NSW – Tasmania trip 2021: 21 – 24 January

Thursday – Cowra
Temp: 9am: 27C – 3pm: 31C
Today we decided to explore Cowra, a half-hour drive from Canowindra; a larger town with a population over 9,000, and with a Bunnings (very important to find the towns with one of those). Arno could pick up a little saw, as tomorrow’s job at hand is to enable townwater hose hook-up to our van.

In addition to having Bunnings (and many more necessary shops like Aldi- yay!), the town boasts many visitor attractions as it’s rich in history – much of it related to the second world war.

It had a military training camp where some 80,000 personnel were trained.

The town also had a POW camp, interning those taken prisoner by the Allied Forces during WWII.  There were Japanese, Formosan, Indonesian, Italian and Korean prisoners.

From what we read, apart from some of the fascists, most of the POWs were friendly with the Aussie guards, even had local girlfriends and after the war, a large number didn’t return to their homeland. This was especially true for the Japanese, who even gave false names here in order to save their and their family at home from disgrace (as the expectation is to suicide rather than be taken prisoner).

There is a POW campsite with relics and information on how the prisoners were separated.  One of the main historic events was the 1944 breakout by 1000 Japanese prisoners, where 235 people were killed, including 4 Australian soldiers.

We visited the war cemeteries of those killed during the breakout as well as all others who died during WWII on Australian soil. The cemetery is huge and quite beautiful.

The Japanese Garden is as expected a most idyllic place and we spent a few hours there to enjoy the over 100 different plants and trees and some lovely bonsai trees.  We fed the koi fish and ducks who followed us around for more… Summer is not the time for wisteria pergola and cherry blossom, but Jen is thinking of coming back here one September as part of a flora trip to various places.

Much of the funding of the cemetery and the gardens has come from various Australian and Japanese government agencies.

A United Nations peace bell was awarded by Australian government and hangs in the town centre.

Cowra has some aboriginal murals, under the old bridge over the Lachlan river.

We visited the historic heritage railway centre, which is actually a living railway depot where volunteers maintain and restore old locomotives and wagons.  It closed in the 80s following the closure of more and more district rail services.

There are very old steam locomotives, and sleeping and dining cars. Interesting to see how the workers are able to access under these enormous locomotives.

The Society has put in an application to open a short stretch of rail to run an old steam locomotive and train for tourists. Our guide was hopeful that one day the unused rails in NSW will be used again, as there seems to be an appetite to replace the trucks with trains, and this would mean the depot would once again be used for its original purpose.

Friday/Saturday – Canowindra
Temp: high 30s
Another hot day… But still pleasant at night, and we have not needed the airconditioning yet.

We stayed around the park, Jen updated the blog, and Arno built the water inlet, with an additional drive to Cowra for one more part. It all works, and we are happy with the fact that we don’t have to fill our van’s water tank when we have water at own our campsite.

We checked out the local (Belubula) river with its ‘Springing’ bridge.

Canowindra’s main income/employment stream is as a service centre for agriculture, especially lucerne, canola and increasing viticulture, and tourism.

Not much more planned, maybe a swim, as it’s hot….!!

Saturday – Canowidra
Temp 39C
Hot hot again! Laundry done and dried in no time at all!
Easy, relaxing day.
On to an even hotter location tomorrow!

Sunday – Narrandera
Temp 41C
Arrived after a few hours drive in this town we had heard about last September, but which we by-passed in favour of Grenfell.

We are staying again in a caravan park, with power in order to make use of our airconditioning to sleep as it is way too hot. Not expected to drop below 28 degree during the night.

We are staying at a lovely (big) park, right beside the town’s olympic swimming pool, with huge slides etc. It is definitely an up-market pool, which is right on the side of Lake Talbot.

So after we set up (in 41 degrees and only 8% humidity), and had a lot of fluids in our system again, we went for a swim at this great pool, for $1 each (senior price). Almost felt guilty to pay that.

Then after dinner (in the aircon!) we took our chairs to the lake side, and enjoyed a magnificent sunset, and chatted to another couple who moved here from Wagga Wagga a year ago.

Lots of tips to explore the area. Not sure how much we will do on another day of 40+ degrees, but maybe cycling will give us some breeze….

Below the stretch of today’s trip.

And here is a link to google maps of our trip so far (also pasted below).