Day in Bathurst

When surprises work 👌 Her reaction was priceless haha. I'm still so glad that we did this. Missed you Happy Apple! Hope you can join next time, wasn't the same without you (: Managed to successfully surprise a friend who's on placement in Bathurst for a year, and returning in over a month's time. We've done quite a few surprises within the group, but most of the girls are quite smart and aware of things eg. see more food in fridge around the time of their birthday, and end up figuring out something odd is happening, and they sort of know a surprise is bound to happen lol.

This time we just told Jo 2 of us were coming but ended up being 6, so the surprise did work successfully. Lies were told to put her off guard, but it was hilarious! It was all pretty spontaneous, but luckily we were all free Monday night and ANZAC day. I hardly drive to rural places, so followed Tess who is expert at driving country roads and spotting hidden police. I missed all 3 hidden police cars in the dark...Can't believe this year they started double demerits on Friday to Tuesday, it used to be Tues only...and there was also Easter long weekend Thurs-Monday. So essentially driving in April 1/3rd of the month was double demerits. 

First time going to Bathurst. Got there and checked in a a nice B&B, but was expensive as expected since we were only staying there one night in a long weekend. The owner has 3 dogs (couldn't get a nice pic), but they were so cute! I also had a soft serve-haven't had one in years (are my taste buds too fancy for cheap ice cream..?) Apparently it was considered quite a large serving, wanted to take a Snap but couldn't just in case it ruined the surprise element....

We ended up sleeping after 3am, really just chatting and catching up through the night. If we stayed awake an hour earlier, we could've made it to the Dawn service lol. Only got around 4.5 hours sleep, but surprisingly not too tired when I woke-probably the adrenaline.

You can easily complete Bathurst in half a day, although we didn't really visit the super big gardens or castle (don't think their castle can compete with European ones though haha). I always though Bathurst was a hole and only had the Bathurst 1000, but it actually has some decent shops and not as rural as I thought. I love how vibrant the colour of the trees are past the Blue Mountains area.

 
When your shoes match the leaves 💗
 
 
I love how this tree changes from a deeper red/pink/light pink, orange, yellow then green

 
Park. So glad it was only sprinkling since it was forecast to rain


flower house!


Pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the flowers here, was not expecting this at all. I can understand now why Dandelion visits multiple parks for flowers/trees haha

  
Husky! First time touching a husky. This was at our accommodation


Dandelion's plating skills ft: buttermilk pancakes, vanilla whipped cream, strawberries, cinnamon sugar, mandarin rind and pecans


Venue Cafe Bar: eggs florentine-$16.50, regular capp-$3.70 plus 15% surcharge.
  




that yolk porn

It's a bit pricey for a small ish portion (the other food there had pretty decent portions). The hollandaise was a bit different as it didn't have as much of that acidity, but it wasn't too salty either.

 
Annie's Old School Ice cream Parlour: Blueberry and Saffron Gold-$4

I was super full but still got ice cream since they place is quite cut win it's decor. It's pretty cheap and large serving size compared to Sydney ice cream. It wasn't that creamy and the blueberry did taste a bit artificial and the other vanilla and honeycomb flavour was quite sweet. It was just ok, and compared to Sydney it's below standards, but it's Bathurst which I thought was a hole....So for Bathurst it's good, and lots of locals do come to support them.

 


  
On the race track of Bathurst 1000!

 
Mount Panorama


at the top

 
If only I could drive a fast car round these bends...

I didn't even realise you can go on the actual race track, although max speed 60 not 200km/h like the race cars. Apparently they even have police at the bottom of the hill to catch drivers speeding...

Left in the afternoon with a pit stop at Blue Mountains. Haven't been here in years, but it looks a lot more new, well more railings and more people...and ticketed parking everywhere. Apparently after 4pm it's free even though the sign said 5pm.

I actually don't mind driving on bendy roads. Wasn't tired when driving, but when I got home and tried to finish some ethics stuff, I could feel my energy draining. Probably won't drive 7 hours in 24 hours with 4.5 hours sleep plus work again soon haha.

So glad we did this super mini road trip! Times like these I know we probably won't have anytime soon with everyone working and studying and just in different places, but thankful for the friendships (: There are heaps of places I would like to visit and road trip to. Too bad I don't have any friends who are just free to road trip during the week 😔