8 TRAVEL & INDULGENCE THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, OCTOBER 26-27, 2013www.theaustralian.com.au/travel

JOURNEYS I THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY

Leviathanon thelooseThe joys of a family motorhomeadventure in NSW’s central west

JAMES JEFFREY

Clockwise fromabove: looking downthe Lachlan Rivervalley just outsideCowra; our travellerspose in front ofLeviathan; theJapanese Garden atCowra; Lowe Winesat MudgeePICTURES: JAMES JEFFREY

IT’S not the biggest holiday apartment I’ve stayed in, butit’s a nice one. Daisy and Leo have already colonised theirbed with the explosive efficiency young children special-ise in. Clothes are hung in wardrobes, a towel hung jaunt-ily over the shower rail.

As my wife Bel switches off the stove, I pull down theblinds by our double bed. Outside, stars are sparkling inthe central NSW sky. Then, with noisy merriment, thekids are herded to a table adorned with lamb pie, pasta,olives, antipasto and, this being Orange, a bottle of localshiraz for the grown-ups. As we toast the start of our holi-day, I peer into the dark alcove up the end to remind my-self this ‘‘apartment’’ also has a steering wheel.

My first experience of a campervan was a Kombi myparents bought in a fit of wishful thinking. This beast,however, is not so much campervan as motor-mansion.Courtesy of Apollo Motorhome Holidays, it’s a Star RVPegasus—aFiat crossedwithabungalow—and it’s so farand away the biggest thing I’ve ever driven, I name itLeviathan. My initial nerves at driving it are dissipated bythe kids’ excitement.

In the morning, having springboarded off a pair of flatwhites at a Slice of Orange (a shop where the produce, in-cluding lastnight’sdinner, is fromwithin160km),weheadto the Agrestic Grocer. This is a cafe and grocery with afocus on the local — from heirloom carrots and lemon-infused popcorn to bacon and beer. The building is alsohome to the Badlands Brewery and the Second MouseCheese Company.

As we make a start on the muddled beetroot and mintlemonade, the paean-worthy Badlands porter and theSecond Mouse haloumi that squeaks like fresh snow, wefind everything here has a story. The beef in my beltieburger, for instance, which co-owner Lucas Martin ex-plains in excited detail comes from belted galloways — aslow-growing, cool-climate breed — is farmedholistically down the road.

Martin speaks with such a sense of mission (‘‘I’m notquite sure what that mission is, but we’re working on it’’)it’s exciting to think what the AgresticGrocer will developinto. They’ve only been open three weeks when we visit,but they’ve hit the ground running. And it’s been frenetic;whenMartinspeaksofa fullnight’s sleep, it is inawistfullyhypothetical tone.

Sleep is more straightforward for us — (a) not having anew business to run and (b) travelling with a bedroom. Ona whim, we nap at nearby Lake Canobolas, dozing off to amixed choir of frogs and ducks. Thus refreshed, we repair

that evening to Orange’s Union Bank Wine Bar which,like the Agrestic Grocer, is energetically new. Theflavours tonight include gewurtztraminer, tempranilloand rack of lamb, devoured next to a wall decorated withwine bottles individually lit in snug alcoves. Daisy andLeo assess the day before conking out in their chairs.

As we head south, the countryside unfurls before us, aSmurf-blue sky arcing over vineyards, fields, and treesblushing with galahs. But I keep boomeranging back tothe thought: I’mdrivingavan withabathroom.And adin-ing room that extends at the press of button. ‘‘I’m startingto get used to this,’’ I lie.

We’re brought back to (prehistoric) earth at the Age ofFishes, a museum in Canowindra that takes as its startingpoint a slab of local rock festooned with the 370 million-year-old fossils of armoured fish. That David Atten-borough recently arranged a private four-hour visit —and drove a long way for it — tells you everything youneed to know.

We re-enter the present day at Taste Canowindra,sampling local winesas ownersMargaretand BobCraventell us how their restaurant was kept aloft during the re-cent global economic cock-up by the surprise influx of aplatoon of Mongolian geophysicists brought out to huntgold. Leo watches Bel and me as we fuss over our tapastasting plate and eye fillet (agreeably accompanied by a

Gardners Ground mellow shiraz). ‘‘We’re being verypatient,’’ he says. Then the milkshakes arrive and hepursues this line no further.

In Cowra, we visit the Japanese Garden, close to thesite of the World War II prisoner-of-war camp, andwander among singing streams and boulder-shapedshrubs.Fishpellets scatteredonthepondtriggera feedingfrenzy, dachshund-sized koi attacking from below andducklings from above.

Night finds us down the road at Darby Falls Observa-tory, where owner Mark Monk shows us distant galaxiesand nearby star clusters, but my favourite moment iswhen Daisy, who recently got glasses, sees Saturn (andfaithful Titan) for the first time and gasps at those vast,tallow yellow rings.

WeparkLeviathanata friend’s farmabovetheLachlanRiver and dream of stars, then wake to a morning chorusof baas.

At Lowe Wines in Mudgee, the chorus is provided bybees busy in the wisteria. Equipped with a whimsical map,we pass a sign reminding us ‘‘unattended children will befermented’’ and wander the vineyard among trellis-freegrapes (loweryields,higherquality),donkeysandabunchof fancy chooks in a straw-bale palace.

While Daisyand Leo investigate farther, Bel andI tastelow-preservative wines from the three Lowe properties,each at a different altitude. Among these is a chardonnaythatpleases evenme—an ardent red inwine’s civilwar—and a shiraz so lovely that Bel and I are cellaring it forlonger than our traditional few hours.

Red wine leads naturally to pizza and chocolate. Thepizza element is takencare of in sublimestyle atnearby DiLusso Estate, while High Valley Wine & Cheese is thevenue for a chocolate-themed morning tea withchocolatier Luke Spencer. Spencer spent years inVanuatu running a cocoa plantation; now he uses its cropto make his single origin Spencer Cocoa chocolate inMudgee. It’s a fascinating and delicious presentation.

By the time we’re done, only Leviathan feels bigenough to take us home.● visitnsw.com● starrv.com/holiday

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