Leaving Cooma, we bypassed Canberra on the outskirts and headed for the Central Tablelands. After a long days driving on the interesting back roads, we spent a night camped near the Abercrombie River in the Abercrombie National Park. Andy hadn’t realised how hilly the area was but next morning we certainly did when the Pajero had to haul the van up the steepest section of road we have encountered so far in the trip. Luckily it was a chilly 10 degree morning and we had no problems getting to the top and looking out towards the Blue Mountains.

We had seen on WikiCamps that the small town of Wallerarang had recently opened the Lake Wallace recreation grounds nearby for free camping (and they provide free hot showers too). We found a magical spot right by the lake edge to spend our last week and a half relaxing and winding down at the end of our adventures. We took the kayaks out for a paddle and had a go at catching a rainbow trout that were apparently in the lake – without success.

One morning we drove over to Lithgow to spend the day exploring the town and visited the lookouts that had spectacular views over the region and town. The area around Abercrombie, Blayney, Trunkey Creek and Lithgow is where Carolyne’s ancestors lived when they came to Australia to mine gold. Her great grandfather and grandfather worked in the mines here before BHP closed and they moved to the Illawarra area.

Although our travelling is coming to an end here we are looking forward to spending time with the family as we head for Sydney tomorrow.

Our travels have taken us over 50,000 kilometres exploring Australia which is nearly 10,0000 more than driving entirely around the world on the equator!