After a warm night and a good night's sleep , we got up at 8am and sorted breakfast . Today we are headed to Adelong , only about 40klms away , and on some roads we haven't driven before .To start we headed out onto the Hume Freeway and turned off at Tumblong , then drove up the valley to Grahamtown then Adelong . Adelong has quite a history - all to do with gold & gold mining. There are many old farm buildings & houses on the way , all in varying states of decline . All the cattle and sheep we've seen here are in top condition , the spring rain certainly set this area up with lot's of growth . Cattle in the fields are concealed by the grass on the verge - it's nearly 2m high !
Arriving on the outskirts of Adelong , we found a turnoff to Adelong Falls Gold Mine Ruins , so we turned in and parked . Checked out the viewing platform - nice view out over the valley and Adelong Creek . On the other side of the creek are stone ruins from a gold processing plant . The plant was built quite well , so the ruins are standing up to the wear & tear of the elements , especially the flooding !!
There were water sluices to transport water to the 2 water wheels that were used to power the crushing battery and the " buddle " . The buddle ( the circular tank in the first photo )was where the tailings were put in and sorted .
The stone work and retaining walls are a definite feature here .
We walked down the track to the creek and crossed over the bridge , taking a track to the left and did some rock hopping to find a nice pool to cool off in - the temperature was 34 degrees with a fully overcast sky .
Adelong Falls is about 3klms away - don't think we'll make it down there , we settled for the pool to the left in the photo above .
Dragon flies seemed to follow us around , there were red ones with bronze bodies , a glorious blue one and a lighter blue one - beautiful !!
After cooling down , it was time to walk around the ruins - the Reverberatory Furnace with it's underground flew up to the chimney , the Buddle , the Lower Water Wheel and the Upper Water Wheel , the Office and the battery plant , water sluices & channels .
Many large cast iron pieces are still lying around - cogs , water wheel axles and some some other pieces that would all weigh an awful lot !!! makes you wonder how they actually got them here let alone put them into use !!!
This is one of the water sluices - now part of the walking track - fed from a weir they'd built across the creek . The building on the left housed the upper water wheel .
Floods over the years have done damage to the site , but they are trying to keep it in this state for everyone to see . Imagine water 3 to 5 metres high coming down this valley !!!
There are also ruins of a house around the corner to the left and up in a valley .
After having our lunch sitting in another shallow pool , we made our way back up the hill and headed back out to the highway . We spotted a road on the map to the south , that would take us through Mundarlo , then over the Murrumbidgee River , through to Nangus ( another small locality ) and back to Gundagai . Turning off the highway , we found a gravel road for about 15 klms , then some bitumen . The next 2 photos are the view from the top off a hill , first photo is looking south , 2nd looking north - all ground covered in golden brown grass and wheat stubble - wearing it's typical summer appearance .
Before much longer we crossed over the Murrumbidgee River .
Leaving the river , the road took us back toward Gundagai , crossing another bridge over a small creek , we started to climb , when we got to the top we found Gundagai Vineyards - about 400 acres of grapes - not sure what type , but probably the largest vineyard we'd ever seen !!
Nit much further down the road was the small community of Nangus , one of the street names amused us - Bangus Street - it would make for an interesting postal address - 2 Bangus St Nangus via Gundagai !!
With our funny bones tickled , we headed back to the park and a beer & salsa , it was still 35 degrees so the air con got a bit of a run !!!
That's it , day done , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=18W69NSolWoTLNYnR7pr7aRkHEOU&usp=sharing
No comments:
Post a Comment