18th july 2014 - 21 July

18th July we Drove up to Bowral and went to the Don Bradman Museum.
What a great place to go.......  We spent about two hours just looking through the museum itself and it was a VERY interesting place.  Cost $20 per adult or $15 per senior to visit.  But I really think it was worth it.  Sir Don moved to Bowral from Cootamundra when he was 3 years old and did all his schooling there and started his cricket career there as well.  It was a bitterly cold day and the wind was very lazy but the sun was shining and hardly a cloud in the sky.  There was reports of snow at Robertson - 24 km towards the coast.

 Bowral Oval

 Darryl with 'Sir Don'.

 At the information Board

 and a great 'backyard Pitch' wall in the museum

After leaving the museum, we headed out to Robertson to see if we could find snow.......  :( none to be found but we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Robertson Inn before heading back to the van.
Saturday 19th
Today we are going to drive DOWN to Kangaroo Valley and then on to Berry.
The drive down the mountain was lovely.  Good road and some hair-pin Bends BUT not a bad drive at all.

 

  Can you 'see' anything in the rock formation???

 Looking down to the Valley

  Shaved walls of the roadway down to the valley

We stopped at the HAMPDEN BRIDGE and got some lovely photos of the old bridge

 The Hampden Bridge

 History of the Bridge

 Crossing the bridge in the car

and then travelled over it to the township of Kangaroo Valley where we stopped and had a lovely look around.

 

 The England and Scotland Australian Bank Limited

 An old bike on display out the front of the pub

We then travelled UP Cambewarra Mountain

 

 going up the Mountain.  sometimes we were in second gear

 Nowra in the distance from the top of the Mountain

and DOWN the other side toward Nowra and then up the Princes Highway to Berry. 

 

We are going to base ourselves at Berry to do the research into Darryl's Ancestors. John and Rhoda Walker and their baby Emily arrived in Shoalhaven Heads in 1855 and spent a few years in Broughton Creek (now known as BERRY) and then bought land in Kangaroo Ground (now known as KANGAROO VALLEY). One of their sons - John - bought land in FOXGROUND and lived there until he sold the land in 1913.

Sunday 20th
Today is the day that the Shoalhaven Family History Society Inc is open in the Old Pyree School on Greenwell Point Road - so we are going out there to do some research.
We had a lovely day and had lots of help from Merienne. We went to lunch at the Greenwell Point Pub on her advice and returned an hour later and continued our search. :)
We returned to the van at ablout 4pm and it took me until about 8 pm to enter the information that we had managed to gather.

 When we returned to the showgrounds after our research we found these lovely vehicles.

Monday 21st
Off to find a pathology collection centre so that we could have our bloods done. - Google told us there was a centre in Berry - but that was false - so we headed up to Kiama and had them done there. 

 

 View of the ocean on our way to Kiama

 

We then had to find some place to have breakfast and then headed to the Library and the Family History Society and do more research. Here we were able to get copies of some of the birth registrations for the next four of John and Rhoda's children. And the baptismal registrations for three of the children.
My cousin - Sharon Menz - drove down from Lake Illawarra and spent a few hours with us. This was great and we had a lovely lunch together.

 After our research we went to the 'Blowhole' and caught a couple of 'blows' occuring

  The lighthouse at Kiama

On our way back to the van at Berry we turned off the highway and went to Foxground. 

 Entrance to Foxground

 Part of the valley

 a Stone 'dry wall' at one side of the valley

 

Some local people told us that the valley was 4 Miles wide and 7 Miles long. We drove to one side and then followed the road up the valley and mountain on a single lane road. Beautiful country and a very thick rainforest cover.

 

 

  Road UP the valley

  kangaroos in the yard at the end of the road

 Part of the Foxground valley

Back to the van and  contacted a lady who had done quite a lot of research onto the '2nd batch' of children for John snr.  His wife Rhoda had died in 1867 and John remarried and had another 4 children.
And that is all for today