Denman and surrounds—Sheep in red socks, and trails fit for mountain goats.
- brittanyaus
- Nov 21, 2023
- 4 min read
Putting aside the grossness and parking the fact that the dust never did settle, quite literally, the house-sit in Denman did give us a chance to get our set-up sorted, as planned, but 7 weeks was far too long. So much so that we were having second thoughts about our house-sit scheduled for the end of the year. But we’re committed to that, and it will give us a chance to get off the roads at a busy time of the year.
We’re not on a holiday, per se, and as such the budget’s tight, particularly as we’re trying to put off having to find some work for as long as we can, and therefore, we weren’t heading off on adventures and sightseeing every day throughout the 7 weeks. Rather, we spent the time pretty much doing the kind of things we’d be doing if we were back at home for a few weeks but not actually going on holidays—we mostly spent our days getting the van organised and working out storage solutions, fitting a diesel heater, re-installing our composting toilet, and so forth. Alicia also took advantage of us being stationary for a while, getting in some podcast recording episodes, and editing. So, while we did spend most of our time at the property, we managed to get out and take in some local sights and some good walks.
Denman township is quite a nice place and the people seem friendly. If you enjoy bushwalks, the Apex lookout loop, and even the service road, are probably the better walks in Denman, and the lookout provides some great sights of the surrounding area. We took the service road walk first, stopping at the Apex lookout to take in impressive view, and to let Alina loose from the carrier. She always has so much fun just running around and playing with sticks and rocks, and…putting said things in her mouth. After checking out the view we continued down the road for a while as we couldn’t actually see the entrance to take the trail back down (on our second walk we realised we just didn’t look too hard). We soon found ourselves following the sounds of cockatoos, eventually seeing our first yellow-tailed black cockatoos squawking and climbing around amongst the tree branches. We’re easily amused, but it was a really cool thing to see. On our second walk, we took the Apex loop track from the beginning of the service road, a fairly easy 2.6km round trip through a bushland trail, finishing up at the same lookout. It was a nice walk, but there wasn’t much in the way of wildlife. We probably weren’t the quietest, though.
For our first trip outside of Denman we made back out the Golden Highway to Merriwa, home of the virtual solar system drive’s dwarf planet, Pluto. It turns out there’s 5 Pluto’s throughout the solar system drive, perhaps compensating for it being reclassified from a planet. We didn’t do much aside from let the monster loose to run around Pluto for bit, took in the sights of the main street, and stopped in at the bakery. We had a good chat with the super-friendly visitor centre staff and learned that there is much more to do in Merriwa than we knew, including a bottle museum, the Britannia steam engine, along with the usual throng of pre 20th century buildings like the primary school, police station and courthouse, churches, and hotels. We missed the annual festival of the fleeces, the previous day. By all accounts, it attracts thousands of visitors—the main street is blocked off, over 100 market stalls are set up, and they put on events like sheep dog demonstrations, whip cracking, Aussie wool fashion parade, dog high jump, and fireworks, all of which are apparently overshadowed by the running of the sheep, that being a parade of sheep wearing red socks. It’s origins supposedly lie in the fact that, in the early days of the festival, rather than giving cash, a sponsor gave the committee a donation of one pair of red socks. So, they put them on a sheep, it was a hit, and now they all wear red socks. It’s funny how things turn out—they could have just dismissed the socks donation as a bit cheap, instead, they turned it into what is now a real drawcard for the town. On the drive out we stopped at the edge of town and checked out some very cool silo art depicting the running of the sheep. There’s also a great playground, which, as I’ve said, seems to be typical of small country towns, and skatepark.
Sandy Hollow is a small town on the Golden Highway and, whilst easy to drive on by, it’s worth a stop. We attempted Giants Leap bushwalk, a short 2k trail, designated a Class 6 due to it being unmarked, however, there’s a reasonably well travelled path with some painted markings along the way. We lost track of the markings when it turned into a bit of a goat track and we began needing to climb with hands and feet. Alicia was quite pregnant, and I was carrying Alina in the carrier so, having lost the path, and with things getting a little slippery, it was a good point to pull up short of the summit. The climb to this point still provided impressive views of the surrounding valley and farmland.
Muswellbrook is a major service town for the area, and consequently where we collected our groceries from each week. It probably has a lot more to offer than we give credit for, but it seemed like a like a more methed-up version of Cessnock, and it’s all we could do to go in, get what we needed, and get out. In hindsight, though, there’s a 4.5km heritage walk through the city that would probably have been nice. There’s also a 9.5km heritage drive that would be an easy way to get a feel for the place and take in some architectural history. We did check out Lake Liddell, some 20-odd minutes out of Muswellbrook, only to find a very rundown holiday park with a campground reminiscent of skid-row, and a lake locked out in full algal bloom. Of other things to see and do in the region, the Singleton Infantry museum is well worth a visit, and free to enter.
That, then, is the highlight rundown of our 7-week Denman house-sit. From here, it’s a short loop to Coonabarabran, and Dubbo, before making our way back to Cessnock.
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