By late February we, in NSW, had over 35 days free of Covid-19 so I thought it was time for a short holiday.
Not sure how clear the map is, but we decided to visit the Southern Highlands and we decided to stay in Mittagong (marked with the red line).
We picked the Grand Country Lodge in Mittagong.
We had booked before Christmas but had to cancel due to ill health, so I asked for the same room as I had originally booked, but it was not available.
We were given a larger room for the same price as compensation. Could not knock the customer service.
Queen bed and a single so we had plenty of room for just the two of us.
The price included breakfast, but due to Covid-19 the dining room was closed, and breakfast was delivered to your room the evening before and placed in the fridge.
The room was equipped with a kettle, toaster, cutlery & crockery for three. Each evening we would tick various items on the breakfast sheet, and this would be delivered. The above gives you an idea.
Powerful shower over the bath and great drying towels.
Underground parking available, all in all we were pleased with the accommodation.
Except for the map the above, the pictures of the motel are all from the motel’s web site.
Welcome to Grand Country Lodge | 4 Star Mittagong Accommodation
They are better than mine.
Next door to the motel was the information centre, so we did not have to go far to find the information that we required.
Mittagong is a pleasant small town, the centre of which, is only about a ten- minute walk from the accommodation.
Not too far from where we stayed is an attractive park, which contained a children’s area.
Mittagong from Gibraltar Heights overlooking the town.
For my Australian readers Mittagong has a large Dan Murphy’s . . . . and a good choice of restaurants.
We had five days, so we decided to try and visit two new places each day.
Bowral is a short drive from Mittagong so this town was our first trip for site seeing.
The Grand Hotel
The New Empire Cinema from 1915, still in use . . .
Shopping alleyway – the cinema is behind me, we found Bowral to be quite a pleasant town.
From Bowral we moved on to Moss Vale – it looked nice in the pictures that we had seen –
but overall we found it to be an unattractive place that had a large amount of transit traffic, and that crossing the road was a touch of Kamikaze crossing unless you were happy walk quite a distance to a controlled crossing.
We moved on to our next stop which was Bundanoon.
I quote from the Bundanoon web site –
Bundanoon is the ‘Quintessential Southern Highlands Experience’ and the perfect village alternative to larger towns such as Bowral, Mittagong and Moss Vale.
In 2016 the population was 2729, quite a small town that you can walk around in about eight minutes. As you see in the above picture, the ‘traffic jam’ has not been invented in Bundanoon.
In April each year (we were too early) they have a Brigadoon festival, which is a Highland Festival to celebrate all that is Scottish.
The railway station . . .
153 years old and still working – although I did not see any trains or staff.
If you can read the short history of the town (more like a village) you will see that the area was explored in 1818.
A touch of yesterday – but it was closed when we visited.
As we drove out of town, I stopped to take the above picture – we were the only car around.
It was a beautiful day, and it was very quiet, and all I could hear were the birds.
Next stop Berrima, for The Surveyor General Inn
The oldest continuously licensed inn in Australia.
I ordered our drinks from this bar
Many of the local shops were aimed at the tourist, but they were different enough to make a visit enjoyable, and from the shop next door to the above, we bought Daffy.
We like to buy the odd souvenir during our travels so this time it was Daffy, and the boots will not allow him to sneak up on us . . .
silverfox175 