Professionally piloted out of our driveway by our housemate Nina, we left Sydney under blue skies going westwards. The blue mountains were glistening in sunlight and there was no traffic to speak off. Taking it easy we arrived at Wellington Caves Caravan Park late afternoon and could take our pick of a suitable site. It seemed that most people there were staying in cabins. Funny that! During the night we realised why there were very few caravans and no tents whatsoever. The temperature hit -1℃ and we were grateful for our little heater which ran all night.
Compared to this the caves which we visited the next morning were a ‘balmy’ 17℃ ! We loved the Fossil caves, discovered in the early 19th century by George Rankin and Thomas Mitchell (the one the highway is named after).
We liked the story of a German scientist who at beginning of WWI returned to Germany, leaving his two teenaged sons behind to dig out more fossils. Taking their sweet time instead of getting on with it, they decided to use
explosives rather than a pickaxe. The only problem was, that one of them used the explosives without the other one being aware and almost killed him. They didn’t talk much to each other for the rest of their lifes, but they did get some fossils out and to Germany where they are still exhibited in a Munich museum. We learned also that once upon a time Australia had it’s very own enormous marsupial lion, Thylacoleo, and even a rhino called Diprotodon proving that a long time ago we were connected with the African continent.
Our next stop is Dubbo where we had planned to free-camp in a vineyard in return for some wine tasting/ purchase. But after the frost last night, the need for a powered caravan site, where we can use our heater, won over the love of wine. So we are heading for Dubbo Midstate Caravan Park instead!