30!!!
Monday afternoon we went to see the Simpsons Movie. And we had the BEST movie experience anyone can wish for especially on your birthday. Caroline and I were the only ones watching the movie. We had the whole theatre for ourselves. The only downside was that we were limited where we sat down as we had assigned seats. But they were the best seats in the house at the back and in the middle.
Arnie
and Caroline 
I turned 30 yesterday, it still hasn't sunk in ....thirty.
Anyway to mark the occasion Caroline had taken me away to the country for the long APEC weekend. It began Friday when we visited the Featherdale Wildlife Park. It is a wildlife park full of mostly Australian animals. The Park lets you get a hands on experience with some of the inhabitants. For example you can hold a Kookaburra, pet a koala or any of the kangaroos and wallabies that roam 'free' in several parts of the park. Unfortunately it rained for a bit but we stayed dry with umbrellas provided by the park. Free of charge!!!
Rock Wallabies, Tasmanian Devil, Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat, Brown Snake,
Echidna and a Gould's Monitor
And when I was able to drag Caroline away from the wombats we continued to Mudgee, driving through the wonderful Blue Mountains. Only stopping after we had passsed them while the sun was setting.
Mudgee is a small country town about 260 Km away from us. Famous for its fine wines produced in 40 different wineries.
We didn't go to Mudgee for the wineries but to be far away from the city (APEC) and hopefully see some wild kangaroos and enjoy some bushwalking. Judging by the amount of road kill there had to be plenty around and we were also surprised to see a lot of dead wombats along the road. On Saturday we drove through Gulgong visited Goulburn River National Park in the area and hiked to the BIG Drip (Currently under threat from mining ).
As we walked through the National Park we came across numerous Wombat burrows.
Unfortunately we saw none but it was evident they were there as they had left scat and fresh markings behind. We had to be back early at the Lauralla Guest House that day. Caroline had booked a table weeks in advance at a nice restaurant for the evening somewhere. But before we headed back, we had time to stop by one vineyard for a tasting. It was fortunate we were heading back when we did. Soon after it started pouring down with rain. The rain drove all the long-neck turtles out of hiding and onto the roads.
Being the animal lovers we are we stopped and managed to rescue a few of them. We chose the Frog Rock winery and drove to Frog Rock it was only a small detour on the map. And by doing so we discovered that the Frog Rock winery is actually NOT in Frog Rock but much closer to Mudgee. And as far as we could tell there weren't even any other wineries to go to in Frog Rock. In the end we managed to find the Frog Rock vineyard just outside Mudgee and Caroline enjoyed tasting their wines. I did not taste any because I was driving and I don't like wine anyway.
The surprise restaurant we went to was the Blue Wren. A winery with a fine restaurant, we had learned that earlier at breakfast from some of the other guests that were also staying at our Guest House, who had been the night before. We came to that same conclusion ourselves. It was good they have a courtesy bus that picks you up and takes you home after again. With all the wineries and tasting that goes on during the day not completely unnecessary judging by the state some people were in.
We were fortunate to have been picked up by the owner in his luxury car and he was also the one that took us home. Maybe because we handed a wine bag in that was left by someone at another table still containing a bottle of wine. Karma. What goes around comes around, we like to think.
On Sunday it was already time to go home again but it seemed like we had been away for a week. Not because we were bored!! but because we had seen and done so much. We decided to go to Wollemi National Park on our way home and visit Dunn's Swamp for one more bushwalk. During the walk we had beautiful views over the swamp from several lookout points.
Again we came across signs we were in wombat country but again they eluded us. We did came across a huge goanna that I believe to be a Lace Monitor.
And while finding links for this blog, I found that Dunn's Swamp is a UFO hotspot as well.
In order to get to Dunn's Swamp we had to go over unsealed roads. Which is always something we look forward to and sometimes the only reason for going anywhere. Except for Jackass in Queensland 3 years ago we went there purely because of its name. Although we are unable to find it on any maps now (e.g. Google) except of course for the one we had bought then in Cairns. From Dunn's Swamp we continued our way down to Lithgow along the park still over unsealed roads enjoying the drive and avoiding some of the traffic also making their way back to Sydney.
After all that we were home by 7 even though it felt more like 10. And we still had Monday off.
Rock Wallabies, Tasmanian Devil, Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat, Brown Snake,
Echidna and a Gould's Monitor
Looking back at the Blue Mountains
Mudgee is a small country town about 260 Km away from us. Famous for its fine wines produced in 40 different wineries.
We didn't go to Mudgee for the wineries but to be far away from the city (APEC) and hopefully see some wild kangaroos and enjoy some bushwalking. Judging by the amount of road kill there had to be plenty around and we were also surprised to see a lot of dead wombats along the road. On Saturday we drove through Gulgong visited Goulburn River National Park in the area and hiked to the BIG Drip (Currently under threat from mining ).
As we walked through the National Park we came across numerous Wombat burrows.
Unfortunately we saw none but it was evident they were there as they had left scat and fresh markings behind. We had to be back early at the Lauralla Guest House that day. Caroline had booked a table weeks in advance at a nice restaurant for the evening somewhere. But before we headed back, we had time to stop by one vineyard for a tasting. It was fortunate we were heading back when we did. Soon after it started pouring down with rain. The rain drove all the long-neck turtles out of hiding and onto the roads.
Being the animal lovers we are we stopped and managed to rescue a few of them. We chose the Frog Rock winery and drove to Frog Rock it was only a small detour on the map. And by doing so we discovered that the Frog Rock winery is actually NOT in Frog Rock but much closer to Mudgee. And as far as we could tell there weren't even any other wineries to go to in Frog Rock. In the end we managed to find the Frog Rock vineyard just outside Mudgee and Caroline enjoyed tasting their wines. I did not taste any because I was driving and I don't like wine anyway.
The surprise restaurant we went to was the Blue Wren. A winery with a fine restaurant, we had learned that earlier at breakfast from some of the other guests that were also staying at our Guest House, who had been the night before. We came to that same conclusion ourselves. It was good they have a courtesy bus that picks you up and takes you home after again. With all the wineries and tasting that goes on during the day not completely unnecessary judging by the state some people were in.
We were fortunate to have been picked up by the owner in his luxury car and he was also the one that took us home. Maybe because we handed a wine bag in that was left by someone at another table still containing a bottle of wine. Karma. What goes around comes around, we like to think.
On Sunday it was already time to go home again but it seemed like we had been away for a week. Not because we were bored!! but because we had seen and done so much. We decided to go to Wollemi National Park on our way home and visit Dunn's Swamp for one more bushwalk. During the walk we had beautiful views over the swamp from several lookout points.
Again we came across signs we were in wombat country but again they eluded us. We did came across a huge goanna that I believe to be a Lace Monitor.
In order to get to Dunn's Swamp we had to go over unsealed roads. Which is always something we look forward to and sometimes the only reason for going anywhere. Except for Jackass in Queensland 3 years ago we went there purely because of its name. Although we are unable to find it on any maps now (e.g. Google) except of course for the one we had bought then in Cairns. From Dunn's Swamp we continued our way down to Lithgow along the park still over unsealed roads enjoying the drive and avoiding some of the traffic also making their way back to Sydney.
On the way home we finally came across these two road signs together again.
Monday afternoon we went to see the Simpsons Movie. And we had the BEST movie experience anyone can wish for especially on your birthday. Caroline and I were the only ones watching the movie. We had the whole theatre for ourselves. The only downside was that we were limited where we sat down as we had assigned seats. But they were the best seats in the house at the back and in the middle.
Arnie
and Caroline 
2 comments:
Happy Belated Birthday for the 11th Arnie. Glad you had a great birthday treat - I was exhausted just reading about your weekend.
Thank you very much. I know it was a full on weekend, but we are more then happy to do it again. To tell you the truth I wish I could have my birthday more often. =)
Post a Comment