We got away after breakfast at 6.15am , drove through the rest of the national park and onto Gilgandra, stopped to do some food shopping then on to Dubbo. Made a deal with Charles that if we missed the Plains Zoo in Dubbo he would stop in Wellington for me. didn't happen. Wellington is a lovely historic town, must have been a centre back in the 1800's. My great grandfather owned a pub there (so many didn't know which one). There are some lovely old buildings, wish I had taken my Dad's first address ,as he was born here. Saw the bridge and a few other things he mentions in his book. Can't believe it I just pressed something and lost all of todays writing.
We decided to go and see Bett Price on her farm at Pyramul, we had tried ringing her a few times but as we like the area decided to visit and surprise her. We asked in Pyramul and was given country directions to her place but we drove up and down the dirt road 3 times before we finally found it. A doctor has built a hobby farm with olives at the front of her block so her sign was not so visual. We went through the gate and spent a while driving around the front farm trying to find the track to Bett's, and then we saw it and went over the creek where we had previously panned for gold and got some gold dust. Well she surprised us, must have gone to town, but her spring lambs were all bleating for a feed in the home paddock, but Charles said we wouldn't stay. So after asking someone else how to get to Sofala we set off. The people had told us and said "don't go on the windy dirt road at night," guess where we ended up, yes, and all I can say is I'm glad it was dark and I couldn't see the edge of the road or over the edge.
It was amazing, we rounded a corner and there it was Sofala, where my great grandmother was born. Joseph Cutts had lived there and been mining the Turon river. The town looked a picture postcard as the lights were an orange colour and the main street was tiny and the cafes were open and there were people in the pub as we drove through. You could just visualize the miners after a hard days work having a drink there. We tried to find a free campsite we had seen in our book but again, went the wrong way. An easy thing to do in the dark, but soon went back through the town and found it. A lovely riverside campsite with green grass and at last a toilet!
The next morning, Friday, we had breakfast and drove back through town up and down the streets looking at the old original buildings, blacksmiths, gaols, schools, postoffice. We went to a museum which I thought may have some history on the town but it was just a museum, a pretty good one, but nothing there from Sofala. We stopped in at the general store and I bought a book on the area, and, just like me, I started chatting about history and guess what the lady did family history and knew where all the Sofala history was in Bathhurst, the regional centre about 50 miles away. I would have talked more but Charles had left and gone back to the car (a not so subtle message - hurry up). That lady told me the original main street was much, much longer, but it has all disappeared and showed me a map with all the original owners on it, back in 1881, about 30 years too late for what I want but I still bought it.
There was a steel foot bridge that had been made in England and the parts hauled over the Blue Mountains, no mean feat, by horse and cart. It was put across the Turon river as the Police station and a few houses were on the north side of the river. The pub was on the south side so if the river rose (which it apparently did a lot in winter) the cops couln't get across the river to instil and bit of law and order. Hence the footbridge, but that got washed away in a flood and the locals partitioned for a traffic bridge and the pieces of the footbridge were dug out of the river and re-assembled in a park nearby. I mention this because it was a Pearce who did all the fund raising etc. to get the work done. Now,Joseph Cutts granddaughter married a Pearce and I have all their genealogy so will look it up when I get back.
I am writing this while Charles is having a sleep just outside Cowra. I think I will have to insist we find a laundromat in this town!
