Mittagong, gateway to the Southern Highlands, Australia’s first iron works and 6000 people. We reached it from Mittagong via a mid day thunderstorm of biblical proportions. Crashes and bangs overhead, either side. Rain was impressively torrential. 1.5 hours of it – quite exciting in a way, frightening in another.
It’s also a wine, or rather winery region. Greener than previous days and the insect and bird-song has returned. Perhaps farmer’s chemicals have something to do with this?
All the places seem to have a claim to fame. Bundanoon is the world’s first bottled water free town. One shire is a coal mining free area. It doesn’t say if they boycott products or power produced by coal – I suspect not. Marulan is on the 150 Meridian East of Greenwich.
One thing they all do well, and common to all the little bit of Australia we’ve been in, is street art, murals and creative signs/post boxes.
The freight trains are impressive, many 10s of carriages long. A chap in a cafe in Bundanoon where we had a sheltering coffee, told us they were spending million of AUD just down the road to separate tracks so the passenger trains can go faster – seems they are doing a better/simpler job of that than us with HS2.
A lovely creek led us to a final hill to Mittagong. The request to wash our bikes before we brought them in was received with slight incredulity. We did that in the rain……
Tomorrow another gong….
Travelling reflections 