some little dirt lanes near where we used to live.

Then we headed over to The Lagoon and then Ben Chifley Dam, our local water supply.  The dam is full, but had been closed due a blue green algae outbreak. Fortunately, they received the all clear and the speed boats were out in force and the aqua park has reopened.  It was good to see so many using it.

It really was a lovely day out, made even more so by the fact that it was totally unplanned.  A nice bonus.

Now, let’s see if we can get out and about on the bikes a bit more.

Winter Solstice Motorcycle Ride

For several years Mick and I used to organise some mates to go on a Winter Solstice Motorcycle Ride to be held on the weekend closest to the winter solstice, regardless of the weather.  Mick would arrange a “Mick’s Mystery Ride” to somewhere with a pub serving a roast of the day and have a roaring fire.  We would get up to ten bikes.  Our rides were about 200km long.  One time we even got snowed on.  They seem to have petered out over the years.

Last year, one of those mates contacted us about going for a ride on that weekend.  We ended up over at Hill End for a pie.  It was a nice day out.

This year, we once again we had a phone call from that mate and we decided that a pie at Hill End would be a nice ride this year as well.  Keep it nice and simple.  We were blessed with a nice day to be out and about, weather wise.

This year we took “Sophia” the Moto Guzzi.  This is the bike we have just recently transferred to historic registration, as she is now thirty years old.  We have done a lot of travelling on her, but when I look back at my blog posts, it seems I have not been on the back of her since February 2020! That’s pretty sad.

There are not as many photos this time, as one advantage of a sidecar is that it is the best thing to take photos as we travel along.  Not really possible when riding pillion.

When we arrived at the cafe we were greeted by a happy looking alpaca.  Just look at that sweet face.

I didn’t even take a photo of our lunch.  Just take my word that the pies are delicious.

We called in at a little park area.  Remember I took a photo of this tree earlier in June when we travelled the Bridle Track?  It has now lost most of its leaves.  The other tree I photographed is now bare.

Behind this building, which is the old hospital, there are quite a lot of old machines and carriages.

Naturally, as usual, on the way home we had to stop at the little lookout area.

Sophia sporting her new number plate.

As we neared home, Mick thought he felt something hit his leg and assumed it was something off the road.  When he went to put on the front brakes, nothing happened. 

Oops!  That doesn’t look good!  I think the brake callipers are supposed to be attached to the brake disc, not hanging in the breeze.  Just as well we were nearly home.  A quick improvisation meant we could get home safely and they are now all fixed.  When I looked at our photos, they were in place at the look out, so must have worked loose on the way back home.

It was great that our mate gave us that call, as we would not have otherwise gone for a ride and it did feel good.