Orange

Orange is in the Great Dividing Range less than 300 kilometres west of Sydney. The city is large enough to support 3 golf courses, so naturally we couldn't resist a visit. Had we realised that the elevation makes Orange one of the coldest places in the state outside the alpine region then we mightn't have been so keen. Several nights where the temperature dropped below freezing, and days that haven't managed to struggle above 11 degrees, with a biting cold wind making it feel even lower, have rather moderated our enthusiasm!

The first couple of days we were here we took advantage of the at that stage balmy weather to do some walking. We firstly tackled the interesting town heritage walk, showcasing a large number of attractive and imposing houses in the posh end of town, and old industrial buildings (now universally converted to retail or residential spaces) and workers cottages in the less salubrious areas. There was also a memorial to the great bush poet Banjo Patterson, who was born nearby.

The following day we went to Mount Canobolas State Conservation Area, only 12 km from town, to do a bit of bushwalking. On the way we stopped at The Pinnacle, which has a sharp climb to a lookout offering fantastic views over the surrounding farmland and distant hills.

When we arrived in Orange we found that it was a long weekend here in NSW, with today being the state Labour Day holiday. Furthermore, when we went to the closest golf course to inquire about getting a game we discovered that the 3 courses run a tournament over the long weekend, with a round at each course over the 3 days. We debated the merits of entering the tournament, given the weather forecast of a cold change and rain coming on the Friday, but decided that as the rain was meant to clear away on Saturday morning we'd give it a go, stipulating late tee times on our entry form. Sure enough, on Friday afternoon the winds started to howl, the temperature dropped and the rain pelted down, 46 mm of it by the time it stopped in the wee hours of Saturday morning. We woke on Saturday to weather that was cold but clear, and congratulated ourselves on our planning. We checked the weather report again before heading off for our first round - a few showers in the morning (which never materialised), clearing to a sunny afternoon. Well someone at the weather bureau needs some remedial training, because about 3 holes into our round the skies opened and it rained pretty well the entire way round. At one stage we even had hail. We were wearing just about every possible item of clothing we have with us in the van and were still frozen to the bone. Needless to say our golf scores didn't impress. Luckily the next two afternoons were sunny, although still cool, but unfortunately our golf didn't improve enough to enable either of us to step anywhere near the winner's podium.