Day 5 – Wombeyan Caves to Oberon
We had a great sleep but woke to a very cold morning. Time for the diesel heater. We stayed in bed until the motorhome warmed up a bit. I felt a bit sorry for the campers nearest us. They were in a roof top tent. I don’t imagine it would be very warm up there!
We thought about the road we had to travel and how it might be a good idea to wait until all the rangers have arrived down in the valley before we set off. This turned out to be a good idea because we only passed one car on the whole way up the narrow winding road.
On the roadworks section though the road crew were working and at one point we had to wait for a grader to pull over to let us go by.
As it was raining yesterday and we couldn’t really see much of the lovely little town of Taralga we drove back there for a look around. What a lovely town with beautifully kept gardens and homes.
After a drive around Taralga we headed northwards again towards Oberon. Once we passed the Wombeyan Caves turnoff the road surface deteriorated badly. It was still a tar road with so many potholes it was hard to miss them. There was a steep climb down to where the road crossed the Abercrombie River then of course a steep climb back up. The motorhome handled it all with no problems. The potholes were not fun though!
I remembered as we passed through Black Springs that we’d camped there once before with Catie & Robert. Then we were on to the last stretch before Oberon. Once in town we found the IGA and parked around the back. Quite by fluke we managed to park opposite the Mitre 10 so we’d be able to get groceries, gas and wood with only one park up!
Groceries done, leg of lamb bought at the butchers, fresh bread from the Vietnamese bakery then back to the motorhome to put it all away. Across to the Mitre 10 for a swap n go gas bottle and a couple of boxes of wood for a fire. We were set!
We made our way out of town to The Reef Reserve. This is a free camp area next to Lake Oberon. Lake Oberon is the town water supply and only unpowered vessels are allowed. Canoes, kayaks and electric powered fishing boats are allowed. It looks like a good lake for fishing. There is a BBQ, toilets, rubbish bins and a boat ramp. You can stay for 72 hours.
We set up camp on the flat-ish carpark backed on to the grass with a concrete fire ring beside us. There was already a campervan and a caravan set up and not long after we arrived a New Age caravan pulled in. We could see a few camps set up among the trees as we drove in.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch and as it was a sunny afternoon I did a load of washing hoping it would dry in the breeze. We had plenty of water as we’d only filled up yesterday.
I went for a walk around the campground and found three other spots that would be good if we get back from touring and this spot is taken. While I was on my walk Rich said he was going to have a read. I arrived back to find him snoring! So much for a read!
Later Rich got the fire going and we were enjoying having a wine and chatting while the sun set behind us. A little while later our neighbours from the New Age came over and joined us. Katrina and Wayne are from the Gold Coast and traveling to Melbourne to go to the Melbourne Cup. How exciting! We enjoyed their company and there was lots of laughs around the campfire.
