Day 4 - Jenolan Caves and Blackheath

It is FREEZING in Oberon. I kept waking up during the night as my nose was so blocked up I couldn't sleep. I already had 2 blankets and desperately need a 3rd and 4th one, except I was too cold to get up to get it. There was also a heater, but it was on the other side of the cabin. Again, I was too cold to get up and turn it on. In the end, I woke up an hour earlier than planned to try and defrost.

This morning's checkout was the easiest. The boot was right next to the front door. We were practically just throwing things into the car. We popped the key into the checkout box and off we went for breakfast. We chose a local cafe that looked warm and cosy for breakkie.

Cafe Savanna

We order our coffees, me screaming I needed it in a mug before we ordered breakfast. Will orders toast, and when asked if he wants thin or thick toast, he answers thin toast. If this is thin toast, I don't want to see their thick toast:

3cm thick toast

Being in Oberon, where you can go foraging for mushrooms, I decided that mushrooms on toast would be the perfect choice. And since I had a hangover, bacon and hashbrowns obviously make an appearance. But I didn't expect THIS:



This was HUGE. It was easily 1/2kg of mushrooms cooked in butter, served with thick slabs of toast slathered in butter with a serve of bacon cooked in butter and a butter fried hash brown. I could feel my ateries clogging up with every bite. I tried my best but only managed to get through 1/2 of it.

Will leaves me to deal with the bill, which isn't a problem since it was paid for last night. He goes and does his stuff and I hit the shops. Right before he leaves,

I said "I'm going to go shopping"
he said "What could you possibly buy in a town like this??"
I said "Is that a challenge?"
he took one look at me and went "Oh, that's right. Happy shopping."

Within about 15mins, I had purchased 2 jars of home made jam from a volunteer shop, a kangaroo keyring for Will and I bought myself the CUTEST set of cow tumblers that come in a milk carton!!


Again, Will's jaw drops when he sees me with bags of stuff again. We dump everything into the car and went to the local bakery to grab some picnicky stuff for lunch. We grab a salad roll each, plus I bought olives earlier when stocking up on water to tide us over.

We get back into the car and head off towards the Jenolan caves. I have lost count of how many times I've been to the blue mountains, and everytime I try to go to the caves, I don't make it. Its either raining, or we've missed the last bus etc etc. This time, I wasn't sure we'd make it either looking at the road we had to drive on!!!

We're trying to do a SHARP left turn

I could not believe how tight some of these curves were! I'm so glad we didn't hire a caravan or campervan like we talked about. We finally make it to the bottom in one piece where we quickly park before heading towards the ticket office (Right past a warning sign that says there are snakes in the area). We bought tickets to the next cave tour, Lucas caves.

We go to the meeting point to wait for the tour to start. It was then I noticed that most people are in shorts and tshirts with a tiny bag and a bottle of drink. Me on the other hand, jeans, jump, side bag, camera bag and camera around my neck. It was only when we started our tour into the cave that I realised what a big mistake it was. Some parts of the cave are tiny and narrow. There were a few times my bags will get snagged onto something. And I didn't realise how many stairs there were! It was like a stair master workout with rocks!

The more spacious areas

The broken column

The Cathedral

Wombat remains

However, with that said, we did enjoy ourselves. The only problem was a 10yo kid who would not shut up the entire 1.5hrs and decided to give us a running commentry on EVERYTHING.

The tour ends and we immediately plant ourselves down on some chairs and pull out our lunch.

Mixed Olives

Salad Roll

Even though the food was simple, it was really satisfying after my fryup this morning. We duck into info to grab some brochures and decided that we should head to Adam's shed which has wine, jam and honey tasting. We decided to try a different road out of Jenolan caves to avoid having to go around the bends/cliffsides we just went through. And let me just say, the 2 times we stopped to take photos of dead roos, a car drives past BOTH TIMES. @#%#@#$

The upside was, the view was gorgeous:


We eventually get onto the freeway towards Adam's shed, only to find out they were closed! To make up for it, we pulled into a little cafe/garden/nursery for some gorgeous scones:



They also saw the bazooka of a camera I had and recommended that we go to a secret lookout to watch the sunset. We were both knackered, so we decided to save that lookout for our next trip instead. We follow the Navman and eventually arrive at the guesthouse we booked:




As they were showing us our room, we realised they had mixed up our booking. To make up for it, they bought us a bottle of wine, woohoo!! AND, they had chocolates on arrival!! How sweet! Plus slippers and bathrobes for extra luxury. They even upgraded us by giving us a spa bath!

Modelling with our bathrobes

Chocolate on arrival

Showing off our spa bath

Will cracking open our wine

Being hot and sweaty, we take a shower and jump into bed to relax with our chocolate, wine and my surprise just for Will. Little Britain USA! We crack open the wine whilst we're watching this, and whilst I get completely plastered on wine, Will slowly sips his one glass until I ended up on the floor as I couldn't walk straight. Not a good sign. We decided to start watching our Mykonos holiday video, until a certain "scene" came on TV when I decided I should get ready for dinner and hide in the bathroom. Next thing you know, I hear this soft thump thump sound. I open the bathroom door and see this:

Current State: Insane

Current State: Winding down

Current State: Exhausted

Me? Just drunk

We hop into the car and manage to find our way to the main strip. We drove past Tails, which was recommended by the scones people as a great place for a nice dinner. The restaurant is actually part of a Motel, which wasn't a huge issue. The problem was that our table was in the corner of the room. LITERALLY in the corner of the room. We both sat staring at the walls of the restaurant???

With that said, the food was really nice:

Chicken breast wrapped with pancetta and baked, with rocket, tomato and parmesan salad

Herb crusted rack of lamb with almond and lemon risotto and lemon sabayon

Choc walnut cake with a choc mint ice cream - HEAVEN on a plate

We head back to the house, where we find that someone had lit the fireplace for us! I LOVE fireplaces! I absolutely LOVE LOVE fireplaces! We got changed into our jammies and bathrobes before plantings ourselves down on the plush armchairs by the fire. Without even asking, Will brings me a glass of port to enjoy by the fire. Now THIS is a holiday. We sit infront of the fire, chatting, drinking when we suddenly decide to call Gus up and abuse him a bit! Its not right if we don't abuse someone.

The port pouring

Me, my jammies and port!

The look of content

A combination of the bottle of wine I had earlier, the satisfying dinner, the fireplace and now the port with some heart to heart chatting meant we were both ready for bed. Besides, we had emptied half of the port bottle already....

We get ready for bed when I walk into the bathroom and see a spider on the ceiling. We both start screaming that the other person has to kill it. We run out into the livingroom and kitchen to look for bug spray or something to kill it with. We grabbed a mini broom thing from the fireplace ready to do some eradication.

Armed to kill

We're standing in the bathroom,arguing over whats the best way to kill the spider. I scream at Will to just stab it with the broom. So he does, but then it falls from the ceiling and tried to scuttle away. So here we were, 2 full grown adults, screaming our head off whilst bashing the tiled floor with a brass broom. We eventually get the spider into the toilet to try and flush it:

It looked much bigger IRL

After all that excitement, we were both wide awake with our hearts racing. We eventually get to bed when the alcohol kicks in again. As usual, Will dumps the tea and coffee into my suitcase.


Just as I am almost asleep, out of nowhere, came the LOUDEST jackhammer like sound from our window/wall. I had a mini heart attack whilst Will fell out of bed thinking someone was trying to break into our room with a chainsaw!!! It was basically someone having a shower and the waterpipes going nuts. I thought someone was doing construction outside our room at 1am in the morning. I'm not even sure how we managed to get back to sleep after that.

Day 3 - Bathurst, Lithgow and Oberon

I wake up feeling slightly hungover. I say slightly because I'm sure I'm still slightly drunk. Not only was it an effort to wake up so early, it made it worse that we were staying on the second floor, which meant we had to lug all our crap downstairs. We were tempted to reverse the car to the building, so we could throw our stuff over the balcony, but all the spots were taken.

We drag everything downstairs and Will leaves me to play tetris by trying to fit everything into the car whilst he checks out. By the time I'm done, he comes running back saying the reception insisted that we ate at the Motel restaurant last night and wanted to charge us for dinner. A big argument ensues and now we've gotta get out of there ASAP.

We pull into a service station to fill up on petrol whilst I try to wash the dead bugs off the windscreen. How does one enjoy fresh country air when there are so many insects splattering onto the car?? We finally make it back into town centre where we park at the local shopping centre. Except we got lost and ended up trapped in the shopping centre with no way out. Talking to a shop keeper, we either had to wait for Myers to open and cut through to get out, or take the long way out through the car park. Car park it was, I needed coffee, NOW.

We stopped into a Scottish cafe that looked like it was run by the cast of A Country Practice:

Our "dirty coffees" - Remind you of anything?

Will's crossiant and jam with cream

Eggs benedict with asparagus

After breakfast, Will and I parted ways again. I head straight back into the shopping centre. 30mins later, I'm smsing him to hurry the hell up because I can't carry my shopping any longer! What did I buy? 4 books, earrings and 7 tops. God I'm good. Will comes running to the rescue where I immediately dumped all my shopping onto him before my arms fall off. He helps me wrestle all my shopping bags into the car, which has taken up more than half of the boot. Infact, we started moving stuff from the boot to the backseat to make room for my shopping, only to realise the backseat was already filled with my bags!

We decided to drive up one of the local mountains as we're told there's a great lookout there. 30mins up the mountain with an unpaved dirt road by the side of the cliff

Scary road

The dust we were kicking up

we get this view:


You could barely see ANYTHING from the top of the mountain! Why anyone would call this a lookout is beyond me. You look out and see nothing except radio towers! On the plus side, we had full reception on our mobiles.


Next thing you know, 2 technicians pull up to do their work and started giving us funny looks. As if we're the first morons who have come all the way up here for the "view"


Driving back down, we basically got better views half way down the mountain!


When we get off the mountain, we decided to start heading towards Bathurst as we had more places to visit today. The only problem was that Orange had a heap of wineries! We had been driving for about 2mins when we spotted the first winery. Drive another 5mins and we're at another winery. Infact, we were atleast an hour behind schedule and I'm pretty sure I was tipsy.

SMJ still sober....ish

Getting in on the action!

After a few wineries, we said no more and we really had to step on it to get to Bathurst. That is before we spotted another honey place. Before I could scream "Honey!", Will had already turned into the car park.

We had barely stopped the car when my camera goes off non-stop. I didn't even make it into the store when I had to get a second memory card. Again, its not something I can explain or anyone but us 2 will ever understand. Sometimes I don't even think the both of us understand. It's probably a Will and Grace thing. Perfect understand and harmony with no need to explain our stupid behaviour to each other.

This honey place has less honey choices, but it didn't stop us trying everything. We were shoving tablespoons of honey into our mouth, until I choked on a mouthful. That basically ended my taste testing. We spied jars of olives for sale and checked to see if they had an antipasto plate of nibblies we could snack on. We placed an order for the smallest plate and a coffee each before sitting down.

Honey and local produce

Bee display

Locals enjoying their meals

30mins later, our platter finally arrives and its huge! We were hoping for a light snack to tide us over until we go to Bathurst, but this is basically lunch!

Various deli meat, grilled vegetables, cheese and relish

Huge bowl of baguettes

Coffee to tide us over

The relish they served on the platter was absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't stop eating it. I ended up buying 2 jars to take home. Will is going to have to stop by for all future trips to buy me more!!!

After stuffing our faces, we jumped back into the car towards Bathurst. Again, I could not believe how absolutely gorgeous the countryside at this time of the year. It was THE PERFECT time to go. I could not stop thinking about Tuscany when I was seeing views like this:


I'm soooooooo glad Will asked me along on this trip, it was much needed to relax and enjoy views like this!

We finally pull into the town centre where I practically throw myself out of the car and start shopping. I don't even think I checked to see where Will was going to be. I start doing laps around the town and shopping centre. Within 45mins, I'm on the phone with Will telling him to hurry up! Waiting for him has cost me an arm and a leg. He comes running to the shopping centre, only to see me slumped on a bench surrounded by shopping bags. He could barely stand up straight as he was laughing so hard. Before he could recover, I drag him into the nearest bag shop and get him to help me pick out a new clutch. I was tempted to buy both colours, but we settled on a silver one at the end. So what did I buy? A new lunch box, skirt, top and 2 handbags. It still amazes him that I can buy so much in a country shopping town.

We hurry back to the car as we still need to visit Lithgow before 5pm. We manage to get there by about 4pm, which gave me time to shop. The first thing I hit was the bottleshop. You see, we have a tradition that whenever we're on holidays, we buy premade cowboy shots and carry them around for emergencies. I only managed to get my hands on a pack of 6 before leaving. Asking the manager, apparently they've been banned Australia wide! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I was tempted to just grab a whole bottle of premixed cowboy shots and drink from the bottle, but that'll make me an alcoholic? No?

Lithgow main street

I explore the rest of Lithgow and ended up buying a book. I was going to keep shopping when Will calls me screaming that he's ready to go. I race back to the car where we get directions to Oberon. On the way to Oberon, we also drove past a correctional facility and thought we had to go get a photo. As we drive up the facility, it suddenly occurred to us that security may not like the idea of us photographing the premises. Oh crud, we were going to get arrested. But we drove all the way there already! So this is where the drive by shooting goes into effect. Will does a "slow" 3-point turn whilst I go nuts with the DSLR before speeding off. I wonder if they've got my mug shot up somewhere. Meh, it'll be a photo of a huge DSLR lens infront of a face anyway ;)


We've actually got this whole drive by shooting thing down pat. We're in perfect synch with each other as if we're synchronised swimmers. Will drives and controls the windows, I control the camera. By the time I've got the camera ready, he's wound down the window for me to take the shot. By the time I've taken the last shot, he's already got the window winding up. Perfect partnership there.

We get back onto the main highway and find a sign to Oberon. Oberon is basically a small town that is really close to the Jenolan caves. I commented that we're making good time and this should be our earliest checkin! Within a minute of driving onto this road, it became an unpaved dirt track without a person in sight. And I mean no cars, no farms, not even sheds were in sight from this road. We start running through scenarios of what would happen if we broke down on this road, because we had no reception!!


As we continue driving, Will screams "KANGAROO!!!!!!!" and comes to a screeching halt. Without even thinking, we both jump out of the car and ran towards the dead roo. This time I make sure Will gets his photo first so he can't complain, next thing you know, on this desserted stretch of road, a truck comes past. AGAIN! What is the chance of that happening?

We jump back into the car and continue to Oberon. The road there is actually really picturesque. Huge mountains with rolling fields of green, dotted by roaming cattle and sheep. We come to a T-section that has a huge sign that says "OBERON" to the right. Except the Navman is saying turn left.


We took a gamble that the navman is wrong and follow the sign. Next thing you know, we're driving down a single lane dirt road with pot holes as big as my butt. It gets more and more remote, after about 15mins, it doesn't look like the road is going to head anywhere. I mean we're so out in the countryside, that rabbits are just running around on the roads.

We eventually turn back, not before stopping for photos:

How GORGEOUS is this view?

So much for our early checkin. We drive back to the little town we passed on the way, and I hop out and ask for directions. Apparently we were heading in the right direction, except we missed a turn and ended up in the middle of nowhere. We follow their instructions, and about 20mins later, we're on the right track with plenty of signs pointing to Oberon. Again, another dessert stretch of road, but the signs were comforting.

As we're driving, I suddenly start screaming "WOMBAT!!!! WOMBAT!!!!! STOP THE CAR!!!!!! KOALA!!!!!!!!!!! WOMBAT!!!!!!!!!".

Will is screaming "WHAT!?!? WHERE?!?!? WHAT'S HAPPENING?!?"

I'm screaming "STOP THE DAMN CAR!!!!!!!!!! STOP THE FRIGGIN CAR!!!! WOMBAT!!!!!!!!"

We come to a screeching halt and practically fall out of the car. God we're screwed in the head.... We run up and confirm that its a dead Wombat on its back, and its been spray painted yellow??? Just as we're hovering near the Wombat a car drives by! LIKE WHAT THE HELL IS WITH CARS DRIVING BY AS WE'RE LOOKING AT ROADKILL?!

We jump back into the car, and less than 5mins later, we swerve to avoid running over an already dead possum. We jump out for a photo and just as we're getting back into the car, ANOTHER CAR DRIVES BY!!!!!!! @#$^%^&@)#$*@#)!*$)@#*

We've basically had it with the road kill right now and power our way to Oberon. We get into town around 6:15pm, but realised we didn't have the address for the Caravan park we booked. I was told it was off the main road, and we kept driving along the main road until we were almost in the bush again. We ask a few kids who direct us back to town when Will spots one of his client's shop. We decided to stop so he could go in and do his thing whilst ask directions to the Caravan park.

We walk in and Will introduces himself. The owner listens for all of 5secs and goes "You come at this time? I've been on the golf course since 9am and I'm p!ssed as f*cuk". Oh boy, this will be fun. The owner is practically swaying on the spot, so I leave Will to it whilst I explore the shop and the surrounding shops. 45mins later, Will finally breaks away and we manage to find the Caravan park.

Its the first time we've stayed at a Caravan park, but it probably doesn't count as we booked cabin ;)






We dump everything and head back to town to look for food. We head to the local pub and immediately the cameras come out. We order our food and grab drinks before settling down and relaxing. This is pure pub food, and since I was a bit undecided as to what to eat, I ordered the mixed grill. This is the mixed grill:

Steak, pork chop, lamb chop, bacon, sausage, egg, chips and salad

Compare this with Will's steak:

Steak, chips and salad

Like what the?? I had the whole farm on my plate. The only thing I was missing was duck and camel! And it was about $2 difference between our meals! I plow through as much food as I can since I needed to line my stomach. This was going to be a big night. We also noticed we were the only ones to get curly fries. EVERY SINGLE plate of food going out had straight fries. I wonder if we got "special" curly fries??

We couldn't have attracted more attention if we tried. Here we were, 2 newbies sitting in the middle of the dining room with practically a spotlight shining on us. All the tables and chairs around us has been moved to join other tables. Everyone knows everyone except us. Suddenly, a guy appears from nowhere and plants himself next to me. There was a lot of babbling and a kiss to my hand before we took a photo and he ran off. ????? We needed more drinks, infact, we started having double shots of vodka and lemonade. We were basically smashed.

We thought we'd hang out here a bit longer and order dessert. We're told it could be a 1.5hr wait?!?! We still ordered a serve of the toffee pudding, which turned out to be absolutely orgasmic! We were fighting over the last bits of the pudding. Then we started fighting over the sauce on the plate. We tried to order another piece, but the kitchen was closed. Will had to confiscate the spoon off me to stop me scraping a hole in the plate!


By this time, everyone had moved out of the dining room and into the main part of the pub. Will starts screaming that I needed a photo on every table. So we did. We ran like lunatics from one table to another, taking photos of me sitting at each one. We eventually tire out and move into the main pub like everyone else. We were basically a walking exhibition with everyone watching us! We did have a few locals come up and talk to us, and one even promised to come back but then did a runner.






One guy, was really drunk off his face, insisted on buying me a drink. Except he had to go pee, so he dragged me to the bar, gave me $50 to buy him to JD and cokes and whatever else I wanted. I ordered his drinks, but I was basically off my face already and didn't order myself one. So here I am, with $40 change and 2 JDs and coke. The guy never came back. I think he was passed out somewhere. Oh wells, that would pay for our breakfast tomorrow.

SMJ with some cashhhhhhhh!

Another guy came up to chat to us, and started telling us about his last visit to Sydney. And how he doesn't like the fact that you'll go to a suburb, and all the signs are in Arabic. Then he turns to me and goes "No offence to you or anything". ??? Do I LOOK Arabic? Me and Will at looking at each other, because he keeps going on about it, and then keep turning to me and saying he doesn't mean any offence. I think he's confused between arabic and asian??

After a few more drinks, I was ready to call it a night. We make our way back to the Cabin for the night. I go to the toilet to get ready for bed, and all I hear is this huge THUMP THUMP SCRAPE THUMP CRASH BANG coming from outside. I open the door, and Will is practically collapsed into a heap of laughter since he decided to set up security.


Except I had left something in the car that I desperately needed! He had to un-security the place to let me out. By the time I got back, he had dumped all the coffee and tea into my luggage again.