TAKE THE COUNTRY ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
The drive to the Central Tablelands city of Bathurst is often overlooked by weekend roadtrip warriors, who stop at Blackheath when doing the Blue Mountains thing, or pass it by on their mission to reach Mudgee or Orange in good time. But both the drive to Bathurst and the allures of this NSW city are worth their own entry.
The journey starts to get interesting once you have descended the escarpment at Mt Victoria and are presented with infinite rolling fields and hills (complete with everything from alpaca to cows to horses) and behemoth rock formations on the driver’s side.
The historic town of Hartley is worth a 10-minute stop to wander past its honey-toned late-Georgian and early-Victorian sandstone buildings, some of which are now quizzically grand for such a lonely outpost, before continuing on towards Lithgow, where you’ll skirt the edge of the town along the Great Western Highway. Keep your eye on the prize and eschew a pit stop in favour of more time at the end of the journey, which continues on a long, largely flat trajectory past grazing fields and thick bush punctuated by turn-offs for charming little towns like Portland, Wallerawang and the enigmatically named Napoleon Reef.
Once in town, drive along the wide streets lit with heritage lamp posts, past grand civic buildings and Machattie Park with its delightful Begonia House, browse the shops and grab something to eat at one of its cafes. 200 kilometres from Sydney. Among DISTANCE: STAY: the sheep at the sustainable and chic Farmers Hut at Wilga Station.