25th April - Stroud stopover



A little dilapidated chateau along the way....somewhere.



We were thinking of getting to Gloucester today, but we’ll see.    Thought we would have a scone at Scone, but there wasn’t too much open today, being a public holiday, so continued on.   Through Aberdeen, Muswellbrook, Singleton…..   Let’s camp at Dungog – you  have to book and pay at visitor centre, but that was shut.   The camp ground was locked so we continued on to Stroud.

The Thoroughbred Hotel in Scone.   Yep apparently Scone is the Horse Capital of Australia.    Only in Scone would you call a hotel Thoroughbred.    A little disappointed about the scones, I was looking forward to a devonshire tea.

We know we are in horse country, as a lot of the towns on this route have these similar welcome signs with different pictures of a horse theme on them.    We flew through Aberdeen, found out later that this town was the scene of a very gruesome murder, I think I actually remember seeing a doco on TV about it.   It was a woman who did the nasty deed in a very horrific way....let's move on.

We don't seem to be doing too many k's today but we are flitting through the towns - this fly by shot at Muswellbrook.   I visited my friends here a lot of years ago and don't remember this town being so big, but it is quite a large township......moving right along.

Singleton, the next drive through town.    Mining is huge in this district.  They do a good job of concealing the mine landscape from the road way, but I managed to get a shot of it as we went by.    Doesn't do much for the scenery does it?

This area also has a couple of huge power stations, Bayswater being one of them.   Another fly by shot, all part of the scenery.    We had a stop at a pub in Singleton and it was packed.    Just a quick refreshment before heading on to Dungog. 

We were cruising round the hills past Dungog when we saw a random sign Bridge Viewing Platform 200 metres ahead...mmmm interesting let's stop for a look.   Missed the stopping bay, did a uey and back we come.   We walked through the metre high grass to get down to the bridge (no real viewing platform that we could see anyway).   The thing that struck us first was this dirty great big bees hive, what a prime spot and it looks like it is a continuing work in progress.    Gees I'd hate to upset all those bees, don't get too close Darl!

Now, back to the bridge - Pound Crossing Bridge when completed in 1994 was the largest cellular stress laminated hardwood timber bridge deck in the world!  Measuring 60 metres long and 8.5 metres wide, the deck was assembled on the western approach.  When completed the deck was launched into position using hydraulic jacks and bailey rocker rollers.  Weighing in excess of 200 tonnes this was the largest or heaviest structure ever launched in this manner.

Pretty damn impressive.... just a side view.

Love these old rail bridges also, though this one looks a little overgrown.  Stroud is another historic town…..   the camp ground is at the showground.   Saw a sign to contact council office to pay fees and get keys.    Guess what, not open on Anzac Day.   We drove through town to see if there was a van park but no, Darl didn’t want to drive on further as he had enough of the windy, hilly, narrow roads for the day.  Asked a guy at pub if there was a van park, no – but you should be able to camp at the showgrounds no worries, pay tomorrow.  

His missus chased me over the road to say that camping at the showgrounds is free…..anyway we decided to give it a go, we were the only ones there, the grounds were pretty boggy due to the recent heavy rains, but we managed to find a dry track to a nice spot under the trees and close to amenities.   The power boxes looked to be all locked, but my Darl found one that wasn’t…. sweet.   

We set up camp, had a relaxant and decided to walk up to the pub for tea, which also had a band playing. Got there at 6 – everyone was partying, obviously been at it all day. Great band/music – the feed wasn’t bad either.   Being a public holiday the pub shut at 8pm, so it was an early night after all.   Walking back to camp in the dark by the dim light of my Darl's torch.  He says this track a bit boggy go around, so I did right through another muddy hole, sandshoes covered in mud, great! 

The pub next morning, all washed down spick and span ready to go again. Did a walk round town in morning before we left.   Funny sign on post office notice board.   This is a company township first settled by the Australian Agricultural Company in 1826. 

The funny sign on PO - Lost One Road, sounds like the roads around here as bad or worse than some we have in Queensland.

This historic village had a heritage walk too, as they all do, which is a good thing but we didn't do this one, however this building impressed us, the PO.   I reckon the PO's in these little country towns would be a hub for local gossip, as would the pubs be.