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Departure is early, by my standards, but the sunrise colour was peeping over the horizon as we got ready to drive to Albion Park Railway station to do phase one our first FREE pensioner trip .. although for $10 each we have upgraded to First Class .. Yippee!! Lets hope this all goes to plan.
At the station we book our bags through .. well, we await the pleasure of the staff. The train pulls in, slightly behind time, but then we are off in our extra reclining and leg room seats in First Class .. very comfortable! Plenty of fellow travellers on board .. the train is headed for Melbourne.
As we settle in it seems timely, we have been awake for a while, to have a cup of tea and a scone, very suitable and tasty. Then it was sit back and take in the glorious country .. and swap seats as we come to various stops .. what did we see I hear you ask .. LOTS . . Kestrels, Kites (Black Shouldered), Kookaburras, Cockatoos, Currawongs, Crows, Kangaroos and lots of Magpies, Magpie Larks, Starlings and the life on country (including plenty of sheep) .. we really do live and move around a magical land.
After about three and a half hours of this wonder we arrived in Cootamundra .. so easily done .. and almost too soon .. I could well have continued for hours on the track
The colours of Autumn greet us as we walk from the station to find our home base for the three nights.
Streets lined with falling leaves are looking grand. As this journey involves us walking everywhere it is an excellent sight to see no hills for me to traverse.
Once we settled in we now will experience these days on foot .. a slightly new experience for us .. first walk is to get some groceries .. Woolies found and a few beautiful buildings on the way .. built late 1800s and early 1900s and plenty of Art Deco on display as well.
There is plenty of activity around the town but opportunities also present themselves and this fabulous facade is calling.
There are many very beautiful buildings in this little part of town and lots of them have a new life while some still function as they were always intended to. This has been a Bank builiding for 150 years.
As the daylight faded we walked down to the creek bird walk track behind the old Cootamundra Hospital .. another beautiful building.
Along the creek walk there are corrugated Iron birds on posts. This view across the creek is where a walking bridge used to be for access to the Hospital from the Nurses Home.
Lots of regeneration planting with native species has been done along this creek and even with Iron birds on view we did see real ones enjoying the plant life.
Evening meal time with a snap of the VERY tall Post Office clock tower just near Maxim’s, of Paris, I hear you ask? No, it is Maxim's chinese restaurant of Coota and it is only offering takeaway service but a few doors down is the Services Club .. we arrive just in time for The Ode .. then we order .. you guessed it .. Chinese .. delicious.
By midday we have walked the block to the coffee shop. The town is a gently busy hub and the rain has stopped falling there is even some sneaky sunshine .. from where I sit I am admiring the Post Office Building .. with that very tall clock tower .. this is our next port of call .. two things .. to see if the inside is worthy of the outside .. it isn’t .. and to try and purchase postcards .. there are none .. twice a fail.
Next we try the newsagent .. no postcards again .. but I like the external of the building.
A round walk to check out a couple of Op Shops and then to the Cootamundra Heritage Centre / Information Centre .. located in the former Railway Barracks .. and it is a surprisingly long and large space.
We gathered a few stories of the town too. Most particularly Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Home (1912-1975) AKA Bimbadeen .. so many stories of girls stolen and forced into domestic service.
We did eventually locate some post cards.
Our dining location of choice along with quite a number of locals enjoying a Friday night out.
A short walk this morning to the Fibre Festival, the reason we started this adventure.
Inside the hall has lots of colour and people interested in their craft and there is a great deal of talent on display.
There is a Batik display with one Cootamundra local, Ms Leni, whose sister has come from Indonesia with batik work representing the local Silver-eye bird under threat because of habitat loss with old forest being chopped down for pine plantations on Enggano (an island 100Km SW of Sumatra, Indonesia).
Having a go was on the agenda here and Ian spun a few threads. I have noticed a recurring theme on this short adventure there has been 'the threads that join each to the other' (in the words of Melanie) connecting to Albion Park .. firstly a fellow traveller on the bus and train on Thursday had flown from Perth to vist her son in Albion Park for the previous week and was now going to Albury to visit another son. At the Fibre Festival we found that Ms Leni, Batik artist and now Cootamundra local, has family in WIndang and Shellcove and maybe one day she may come a do a Batik workshop near us. Then we find two people who taught at Albion Park High School when our children attended and I had known them through my P&C connection .. the circles and threads of life.
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