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Posted by: SouthernCross on Sep 29, 2007 - 05:27 AM
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 I wasn’t sleeping well. At 3am it was raining, at 4am I pretty sure it was still raining and it was definitely still raining at 5:30am when I decided to get up. What sort of day are these kids going to have if this carries on I wondered.I had a good breakfast loaded the last couple of things into the Cruiser and set off for Glenbrook. I arrived there in the rain at 7:30ish and as the traffic in the information bay lay-bye built up we moved the cars into the car park behind the closed information centre.
 Bill turned up and went around the back to deliver a sermon to the assembled masses and Colin and myself stayed in the lay-bye to direct any stragglers. When it looked likely nobody else was coming I went around the back to hear the last of Bills sermon. We were a bit short of passengers as some people hadn’t turned up but I was lucky enough to be allotted a couple of passengers, Chatterbox Kathy and her delightful daughter Miss Sophie. We set of with the first group lead by Johnny Mongrel and a group stayed behind to pick up any very late stragglers.
No danger of prolonged silences with Kathy around. The questions started 2 seconds after we got in the car and carried on with never more than a minutes silence. After what I thought was a bit of initial shyness Miss Sophie was having her say too. She seemed interested in and commented on just about everything that came into view with flora and fauna being her areas of special interest. The only disappointed so far was the lack of views due to the still inclement weather but otherwise we were all happy.
 Our first stop was allegedly for morning tea and to let the second group catch up but it was of course really just an opportunity to distribute some of the carrier bag half full of lollies that I just happened to have in the Cruiser. We had some well mannered kids and there were plenty left over for the next stop. Of we set again this time to descent Mount Victoria and take the first on the left at the bottom just past the café. Into a real rural landscape now and a whole new set of items of interest to stimulate a young mind. I was surprised that a child would even comment on the presence of a sheep but Miss Sophie did. You could feel her sponge like mind soaking up everything on offer. We got onto the dirt and a few Roos were seen and when we looked up a bit of blue sky seemed quite out of place amongst an otherwise cloudy sky. As we progressed towards the fabled suspension bridge campsite keeping our eyes on the road the bit of blue sky seemed to have expanded every time we looked up.
By the time we got to the campsite it had almost stopped raining and the Holman Catering Company got on with the job of cooking 2 million snags whilst the rest of us went on a short walk to the suspension bridge where every kid obeyed the sign and went very slowly across one at a time. A good opportunity to distribute some more lollies to kids and adults alike and then inspect the bridge. Four pieces of wire rope two at foot level and two at waist level. Three “U” bolts at either end was all that secured the waist level cables. The rest of the bridge consisted of some steel metal struts to keep the foot level wires apart and some fencing wire. Indiana Jones eat your heart out. After every kid had been across I didn’t want to look like a scaredy cat so I went across.
Back to the camp to eat some of the Holman Catering snags have a quiet sit down as most of the kids went down to the river. When they came back we did a group photo and had a draw to see who had won the subscription to Australian Geographic kindly donated by the said publications advertising department. An opportunity to distribute some more after lunch chocolate and then back into the cars to do some more touring. We drove quite away along the Six Foot Track and again Miss Sophie was being very attentive to everything that came into view.
 We were having a nice drive around with nothing at all difficult and then Miss Sophie noticed the “Mushrooms”. I radioed that I was stopping for a quick photo and asked Miss Sophie to get on with it so as not to hold everyone up. She obliged got back in the car we drove around the corned and there was heaps of people out of the car taking photographs of the red mushrooms with the white spots.
 We proceeded out onto the main road crossed it and pulled into a rest area were we all got out of the vehicles took more photos of “mushrooms” showed some kids their first ever Wombat Hole and of course distributed more lollies.
 Back into the cars out past Hampton Pub where the windmills were of great interest and on to Great Western Highway where we did a right towards Mount Victoria. Not for long though. A sneaky little turn into the Vale of Clwydd and we are driving into Hartley Vale. Past the Comet and then up the hill and onto the Darling Causeway. The general consensus was that a last collective stop at the Hydro Majestic would be a fitting end to the trip but we had reckoned without them having closed the cafeteria at 4pm. So we all came back out of the Hydro and I distributed the last of the lollies and we made our ways back to Glenbrook to reunite our passengers with their own vehicles. Confusion reigned supreme in the car park that in the morning hade been so quiet since this was the night that the Glenbrook Players were putting a performance. I rather hurriedly said goodbye to Kathy and Miss Sophie, vacated the car park and settled down for the journey back to Parramatta.
Had it all been worth it? Absolutely. Half way through the afternoon Kathy had said to me “we’re not really outdoor people you know”. Well maybe but I think Miss Sophie is going to be wanting to see more of it because I get the feeling that she has about a million more observations to make and questions left to ask.
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