Bathurst and beyond...

On Friday we went to Mount Panorama and drove around the race track that the

V8 Supercar drivers use, we also visited the on-site

National Motor Racing Museum. At the museum, we admired the amazing cars and motorbikes driven by famous racing drivers, such as Peter Brock and Wayne Gardner it was so cool. It was raining when we got back to camp so we played crazy golf at the Gold Rush course, this was one of the best courses I've seen. Afterward, we played table tennis, I beat my dad but I lost to my mum, which is very unusual!

Our next camp was Oberon, while there we visited the town of Millthorpe, Jay and Chris our friends from Sydney were there for the weekend and we met them for brunch. I ended up having a nosebleed in the cafe which caused a lot of tissues to be used. After brunch, we went to visit an old Irish friend of Dad's who lives in Millthorpe. Visiting Gerry was so much fun, he taught me how to divine, which is an old way of finding underground water. I used 2 metal rods and held them loosely side by side, pointing forward. I walked in a straight line and when the rods crossed over each other it meant there was water in the area beneath me. It really worked, I found water! Gerry used this to find the water supply for his house, he has his own man-made dam and his own water supply because of divining. He also keeps chickens and bees, I fed the chickens and we found an egg. His wife Cynthia is building a new beehive so she can keep more bees and get lots more honey. We were also lucky enough to see 2 kangaroos on the property, it would be such a cool place to live!

On Sunday we went to Mayfield Gardens, which is the largest privately-owned garden in the Southern Hemisphere. They have a Treasure Hunt for kids to find a secret pirate code it takes you all around the gardens and finishes at the maze. The maze was really cool, dad made it out 1st, we thought we'd lost mum it took her so long to get out! We were lucky enough to get back to the cafe before a massive hail storm hit, there was thunder, lightning, and huge lumps of hail so we had lunch to see if it went away, take a look at the video it was scary! When we were driving away in the car we realized we hadn't paid for our lunch, mum was mortified, we phoned the cafe to pay but got no answer, then we messaged them and luckily they laughed when they phoned us back the next morning to pay!

On Sunday afternoon we visited the Jenolan Caves, we got to see inside a really old cave called the Chifley Cave. The cave was named after Ben Chifley, who was the Prime Minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949, he died in 1952 which was when they named the cave after him. I learned about Stalagmites, stalactites, and columns, do you know the difference? I do now.

On Monday we arrived in Mudgee. I was playing on the jumping pillow and met three kids Archie/Hulk/Ironman, Indi, and Charlie. They've been traveling around Australia with their family for the last year and decided to stay in Mudgee for a few months attending school here. It was fun to meet my 1st friends traveling and hear about their travels too. I had the best dinner on Monday night, dad cooked Garlic Prawns on the BBQ and I ate 24 of them, they were yummy!

On Tuesday we cycled to town and visited the tourist information centre to get some ideas of places to see. I spent some time catching up on my travel journal so I don't forget all the things I do and see. It was our 1st really warm day and we decided to head to the water park in the afternoon to cool down. Afterward, I played with my friends again on the jumping pillow.

On Wednesday our 1st stop was Honey Haven to buy some local honey, then onto Gulgong as we planned on visiting the local museums, however, they were all closed and not re-opening until 1st December. At the Gulgong Gold Experience, there is an exhibit outside, with the instruments used to mine and pan for gold, 15,739kg of gold was produced between 1870 and 1940 in this mine alone, which was worth almost $944 million in 2016!!

We headed to Rylstone but decided to head back as the rain was so heavy the roads were flooding, I think the rain is following us!! We popped into Logan Wines so my parents could do some wine tasting, we decided to order a cheese platter too, it was amazing!

There was no rain on Thursday when we woke so we quickly went for a walk as the forecast was for more rain! We were recommended to go cherry picking at 10s estate and today was the 1st day they were open for picking, we ate a lot of yummy, juicy cherries and picked a kilo to take home with us, they were so good. Next on the list was cheese tasting at High Valley Mudgee Cheese Co, I tried all the cheeses they had on the list, my favourites were the fetta with sundried tomato, rouge (mum says this is a washed rind) and I loved the strong blue one they had. On the way home we stopped off at the Mudgee Brewing Company for dad to try some beer, I wanted to play with my friends one last time as we head off in the morning so mum dropped dad off at the Three Tails Brewery and took me back to camp.

Hope you all had a good week, until next time

Jaime xoxo