Around Canowindra and Onwards

An artists impression of the Canowindra fish when they were living

It rained on and off all night. More on than off, and in the morning my table was wet, so the rain must have been driving in at some stage. However, my roof plumbing worked and I don't have a huge puddle on the awning.

Camping with roof plumbing :) 

A visit to the Age of Fishes museum is most worthwhile.

Age of Fishes Museum

 

Once I escaped the well-meaning of volunteers who wanted to give me lots of information that I really already knew, in quiet voices and uninspired tones, I enjoyed reading the information, looking at the displays, watching the videos and looking at the fossil exhibits. 

Two or three species of fish in this fossil

Just the one here

I really am in awe of the people that can solve the puzzle that is a mass of fossils, many of which to me do not appear to have the form of fish.

Original fossil and cast

Casts of some of the fossils showed me more form. The whole museum is very interesting and houses part of the richest deposit of fish fossils I think ever found. 

Cast of one species

Original fossil and cast

And it is particularly good that the museum is located in Canowindra (apparently pronounced with a silent 'i') where the fossils are found. Experts suggest that there's perhaps three times as many fossils still underground as have been excavated so far.

A latex peel of one specimen still in the ground

As I walk along the main street, following the historical buildings guide, there's an area of fruit trees which clearly suffered in yesterday's wind, and petals are covering the ground like snowflakes.

I proceed along the main road, admiring some buildings and simply noting others. The town seems to have its roots as a pastoral centre and perhaps buildings are not as prosperous of some of those in the gold towns. 

The Old Vic Inn

Some are showing relative signs of neglect but I guess it takes money to keep up such such places. And they are heritage listed, so I guess that should restrict some developments.

Many 'layers' added through the years

Rather lovely

Since Canowindra has a butcher, I indulge in a piece of eye fillet for dinner tonight. I'm hoping to compensate for my very insubstantial dinners the last two nights.

An illustration from the museum that I rather liked
Imagine finding this when scuba diving

As I drive East towards Bathurst, there is more canola and the landscape is tending towards gentle rolling hills.

The views are rather nice and we gently climb to the point where a sign notes that we are 840m above sea level and I should take care of ice and slippery roads. My destination Lithgow, is apparently at 960m. At one point on the journey, the temperature gauge dips into single digits. 

Some fossils on display outside at the museum

Lithgow is a bit of a centre for the Blue mountains, the hub of seven valleys, and Google and the Visitor Centre confirm that the tracks I wish to walk in the Garden of Stone National Park will be closed until 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. I certainly won't be starting on a 6 km bushwalk at 3:00 p.m., not with my knee slowing me down still. I have been trained better than that. I have allocated all of tomorrow to explore the Garden of Stone National Park. The best laid plans of mice and men.... And doing it on Saturday morning really is not an option, as I have booked a tour elsewhere starting at midday. 

After last night's cooking experience, I decided I wanted somewhere more comfortable, spacious and equipped to prepare tonight's dinner. So I bit the bullet and called the Caravan Park at Lithgow about a studio apartment. They were of course all booked out but she could offer me a two-bedroom cabin with a discount so I took that. 

Its setup is interesting. Probably halfway in terms of facilities between the other two I stayed in. The caravan park itself again is fairly standard. I find them quite dismal places with the sites all cheek by jowl. Some have seriously good camp kitchens, others with very ordinary or even very minimal camp kitchens. This one has a camp kitchen better than last night's; but it is outside although undercover with one wall for shelter and I haven't investigated whether there's hot water in the sink, but there is a jug and a toaster available for campers. There's also a barbecue and I contemplated cooking my eye fillet steak on the BBQ but it's an electric hot plate type BBQ and I certainly don't want my steak broiled.  I have a plug-in cooktop and electric fry pan, jug, toaster and microwave so that should be sufficient to cook my dinner, standing up in the warmth with hot running water to clean things. 

I visit the tourist information centre for some ideas about occupying myself tomorrow and it intrigues me that the chap behind the counter was intent on telling me everything he thought good without regard for my interests. When he started to tell me about historic villages I did interrupt to say I was a little bit over historic villagers but he proceeded anyway. He did tell me about a short walk in a section of the Garden of Stone National Park that I can legitimately access tomorrow morning, so that was good. I'm not so sure I'm as interested in the ruins of old steel works or cement factories though but I can discard that in favour of the suggestions that do interest me.