Mucho Km's home

Well after 4,500 kms in the Patrol, which dragged the caravan for 3,300 kms of the 4 week trip, we are home - grass was high, plants all in good shape (thanks to neighbour Carol) and now it's time to start the whole Christmas thing - which of course I love. We left Cowra last Saturday, first stop was a small lovely little grazing town - Canowindra - WHY - it had an incredible old heritage building - the Trading Post.

Which had 2 floors of Christmas ornaments - and a lovely nursery cafe! We then motored on through the Warrambungle National Park

601 kms north (in total) to Moree - followed by the hot artesian spa at 35 degrees was wonderful for both of us, menu was a home made pizza, and an early night.

Moree's claim to fame , among its grazing, olive groves, pecan nuts etc. is its hot artesian spa baths, 5 of which were in the campground we were staying in.

Some history is that the Moree bore was sunk in 1895 by Canadians, and involved 40 foot oregon poles being screwed together to turn the drilling head. It started flowing on 9th November 1895, 2,700.000 litres of hot water gushed from a depth of 951 metres flooding the nearby stores.

Anyway the Hot Artesian Pools were built and opened and some of the motels and one caravan park (ours) have them.

This same park had an excellent Van and Car wash area - great for us who were taking our home (on wheels) back into storage.

Next to Goodiwindi - home of the Cotton plantations

Lovely billagong at our park, and some delightful old buildings Below the much historied "Hotel Victoria" in Goondiwindi

The road from Goondiwindi to Warwick was "hell". The water table was way up because of the rain and floods, the Road Trains used this route - totally overloading it and quite honestly it was probably the worst we have driven with van since embarking on this escapade in 2003. After 100kms we stopped in a little grazing town - called Inglewood, we had tea with Elvis, roamed around this charming little cafe and "junk" abode, and a damn good rest.

That Marilyn was there too. On to Warwick, heard all the roads were really in poor shape after the floods, politicians are coming down to drive around, and hopefully get knocked around like we were (wonder if they were towing) and will do something about it. Warwick is loaded with old sandstone buildings - lovely big town, this is the Town Hall

Bad photo - taken at 6 am - into the sun, but this big grey greeted us behind the van, and he just loved a few carrots for his efforts.

The road from Warwick to the Gold Coast was far better, and it didn't take us long to unload and sort everything out.

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Wonderful and fun trip - now back to business and as I have said get ready for the 'FESTIVE SEASON"

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AND A HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND RELOS IN THE USA.

Tarrant's in Woodstock

Friday was a lovely day, we drove from Cowra to Woodstock (about 27kms) to revisit some of my family's history. My Grandfather ( Pop Tarrant) was the Post Master at this Post Office in Woodstock for nearly 20 years.

When Pop and my dear Grandmother (Vidi) arrived in Woodstock, they had 6 children (2 girls, 4 boys)

Next to the Post Office was a cottage where they all lived.

and 88 years ago on December, 11 - my Mum was born here.

After Mum, another 4 were born - total kids in the Tarrant cottage was 11 (5 girls, 6 boys).

I am still amazed how my grandparents coped, but they did, and according to all reports - very happily. The present Post Mistress showed me around the cottage a few years back, a lot of the internal woodwork etc is still there, it has been kept very well. I spoke to her again on Friday, she is forwarding some more information on the history of Woodstock, but also made the comment (with a big smile) that the boys (6 of them) must have loved to play marbles, she says she has found hundreds around the garden over the years. Auntie Beryl confirmed this was the fact when I asked her.

The Anglican Church where my Grandmother put in a lot of her time - it is only about 20 meters from the cottage.

The School in Cowra where most of the Tarrant kids attended High School.

My grandmother had every child taught a skill that they would not learn at school. Some chose the piano, but mum chose scottish dancing and learned for years from Mrs. Grey in Cowra, fortunately she used this as a career option when that became necessary, and how well did she do!

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Now back to COWRA

After Woodstock, we decided to look at the "Prisoner of War Camp" history in Cowra.

This camp was originally set up in 1941 as an internment camp, housing 2,000 Italians and a small number of Korean and Chinese people, however it was then turned into a POW camp housing a further 2,000 Japanese caught during the bombing of northern Australia, and 1,200 Indonesian military prisoners. It closed in 1947. On August 5th, 1944 at 1.50 am, 1100 Japanese staged a "breakout" - because of their belief in the Bushido code of military honour inspired them to die in battle rather than become non-persons in capitivity. 231 Japanese and 4 Australians died in this "Breakout". The bodies were buried adjacent to the Australian War Cemetry. Despite the anti-Japanese sentiment at the time, this cemetery was maintained by members of the Cowra Returned Soldiers League as a mark of respect.

In 1962, Japanese Embassy Officials, impressed with the attention paid to the Japanese graves of their war dead, approached the Cowra Council to discuss the possibility of one cemetery for all Japanese who died on Australian soil during the war years, and they wanted that located in Cowra. In 1964 the Japanese section of the Cowra War Cemetry, designed by Shigeru Yura was built.

It now contains the remains of all Japanese nationals who died in the Cowra breakout, the attacks on Darwin, in the internment/POW camps and others who were captured within or around the islands near Australia.

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In the late 70's a decision to build a Japanese Garden in Cowra was made between Japan and Australia. Ken Nakajima, the world-renowned Japanese Garden Architect was employed, he chose the 14 acres overlooking the town. This Japanese landscaper had designed the gardens for the New Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and has designed gardens in New York, San Diego, Moscow, Montreal, Vienna, Houston and numerous other large cities, but he was particulary enamoured with this project because of the reconciliation that the Cowra people had shown the dead Japanese. It is the largest Japanese Garden in the Southern Hemisphere.

Absolutely gorgeous and peaceful

How wonderful would it look in early Spring

Cherry blossoms, camelias, azaleas and wisteria everywhere.

They have a Cherry Blossom Festival at end of September, and Carols in the Garden in December.

Last day in the Snowy

Wednesday, unfortunately was our last day in the Snowy - such a beautiful part of the world, the entry to it via the grazing properties (in a non drought year) below is outstanding.

We spent time reviewing the whole Snowy Hydro Scheme

We then decided to walk beside the lake again on an incredibly clear day.

Down to the statue of Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki- he hovers high above the lake

Whilst viewing Sir Edmund S. again we met up with another couple, discussions about how this town was (from my 2 years experience and many old friends views today) with self funded immigrants from 30 European countries worked 50 years ago - I used the word "multi culturism" the gent informed me- actually quite firmly - that I meant successful "mono culturism" - how right he is, and this shows in the Snowy today. I just keep learning, how good is that!.

Frank went on to play the harp at the edge of the lake

Lovely trees have been planted along the foreshore of this man made lake

Time to salute this special place from the old Jindabyne Pub.

and relax on our walk back to camp

More lovely colours across the lake for our farewell Happy Hour.

Thursday morning we farewelled the others, they were heading south to the Victorian/NSW border - we were going north via the central west to get home. After a 2 hour drive from Jindabyne we called in to Nal and Ross's new abode in Canberra for a couple of hours - another great winter style garden - then on to the lovely town of Cowra (north of Yass) - so much family history there, and of course that will follow. - oh no!!.