Easter weekend

So with a plan to explore the state central west over the Aust long weekend washed out, we headed south to Yass on Friday with the van packed and the boys very excited.  Hitting traffic at Narellan only 35 mins from home the first call of "are we there yet" hit home!

We lunched in Yass and found a great little park next to the Visitor centre.  The contrast of Sydney crappy traffic and country roads was awe inspiring.

We drove onto Boorowa, stopping along the way to visit a tiny road side cemetery and read some very old head stones and stretch our legs.  The van park in Boorowa was a help yourself to a spot park, with pet friendly and while it was clean and tidy there was nothing really for the kids and so we pushed onto Young.

The welcome at the Young van park was friendly and country, the suggestion that "kids couldnt stay there and would have to wait in the cage" was met with great laughter...just!  Again within minutes the boys had met the local kids and were off playing with the walkie talkies.  We bought these cheap at Dick Smith and planned to use them to help get the van into the right parking spots and our narrow driveway at home.
While Jodie and I relaxed with too many drinks on Friday night the kids ran amok and had a great time.

The next day we headed off to the Young Chinese gardens and had lunch there before driving to Cowra in the afternoon.  The boys were fascinated with the huge bronze lions in the dragon and the ducks were a hit also.

Young Chinese Gardens

We found that finding all the van parks in a town is not as easy as you would think.  We pulled into a full looking van park in the center of town on the river.  The guy who directed us to our spot was the most un friendly, non customer focused person we had met.  Clearly not from the friendly country folk school of thought, he barked orders and took over to guide us back into the tiny spot.  The park was well setup, but the night time noises of drunks going home over the bridge and the steel plate on the bridge wore thin by 2am.  We had decided to go to Jenolan caves the next day and left very early.

By 11am we were at Oberon and called friends of our who were staying on a farm nearby.  We met then drove to the most beautiful and inspiring farm on the banks of the dam.  The landscape looks amazing with all the recent rain and we left the van to drive the narrow road into Jenolan caves, with our friends.  Apparently we weren't the only people thinking Jenolan was a good place to visit as we joined hundreds of other visitors.  we were parked a long way from Caves house and bused down the hill.  The ticket queue for a cave tour was daunting, so we ate some food and walked through the archway and back up to the cars.

Back at the farm we went fishing and then I got the royal tour of the property, all 1800 acres, it was impressive!  The boys had a chance to fish in the lake, drive motor bikes and after Byron got brave, so did I and for the first time in my life drove a motorbike up and down the driveway!  Great people, thank you for the opportunity to see your farm.

We finished dinner and took the kids down to the waters edge and had a bon fire and set off fireworks, before siting back and freezing to death, it was a cold night, but a great day.

Heading off early to get back over the mountains we were home by lunchtime.