Orange

The Black Sheep Inn is a marvellous 5-bedroom converted shearing shed. Evidence of the shearing shed was in abundance

A dining table made from a wool classers table
The sheep shute
Julie fit very well into this huge fleece basket

Our trip to Orange was via the Tin Shed at Lithgow. Up till then, the rain had held off but it bucketed down for our last leg to Orange, and then throughout the night. Sitting in front of the fire, with wine and nibblies made it better but then we had to venture out to The Union Bank restaurant in Orange. I think everyone would have preferred to stay in front of the fire, but c’est la vie….

The Union Bank restaurant has a sharing menu. We could have settled for their sharing suggestions, but no, we wanted to have special dishes. So then we had to agree on what we would share. This was no small feat, as some people didnt like octopus, while others didnt like lamb!! After some skilful negotiation from James, we settled on a range of dishes. Fortunately, the food was delicious and everyone forgot the complicated selection process

James looks exhausted after all those food negotiations

The next day was sunny, so we thought we would venture out to the Ophir goldfields. Along the way, we visited Banjo Patterson’s memorial and Jim regaled us with stories about the man. Smooth sailing so far.

Then we headed to the Goldfields, having some issues because the Mitchell highway was closed and we had to do some very roundabout driving to find it.

Well, the road closure was because the area had been flooded, and we tried to embark on the walking track to discover gold shafts only to find that we were also beaten by the flooding

Notice the flooding river behind us
stumped by the floods

Les intrepidly found us another track. It was so rough that Sally took a turn and had to sit down. Les ploughed on determined to find those shafts

After a relatively unsuccessful visit to the goldfields, we returned to the town. The winos went to a vineyard for a tasting session. The non winos shopped for dinner

here’s the wino mob
And here’s dinner – food courtesy of the non-winos; BBQ courtesy of Les

Saturday arrived, another pleasant breakfast outside and time to depart for lunch at Milthorpe

The birds loved the place and so did we

awaywiththebirds

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6 responses to “Orange”

  5. What lovely pictures of you all! Sara – you are amazing with all your blogs – always enjoy reading them
    So glad you all had a good time despite the floods!
    Can’t wait for the Japan blog ………….

  6. FAB Sar, what a great way to remember our fun few days away at the Black Sheep Inn! Love the commentary! Lucky James organised our tasting plates at the Union Bank or we’d still be there! cheers Robyn