The rain continued all night in Hill End after the storm, and we awoke to winter. No surprise there, I think I wrote in my first blog entry that we were heading south back to winter.

Hill End is an incredible place. If you ever get the chance to go there, go there. It is an old gold mining town. In fact gold mining continues there to this day, just without the population. A photographer visited the town in 1872 and took pictures of nearly everything. The photos have been used to make plaques to show what buildings used to be where. The photos also include the proprietors and passing customers. Amazing records.

From the lookout opposite the town you can see where a lot of the original mine workings were. The plaque there is very informative and really assists if you want to imagine the sights of all those years ago.

There was also a bit of excitement in the town during the night. A car had lost control, mounted a pavement and snapped off a verandah post from one of the heritage buildings owned by National Parks. The impact also broke the car in a big way, with the sump broken off, the suspension ripped away, airbags had gone off and bits of sump and oil left in the gutter at the point of impact.

When we went to the National Parks' museum, the volunteer there played for us the message on the answering machine which had been left at 2.30 in the morning, reporting the accident as it had damaged National Parks property.

There was a town market (about 4 stalls - it is a very small town) in Hill End. Brett got talking to a guy about gold and gold mining. The man pulled a paper napkin out of his pocket to show Brett some nuggets. The paper napkin was full of gold. He was showing us the difference between alluvial gold and reef gold, and gold that had been in quartz which had had acid applied to dissolve away the quartz. Brett asked how pure the gold was. "Oh, there's about 10 ounces there", the man says. If you know how much gold is worth - you would know that he was showing us quite a bit of money there. Money which he was storing in a paper napkin, in his pocket. How Aussie is that?

We left Hill End and proceeded to Sofala, along a road that Brett and I had last travelled in about 1983 in our XB Fairmont Hardtop. The road was all unsealed then. It is now mostly sealed, except for some roadworks in the middle. I took pictures, it was fun: narrow, dirt, twisty mountainous roads. In a campervan!

Sofala was our lunch stop, where we had a delicious old-fashioned Aussie hamburger, then we continued on our way to the Turon Technology Museum. Brett calls it "The Greatest Museum on the Planet". If you have any interest in industrial history you MUST go to this museum. It is owned and run (on their farm) by an amazing couple who can tell you the story of just about every piece of equipment held there. One shed is full of machines that are over 100 years old. Many of the machines are extremely rare - including on-off pieces - and some show the consequences of a hard life. Many of the machines have outlasted their builders and operators by a considerable period of time, and can still be run up today.

You have to time your visit though - the museum is on a working farm and is only open every 2nd weekend. If you are in the area, make sure you check the dates to be there at the right time. Don't worry if you are a week out initially - there is so much to see and do in this region that you can easily kill a week or so until the museum is open.

It was getting late by the time we left the museum. Another storm was on the horizon. We stopped at Capertee to discuss where we wanted to go next. I was visiting my mother in the Blue Mountains on the next day, but Val and Steve had no interest in that. We split up in Capertee, Val and Steve left for Glen Davis in the Capertee Valley and Brett and I went on to Lithgow. We had heard of a campsite in the town but although we had an address we could find no campsite. A powered site at the local caravan park was booked instead. I told you it was winter again, didn't I? It got down to below zero that night, and a powered site meant we could use our heater.

There was no sign of Val on the internet, and no response when we tried to contact him. We weren't worried - we just assumed that Glen Davis is also out of range. We just have to wait until later to find out for sure. It is like travelling back in time to the days before the internet. Lucky I remember those days. We didn't expect to be able to contact each other instantly. I can live like that.. For a few days maybe.

And we got to watch TV! First night since we left Labrador. News, then Doctor Who, but by then we were getting pretty tired, so snuggled up in bed for another night.