26th February 2014-Cowra NSW

26th February 2014
Gundagai was a great town to stay but we have reluctantly moved on. Cowra was our next destination because they have a WW2 POW display there. The drive isn't very far but now that we are in mountain territory the going is slower. We did spend about 5kms wondering why there was so much cow poop all over the road...then we rounded a corner are were faced with a big herd of cows being mustered up the road......hmmmm think we found the source of the poop!

COWS DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE DRIVING A 4WD OR TOWING A VAN, THEY WILL STILL TAKE THEIR OWN SWEET TIME MOVING OUT OF THE WAY (THEY ARE A LESSON TO HUMANS IN PATIENCE)

We stayed in Cowra only 2 nights because despite it being a tourist town it didn't live up expectations.....not much worth doing and the town itself wasn't very attractive :(

Our van site was situated next to a river, lovely view. And we made friends with our neighbours as they were from Perth (shame about their Dockers number plates but we can't afford to be picky this far from WA!!)

Cowra's biggest asset is that it is the site where a POW camp was located during the 2nd world war, it held over 4000 prisoners at the time and it made history because in August 1944 there was a mass breakout staged by the Japenese prisoners with over 1000 attempting to escape or to die doing so, they are taught it is more honerable to die rather than be a prisoner, the British paid the cost of builing the war camp and feeding/ maintaining the prisoners.

The tourist bureau has a 10 minute hologram with a little lady (Roslyn Oades from Home and Away )who tells some of the story as it was known at the time (apparently the news was censored by the government during the war so Australians were unaware of the extent of the breakout until the war was over)

THE HOLOGRAM DISPLAY (THE GIRL DIDN'T PHOTOGRAPH AS WELL AS THE TWO SOLDIERS DID)

 

Then we headed to the actual site of the POW camp. They have done a really good job of giving a lot of information about it and made it very tourist friendly. At the site there is a reconstructed guard tower with audio information and photos strategically placed which helped to give us an idea of the layout of the camp, and the ruins that still remain were still recognisable for what their purpose was...especially the 'ablution block'

With nothing else to see we headed out of Cowra this morning and have arrived in Bathurst.....an Australian icon of motorsport! We will be here for a couple of days (4) as there is so much to see in this area.