Wow, what a long time between trips, but a
nice break at Easter gave us the chance to travel.
Ponto Falls was our destination, 20K’s out
of Wellington & on the Macquarie River.
On Easter Thursday we travelled to Muswellbrook first off where we met
up with Telarney & Corey, as well as another couple & we set off,
arriving at the falls around 7:30 PM & in the rain. After a quick set up we
met another couple who had arrived earlier & while we were having dinner yet another couple arrived.
We
were certainly a mixed bag, one couple had a tent & a waterproof cover that was attached to the
roof of their ute & fanned out to provide cover for the whole back of the
vehicle which contained their kitchen. Another couple had a similar set-up but
their sleeping accommodation was on the roof of their vehicle. Then there was a
camper-trailer with a 7mt. 2 bedroom annex, a caravan & ourselves in a
motorhome. 5 families all with different ideas on how to travel.
The last 5K’s were on a good gravel road
& the camp area is through private property so there were plenty of
mooeys around & we had to drive
carefully.
Friday morning dawned bright &
beautiful & all the blokes put a line in the water to see who would be
first with a fish. The part of the river we had stopped at was shallow with the
water chuckling & gurgling it’s way over the bottom. There were a few
protected areas on the far bank & we cast into these with our fingers
vrossed. Corey was first with a large carp, not edible to our taste &
classified as a pest. Regulations sate they are to be killed & not returned
to the water. Over the next 3 days all fish caught were carp. It’s easy to see
what they are doing to our river systems.
It is a beautiful area with the river
meandering through the area & acres of lush green grass. The cows kept
their distance which was great as we had 4 dogs with us & Lulu might just
have got trampled underhoof. When not fishing we went swimming or just drifting along with the current on a
float. There are no facilities, you need to take everything in & everything
out with you.
In the evening we built a large fire &
a variety of delicious camp oven meals were produced each night. Happy hour
lasted until the meals were ready & continued after.
On Sunday some of us went into Wellington
for a look around, there are many old buildings well worth a look at as well as
Wellington caves & the old mine that contains skeletons of many animals.
It was a great long weekend but oh, the trip
home
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| Macquarie River in the morning |
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| Our campsite |
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| Parked by the river |
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| More of our group |
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| Corey with his carp |
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| Catholic church, Wellington, 1914 |
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| Museum, built as the Bank of NSW, 1883 |
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| The old bakery 1904 |
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| Letter box from the same era |
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| Our fishing spot |
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| The river in flood, about 5mts above where we were parked |
