Take a Step Back in Time

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Xyxyx special 2/12/95

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Take a step back to a simpler, cleaner time

STL STL 2 3 4 Drop 21-OCT-2007ED: 1SE 21-OCT-2007 SE

Going bush allowed Roderick Eime to relive his boyhood, temporarily.

HANDS up everyone who remembers when exploring the local creek meant squishy mud between your toes, tadpoles and even yabbies, not broken bottles, abandoned shopping trolleys and dumped whitegoods.

Sometimes it’s those most basic of pleasures, those priceless moments, that leave the lasting memories. What happened to them? Transformed, I fear, into virtual worlds of social networking and online swashbuckling.

Stricken with visions of a childhood disappearing down a broadband connection, I pried my two under-14s from their flat panel monitors and spirited them two hours away from a corrupted Sydney to Turon Gates.

Just out of Lithgow, in a fairy tale setting on the namesake river, the 2500ha property includes glorious river gums and rolling paddocks stretching all the way to the horizon.

Still shackled with the urban stress, we arrived late on Friday, dumped our kit in the spacious

Small pleasures: A tot goes for a trot on a pony at Turon Gates

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LOS ANGELES from

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$849

inc.

STUDENT ONLY FARES

*

taxes

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SINGAPORE VANCOUVER

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one way from one way from

$ 559 *

$ 845*

7

NE inc. taxes FARES FOR EVERYO $ 9* ret urn fro m 35

AUCKLAND BANGKOK BRISBANE

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CORRECTION SIGNATURE: ED

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* one way from $ 52 5 BANGKOK HONG KONG one way from $ 589 * KUALA LUMPUR one way from $ 615 * * one way from $ 965 LONDON MUMBAI one way from $ 879 *

return from

$ 915*

15

one way from

$75 *

25

* GOLD COAST one way from $ 49 LONDON return from $ 1719 * * LOS ANGELES return from $155 9

50

AD

75

$ * MELBOURNE one way from 89

98

ROUND THE WORLD from $ 2175 *

GOLD COAST from

INCLUDES ommodation

$79

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• 3 nights acc ape Pass from $105* ADD A Warner Village Esc

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$ 69 *

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$ 359 *

• 2 nights accommodation • 3 day ranger guided 4WD safari • All meals daily • Return transfers from Hervey Bay

MELBOURNE BOXING DAY TEST

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$ 54 9 *

from

$135*

• 3 nights accommodation ADD beach and bushland horse riding from $75*

SYDNEY

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from

INCLUDES

cabin and flopped. I woke from a near-comatose slumber to the sound of a chorus of magpies greeting the rising sun, their shrill warbles running up and down an erratic scale.

And I’m sure that was the screech of a cockatoo or galah in the distance.

The total absence of alarm clocks, heavy traffic and air

$799

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• Return airfare at Mango Bay Resort • 5 nights accommodation y dail t kfas brea with • Return transfers

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• Return airfare • 4 nights accommodation with brunch and dinner daily • Return airport transfers • Heaps of FREE resort activities

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hurch • Return airfare to Christc mited kilometres • 5 days car hire with unli

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NOOSA 4-STAR

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SHORT BREAK

brakes was uncomfortably alien.

At first.

Eager to extract the most from our short escape, I mustered the recalcitrants and urged them out of their hibernation. Cabins are either ‘‘mountain’’ or ‘‘river’’ and ours is the former.

Evocatively named Moonlight Ridge, the full width veranda commands a view all the way to Dubbo, or so it seems.

Wild goats gather on the adjacent ridge, and several untroubled wallabies can be seen grazing barely 100m away.

Well aware of the needs of their time-poor city cousins, owners Soren and Sonya Lunoe have a range of environmentally friendly and wholesome activities for those burdened by the mindnumbing urban routine.

Each river cabin has a canoe for exploring the wild reaches of the Turon River that give the property its character.

The trail that joins the cabins is populated, not by petrol-powered annoyances, but hikers, horseback trail riders and the occasional mountain bike.

The large and airy cabins are barely 12 months old. Cooking is by bottled gas, heating by a lusty wood stove, and power by a modern solar electric system. Polite

$195*

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^Upon presentation of a genuine written quote from one of our competitors & subject to the availability of that quoted product. *Travel restrictions & conditions apply. Please ask us for further details. Prices & taxes are correct as at 17 Oct 07 & are subject to change without notice. Prices are per person & are subject to availability. Student fares are available to full time students holding a valid ISE/ISIC card and/or be a youth under 26 with a valid IYTC card. Accommodation (if included) is based on twin share unless otherwise stated. Seasonal surcharges may apply depending on date of travel. Additional levies, government charges & other applicable fees may apply & are beyond our control. Taxes are included. Payments made by credit card will incur a surcharge. Service charges from $15 per one way Trans-Tasman airfare apply to in-store & telephone bookings. Gold Coast: Accom is based on dorm share. Cairns: Accom is based on dorm share. Fraser Island: Accommodation based on quad share. Fiji: Accom is dorm style with shared facilities. Melbourne: Accom is based on dorm share. Sydney: accom is based on dorm share. London: Accom is based on shared facilities. New Zealand: Vehicle insurance and bond applies and is to be paid direct. Age restrictions may apply. USA & Canada: Program participation is subject to participant meeting specified requirements. Flight Centre Limited (ACN 03 377 188) trading as Student Flights. Departing Sydney. Lic No. 2TA2719.

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October 21, 2007

escape

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

www.sundaytelegraph.com.au

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■ The writer was a guest of Turon Gates.

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Getting there: About a 21/2-hour drive from Sydney.

Take M4 through Penrith and Katoomba, or M2/M7 Motorway, exiting Richmond Rd to Lithgow. Drive through Lithgow and follow signs towards Mudgee until about 1.5km past village of Capertee (about 25 mins from Lithgow); sign for Turon Gates is on the left.

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Deal: Three-night weekend in a mountain cabin from $480, river cabins $360. Cabins are self-catering, so bring food and linen, or pay a fee for linen.

Camping $22 a car per night.

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To do: Bushwalks, canoeing, horse-riding, gold-panning, mountain bike riding, camping, swimming and trout fishing.

Bookings: (02) 9969 3818 or www.turongates.com

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moves. He endures several determined tail flicks across the jowls from Cup Cake without dismay, stopping occasionally to munch on a tuft of succulent grass.

The caravan meanders past intricate and intriguing rock walls constructed more than a century ago by Chinese gold miners.

There’s still gold in the Turon yet, and each cabin comes with a pan for extracting a few dots of shiny ore. ‘‘We bought the land nearly 20

Bathurst Lithgow

CCMYK MY K 2

sturdy helmets and authentic, well-weathered RM Williams boots. Beginners and experienced riders are catered for, and the oneor two-hour rides follow the river upstream past sheer granite cliffs, powerful stands of ancient, thicktrunked river gums and sprays of vibrant wildflowers.

Stocky little mountain wallabies stop and stare for a moment before you amble on.

Jasper, my very relaxed mount, isn’t about to scare me by sudden

years ago as a weekender,’’ says Sonya, ghosts of city life clearly long exorcised. ‘‘Now we have 17 cabins down here on the river and the new ones up on the ridge.’’

Next to their own modest ranch is a lush green campground, currently occupied by a patrol of luxury Land Rovers, each parked next to a neat, military size tent.

Kids play innocently with a collie that delights in a few rounds of fetch. Yes, pets are welcome at Turon Gates.

The Lunoes now live full time at Turon Gates, having divested themselves of their urban entanglements some years ago.

Soren was a chef and Sonya a successful fashion designer. ‘‘Each cabin is privately owned,’’ says Soren, still in his dressing gown and busily turning out espressos for the string of guests popping in to register. ‘‘A couple are for sale at the moment.’’

I do the mental arithmetic and briefly fantasise about a luxury investment weekender on the fringe of the Blue Mountains, but I’m happy enough just to be reminded of my own carefree childhood away from the city crush.

Even though it saddens me slightly to know my own kids will never experience that, I’m reassured by the little effort required to find a refreshing pocket of innocence so close by.

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notes urge guests to minimise power use to preserve the batteries, but the huge bank of sealed lead acid cells under the porch looks like it could power a small submarine.

After a hearty breakfast we meet horses Jasper, Wizard and Cup Cake. The drive down to the stables by the river is along a wellmaintained, unsealed road.

Excited children gather in the corral like a scene from Saddle Club. Kids are supplied with

Mudgee Mudgee Capertee Newcastle

PR OOF

Lush outlook: One of the cabins at Turon Gates

PR OD

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www.sundaytelegraph.com.au/escape

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Package price is correct as at 3rd October, 2007. During some periods air and hotel pricing may not be available and surcharges may apply. Prices are subject to availability and not guaranteed until the booking is completed and confirmed. A credit card service fee of 1.5% of total package price is applicable. Prices based on direct route from Sydney where applicable, including taxes, levies and other government charges which may vary and are subject to change. Seasonal surcharges may apply. Hotel rates quoted are based on double occupancy, per room per night, unless otherwise noted. Prices based on lead-in room, additional room types available. Charges for extra persons and/or children may apply and will be charged directly by the hotel. Valid until the 31st October, or until sold out for travel between Oct 16 – Dec 13, 2007 and Jan 17 – Mar 17, 2008. Package conditions apply. Blackouts and further conditions may apply. Prices per person, twin share. cummins © VA 8838/ST

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www.sundaytelegraph.com.au THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH escape October 21, 2007 5

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