Shoalhaven River, Warri reserve
We helped Conrad and Carol pick the vegetables this morning. At first it was quite cloudy and not too hot, so we had good weather to pick parsley and beans. We finished by around 11 am, and by then it had started to clear and was getting warmer. We tidied up the motorhome, and I borrowed Conrad’s ladder to check the roof, since we’ve never been on it. Everything up there is fine. We left the farm after lunch. It was very nice to have been able to be with them at Christmas, but we are also anxious to go on and see other parts of Australia.
We stopped in the town of Braidwood. It is one of the older towns in Australia, and has a number of historic buildings that have been maintained and in some cases converted to other uses. We stopped at the grocery store first to get a few of the groceries we’ve run short of – mostly things for breakfast as that’s the only meal we’ve eaten ourselves for the last week. Then we toured the Anglican church which is very beautiful, and was constructed in 1892. After that we walked by the old maternity hospital which is now a second hand store and went inside to see what was there. Following that we walked down the town’s main street which has several other old buildings, including an old Catholic church. The Catholic church is not as ornate as is the Anglican, but it does have a very large church bell outside. This bell was originally to have been in a church in Sydney.
We stopped tonight at a free campsite, the Warri Reserve, which is about 16 km west of Braidwood. It is a large open area under the eucalyptus trees, and on the bank of the Shoalhaven river. We went for a swim in the river, but the current was strong enough that it was quite hard to swim upstream. After we’d gone upstream one time Enid walked back and swam downstream again. When we got to the river one of the men that was there with his young son said that there was a black snake on the other side. However we didn’t see it (and didn’t want to, as they are very poisonous).
It was hot again this afternoon, probably up in the mid thirties, but now at 8:30 pm the sun has set and it has cooled off very nicely. The kookaburra’s are laughing raucously right over our motorhome tonight.