1st March 2014-Bathurst-V8's and T-Rex!!

1st March 2014

We arrived in Bathurst after a short 100km drive from Cowra but now that we are so close to the Blue Mountains the roads are getting more hilly and more windy so it takes longer to cover the same distance.

Bathurst has only 1 caravan park even though it has a population of 40,000-weird! The council has had the foresight to provide the Show Grounds as a camping facility (this is fairly common in country towns) They include power and water and we were lucky enough to arrive on a trots night so got to watch the trots for free because we were already here!!

THE BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS AT THE BATHURST SHOWGROUNDS

THEY ARE ALL LABELLED WITH THEIR YEAR  OF COMPLETION AND MOST OF THEM SEEM TO BE FROM THE 1870's

The nights have been warm and this day was no exception...he headed over to the stadium and settled in to watch some racing. The ambiance was lovely as the weather was still warm, combined with a thunder storm display in the distance AND when I looked to our left I could see Mount Panorama!!!!! It was a great night.

YOU CAN SEE MOUNT PANORAMA IN THE BACKGROUND! 

 

The next day we headed out to do some serious sightseeing!!! Mount Panorama was our first stop. The town is obviously very proud to have this facility as there are signs everywhere that point to Mount Panorama......you would have to be blind to miss it!!!

LES AT MOUNT PANORAMA!!

 

We drove 2 laps of the circuit-yay!!!!!..........errrrrrr, though at the legal speed of 60kms.........and we also had to stop for the lollypop lady because they were doing some roadwork (this track is a residential road for the rest of the year)......but it was great fun!!!!!

ME ACCEPTING MY WINNERS TROPHY FOR THE BATHURST 1000 - YAY TO ME!!!!

At the track is a motor racing museum, it is chock a block full of memorabilia and cars (plenty of V8's) that have been driven by famous people including Peter Brock and  Craig Lowndes. They also have a cinema showing the history of the Bathurst track. Driving this track and visiting the museum is definitely a highlight of our trip :)

Then with time to spare we headed to the Mineral and Fossil Museum. Every town has some sort of museum but this one was going to be special because it has a complete T-Rex skeleton!!!!!!! I was so focused on seeing the T-Rex that I was very surprised to find that the mineral display was equally impressive !! It was so well laid out and lit up that everything looked beautiful...except perhaps the dull looking uncut diamond....even uncut I expected this to look gorgeous....I was wrong :(

PART OF THE MINERAL DISPLAY-THERE WERE ROOMS OF THESE DISPLAYS AND INFO ABOUT HOW SOME OF THESE MINERALS ARE USED IN EVERYDAY LIFE SUCH AS IN TOOTHPASTE AND SUNSCREEN

THE T-REX !!!!!! IT WAS SOOOO TALL THAT THEY HAD IT DISPLAYED WITH A VIEWING BALCONY OTHERWISE WE WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN LOOKING UP AT HIS RIBS.....IT WAS DIFFICULT TO FIT HIM ALL INTO A PHOTO 

 

Bathurst certainly provides a lot for the visitor. I still want to see their Japanese Gardens but the weather has turned wet so we will save that for tomorrow......and we all could do with a 'rest' day anyway......I have cooked a cake and will get some craft done, Les has the Adelaide Clipsal 500 to watch and Sam needs a quiet day because she went to the vet yesterday and had 2 more teeth pulled....the poor little thing.  Sitting around and eating cake today sounds very good to me!!!