It is amazing that something has to go wrong when you are going away. We lost our rear view camera as we drove out of our driveway to start our last trip, today it was the latch that locked the freezer door closed. Fortunately we were able to locate a business at Arndell Park that had a replacement part and they were able to fit the part when we arrived there.
We have remained home since returning from our trip in late May and we were both looking forward to this trip with the ultimate destination being Cowra in south western NSW for a CMCA Chapter meeting. With friends, we had decided to leave early for Cowra and spend a couple of days near Sofala with the intention of using metal detectors and prospect for gold. We intend to “make our fortune” and discover the largest gold nugget ever found in NSW.
We left our home at 9:10am and had a quick trip to the start of the M4 motorway. There was very little traffic around and we arrived at Arndell Park 30 minutes after leaving home. The broken latch was fixed very quickly and we were soon heading down the Great western Highway before re-joining the motorway. The small piece of plastic cost us $35.00 and was fitted for free.
The trip over the mountains was quick as we were pleased to see that the majority of the road works had been completed.
We stopped at Lithgow for fuel and purchased lunch at the same time. It was our intention to have lunch at the Lithgow Visitor’s Centre and much to our surprise, one of the couples we were going to meet at Bathurst were just leaving the visitor’s centre as we arrived. We had a chat for several minutes before heading off to Bathurst in convoy. We consumed our lunch on the way.
We were going to meet a third couple at Bathurst at 1:00pm and they were already there when we arrived at 12:55pm.
We all renewed acquaintances before part of the group headed on foot towards the Bathurst shops with “He” and one of the other men remaining to look after the RV’s. “He” actually went to the local Bunnings store to purchase some firewood just in case there were limited supplies at the intended campsite.
Just after 2:00pm, we were heading towards Sofala and our intended “free camp” at Greens Point.
There are two free campsites to the east of Sofala and Greens Point, the second of the two at approximately 6k’s east is the larger of the two. There are picnic tables, shelters and a drop toilet. There is very limited water on site. The area is relatively flat and can cater for a large number of vehicles. The site is adjacent to the Turon River and well above the flood plain.
We quickly established our campsite and sourced fire wood from trees that had been uprooted adjacent to the river. Soon we had a roaring fire.
We enjoyed happy hour with our friends before we all made our own arrangements for an evening meal. It was cold and for us, an early night was very attractive, as we have no heating at all in the caravan when we free camp.