Days 8 & 9 Sydney Holiday.

The Botanical Gardens at Orange NSW.

There is an extensive “Australian Flora” section as well as many exotic trees, shrubs, and flowers.

One of the many Acacia (wattle) varieties on display, there are very few better sights than a large clump of wattles in bloom.

This bust of Banjo is located at the site of his birth in 1864

This memorial to “Banjo” stands proudly outside the Tourist Information Centre at Orange, it features a likeness of “Banjo” exerts from two of his poems and plaques naming the annual “Banjo Paterson” poet of the year for the last 10 years (there is space for the next 15 years also.)

Closer and against a lighter background you can see how the detail is achieved by slots cut from the steel outline.

The same treatment given to his famous “Man from Snowy River”

Near Orange; Some lush pasture, again in an ideal setting.

Here is an ideally located little Farm House in the foot hills just outside of Orange (where they grow apples, cherries, peaches, but not oranges!!).

A fairly hazy shot of the “Three Sisters” at Echo Point Katoomba.

Even more haze here as we look across the valley.

It was also very windy, if you look at the tops of the trees you can see they are blowing quite strongly from right to left.

Last but by no means least; this is Jane the receptionist at the Orange Council run “Colour City Caravan Park” where we are staying, we have voted Jane as the most obliging and pleasant person we have dealt with on the trip so far.

Day’s 8 & 9.

The AFL Grand Final was a football lesson by Geelong Cats to Port Adelaide; with a scoreline of 163 to 44 the 119 point drubbing set a new AFL record for a grand final.

After waiting 44 years since their last premiership the celebrations in Geelong (Victoria’s second largest city) will continue for weeks, many of my family and friends are Geelong supporters so the win has been very well received by them.

Day 8 of the holiday saw us up early and out of Sydney, we called into the “Blue Mountains” west of the city on a very windy and hazy day the photos are not any where near as sensational as the scenery but we couldn’t do anything about it so what you see is what you get.

We then traveled on to the rural city of Orange (population 38,000) where we will spend a couple of days, the countryside we traveled through today is really beautiful, with rolling hills, plenty of trees and all nice and green with the clear blue sky that Australia is renowned for, I have no idea why it was so hazy in the Blue Mountains as it was great elsewhere.

The disaster with photos from Bondi Beach last night came about by; having downloaded them from the camera to the computer I proceeded to erase them from the camera….. only to find that I had somehow deleted the photos from the computer without saving them….. some terse words followed!!

Day 9 was almost an R & R day, all we did was go for a drive to see a couple of memorial sites honouring my favourite poet A B (Banjo) Paterson who was born here in Orange in 1864, and then a pleasant hour or two at the magnificent Orange Botanical Gardens.

Mae of the Dae.

I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.
Mae West