Oberon Exchange Weekend

We started the weekend on Friday night arriving at our billets and getting settled in. Our billets were lovely hosts and we enjoyed being out of the city on a country farm. As a special treat they gave us a tour of their farm and the kids got to feed the baby lamb with a bottle!

On Saturday morning, the exchangees meet in town to begin our morning drive out to Kanangra/Boyd National Park. We were happy to see the Canadians, Val and her son Kieran make it down from the Gold coast to participate in our exchange event. The drive out to the park was on a pretty dusty road, the bushwalk was quite a climb, and the flies were a tad annoying, but the effort was worth it, as the views were spectacular!

Here, Tom is actually laying down on a lower ledge. It looks pretty impressive though. The boys in the back are Avery and Kit checking out how far it is to the bottom. Honestly, it did not worry me too much when I was there as it seemed safe, but now looking at the photos creeps me out!

You cannot see what is underneath you when you are up there.

After lunch we headed for the Jenolan caves. We ended up doing the Lucas Cave tour after a caffeine fix to get us through the afternoon. The cave tour was brilliant! The guide had interesting stories, and the lighting showed off the massive size of the cave and the impressive stalactites and stalagmites. He taught us that stalatites hold 'tight' to the roof, and stalagmites 'might' get to the top.

On Saturday evening we gathered at the Royal Hotel for a delicious meal, where our billets joined us. The adults had time to socialize, as kids were rarely seen after finding a playground outside.

On Sunday morning our billet gave us a tour of the local school. I don't know of any school that has an agricultural program like this one. They care for various animals, hatch eggs, and grow a garden. Avery now wants to become a farmer.

We then headed out to Evans Crown Nature Reserve. We wondered how we would make it through another bushwalk, but our tireless leader Beth continued on. We were revived when we saw what we would explore. The reserve was surrounded, and towered by these massive granite boulders just tempting us to climb them. We made it up to several lookouts and took heaps more photos to fill up our harddrive.

We're in here somewhere.

Avery and Kit again.

The ETL at Oberon.

Missing home.
Ginette, Tom
Avery and Jocelyn















For lunch we stopped off at Tarana Pub to conclude our weekend. We said goodbyes to our wonderful exchange friends. For a first time exchange activity, we would definitely say this is a keeper!