Day 3 – Bathurst and Wobeyan Caves

Awoke to a pleasant outlook over Lake Windemere.  Packed camp and headed for Bathurst.  Now while Bathurst Goal is linked with Bushrangers and the Bathurst Courthouse was meant to be shipped from England to Bathurst, South Africa and ended up in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia instead, no, I have to say this detour was purely for the purpose of the infamous Australian Car Racing Circuit, “Mount Panarama”, for the racing event known as Bathurst 1000 – an October Event where V8 Supercars take all day and a number of driver and brake changes and fuel stops to race over 1000 kilometres on this steep hillside.

And yes, us mere public mortals are permitted to drive this track throughout the year, why?  Because it is all a public road, many residences and businesses are access off this 6 kilometre road that is always maintained in race track condition with crash barriers and advertising and the pits etc etc.

So it was, the car all fuelled up, oil checked, windscreen cleaned and we were off, in our Pajero 4x4, towing our camper trailer up around the race circuit that has a public speed limit of 60k/h and we struggled to attain that up the steep hill, alas, we took a pitstop at the top, in the park and enjoyed lunch. 

We dropped the trailer, donned the L (Learner) plates for my son and us boys then went for a couple of hot laps, a boys dream (including big boys J ) even if it was capped at 60k’s and we were in a 4x4.  Need to bring my MGB down here.

On the road again we headed for our camp at Wombeyan Caves.  This is a wonderful camping spot, shaded by trees so old they stopped counting in years, hot showers, sweet water drawn from the depths of this unique marble cave area.  There are 120 caves in this area alone with 520 entrances.  While the more famous Jenolan Caves to the north are created from limestone, Wombeyan Caves are created out of marble.  Being not very well known and with a requirement to be more athletic and agile than their cousins up the road, these caves offer a far more adventurous and boutique experience for the explorer.

While the camp ground caters for school groups and the large influx of campers for the holiday periods, we were one of three camps, and were more than 100m apart, so we settled in for a quiet night by the camp fire, awaiting tomorrows adventure.

Camp: Wombeyan Caves  Cost:  $140 included 2 nights camping, Family Pass to explore 2 guided caves and the 1 self guided Fig Tree Cave.

Evening was very pleasant about 15 degrees.

GPS  34 18' 10.68"S
          149 58' 19.74"E

Wildlife:  Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Wallaby’s, Magies, Currawongs.