Campbell Town 9 – 12 December 2007

Drove on to Campbell Town and found a really pretty free camp on the river. Just like an old English village with the water rushing past over rocks and babbling. Sue and Heather went shopping leaving Peter to explore all the old buildings and antique opportunities! Sue bought a gorgeous leather handbag. We enjoyed meat pies for lunch as the weather continued to be cool. We walked around the town, enjoying the old bridge and all the pretty things around it. Mother ducks with ducklings. One mother with 8 tiny ones, the last of all being a fluffy yellow one! Water lilies, requiring sampling of one to be displayed in a vase on our diner table!
Next day very cool and suitable to explore Ross, a very authentic colonial village that time has bypassed - lots to see, enjoying the bridge (oldest one in Australia) for it’s carved stone work. The wide tree-lined street with pretty gardens and a cute little bakery where we had soup and bread. Both bakeries specialised in biscuits, one the old fashioned wagon wheel with marshmallow and old English currant biscuit nicknamed fly spot biscuits! Yum! Visited the site of the Female Factory where the sad facts were documented. It’s hard to believe how cruel people were by today’s values. There were 200 women housed there and their babies were in a separate section housing 40 little ones and 75% of the babies died and mothers saw little of them. One 20 month old death was noted as sun exposure. A beautiful artistic representation of each baby was created recently by local women making a calico bonnet for each baby born there, and displaying them outside on a little foam ball-head, as a sea of bonnets. A small version was on display inside. It was very moving. One single bonnet was made from a old laces belonging to a female convict whose family had kept it.Next day was departure day for Sue. We took a short drive back to the airport on a cool brisk morning, with Sue swimmers remaining unused! Shortly after she left, the weather became hot for the day! Need more visitors to take the cold weather back to the mainland! Drove back to Campbell Town and stayed on at the river site enjoying the beauty of the spot and exploring it a bit more.