Mid Week Meandering

Sydney is a very busy place. Nothing is done slowly. Everyone is in a rush. Very few people take the time to stop and smell the roses.

I just copied this from the beginning of my post about MidWeek Escapades. The idea of that post was how I love doing things mid week to avoid the crowds.

Well, we have now moved to Bathurst, and we brought with us our habit of taking our little escapades mid week, so on Tuesday last week, we headed off for a day trip to Hill End. It was a lovely drive there. The weather was gloriously sunny and warm, unseasonably so, but I’m not complaining. Although getting into the country way of life, I have to say that the land looks very dry – we are definitely in need of some rain.


Hill End Information Centre

There isn’t much between Bathurst and Hill End, so we just took our time, meandering along the country roads, checking the sheep, cattle, and the amount of water in the dams. We also saw a few different sorts of parrots, some kookaburras, and ducks. No kangaroos, though, if you don’t count the road kill.

Information Centre car park - mid week

Anyway, once we got to Hill End, the first port of call was the Information Centre. It used to be the hospital – hard to imagine a town this small being big enough to have its own hospital. It’s in a lovely old building that has been restored, and is now also a museum.

Imagine my delight when we called into the Information Centre to see so few cars in the car park. The car park is enormous, so imagine what it must be like on the weekends!  I was so glad we had gone during the week.

First lookout of the day

We grabbed the brochure of the town that showed where the various sights were, and how to get to the lookouts. And off we went. At the first lookout, as you can see, we had no competition for space, and didn’t have to wait for ages to get the photo without people in it. Great!

It was the same deal everywhere we went – hardly anyone to get in our way. And we didn’t see anyone at all when we did the historic walk around the old gold diggings.

One problem, though. If we’d wanted to buy anything to eat or drink, or to browse in the shops, we would have been out of luck. Yep, those places were all closed. Maybe something to do with the fact that hardly anyone was in town?

We went back to Hill End on Sunday (oh…my…god – an escapade NOT mid week). We'd invited Mum to stay with us for Mother’s Day, and we took her there for an outing. Again, the drive was lovely, and the weather was gloriously sunny and warm(ish). But what a difference when we went to the Information Centre, and the lookouts. 

Information Centre car park - Sunday

Bird at the lookout - Sunday

As you can see, the crowds were amazing!

We then had lunch at the pub, and coffee at the café across the road. The Olde Wares shop was open to browse through.

Note to self – not everywhere is like Sydney. I think the people in smaller places DO take things a bit slower. And it pays to think carefully about heading off on a Mid Week Meander – consider if maybe it might be better to go when a few more people will be about!