Heading for a drive in the bush with the family is so much easier these days. Satellite navigation systems, air-conditioned cars and being able to book your accommodation on the Internet save frustrations and bickering.
Jules Lund joined a Wheely Good 4WDriving tour in western New South Wales, an area he wasn't familiar with. In fact their tours are so off the beaten track most of their destinations are new to many people.
Owners Peter Roberts and Carolyn Cannon have access to more than 40 hectares of private land. One owner's condition of entry is that visitors stop by and say "g'day".
Even though Wheely Good 4WDing is based in Rylstone where the trip began, they pick up and launch tours from other surrounding locations in their air-conditioned Landcruiser.
Rylstone is three hours west of Sydney. The region sits astride the Great Dividing Range and is the gateway to the World Heritage-listed Wollemi National Park to the east. The Capertee Valley lies to the south and the Goulburn and Hunter river systems to the north. There's certainly plenty to explore.
Rylstone is a charming, historic town settled in the 1830s. It's a centre of long established farming and grazing and there are new business pursuits in keeping with the times, including wine, olives, alpaca breeding and nature-based tourism.
There are four distinct seasons and daytime temperatures can vary from 7°C in July to 30°C in January. Spring and autumn are the ideal times to visit.
Jules was chuffed to meet local characters: Old Col, a successful diamond miner. He showed Jules Yvonne, his 1958 Studebaker. Yvonne had been living in a hayshed but is now running perfectly and is Col's pride and joy.
After some good time with Old Col the trip headed along some hairy tracks and rocked and rolled along until lunch time.
What better than a picnic overlooking the Capertee Valley and the Airly Village with its little miners' houses. In the early 1900s around 3000 mining families lived there in very primitive conditions.
Capertee is the second-largest enclosed valley in the world, second to the Grand Canyon.
On the way down you pass The Grotto, a highlight of the tour. The deep ravine is like a scene from The Lost World. It has various types of plant life an a wet area growing things you may never have been before.
Wheely Good 4WD Tours will tailor a trip to suit you. Check their website.
