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

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Xyxyx special

Take a step back to asimpler, cleaner time

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

Going bush allowedRoderick Eime to relivehis boyhood, temporarily.

SHORT BREAK

HANDS up everyone who re-members when exploring the lo-cal creek meant squishy mudbetween your toes, tadpoles andeven yabbies, not broken bottles,abandoned shopping trolleys anddumped whitegoods.

Sometimes it’s those most basicof pleasures, those priceless mo-ments, that leave the lastingmemories. What happened tothem? Transformed, I fear, intovirtualworlds of social networkingand online swashbuckling.

Stricken with visions of a child-hood disappearing down a broad-band connection, I pried my twounder-14s from their flat panelmonitors and spirited them twohours away from a corruptedSydney to Turon Gates.

Just out of Lithgow, in a fairytale setting on the namesakeriver, the 2500ha property in-cludes glorious river gums androlling paddocks stretching allthe way to the horizon.

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

cabin and flopped. I woke from anear-comatose slumber to thesound of a chorus of magpiesgreeting the rising sun, theirshrill warbles running up anddown an erratic scale.

And I’m sure that was thescreech of a cockatoo or galah inthe distance.

The total absence of alarmclocks, heavy traffic and air

brakes was uncomfortably alien.

At first.

Eager to extract the most fromour short escape, I mustered therecalcitrants and urged them outof their hibernation. Cabins areeither ‘‘mountain’’ or ‘‘river’’ andours is the former.

Evocatively named MoonlightRidge, the full width verandacommands a view all the way toDubbo, or so it seems.

Wild goats gather on the adja-cent ridge, and several un-troubled wallabies can be seengrazing barely 100m away.

Well aware of theneeds of theirtime-poor city cousins, ownersSoren and Sonya Lunoe have arange of environmentallyfriendly andwholesomeactivitiesfor those burdened by the mind-numbing urban routine.

Each river cabin has a canoefor exploring the wild reaches ofthe Turon River that give theproperty its character.

The trail that joins thecabins ispopulated, not by petrol-poweredannoyances, but hikers, horse-back trail riders and theoccasion-al mountain bike.

The large and airy cabins arebarely 12 months old. Cooking isby bottled gas, heating by a lustywood stove, and power by a mod-ern solar electric system. Polite

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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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EXCLUSIVESAVINGS

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

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www.sundaytelegraph.com.au/escape

Sydney

MudgeeNewcastleCapertee

Mudgee

LithgowBathurst

N S W

Turon GatesGetting there: About a21/2-hour drive from Sydney.Take M4 through Penrith andKatoomba, or M2/M7Motorway, exiting RichmondRd to Lithgow. Drive throughLithgow and follow signstowards Mudgee until about1.5km past village ofCapertee (about 25 minsfrom Lithgow); sign for TuronGates is on the left.

Deal: Three-night weekend ina mountain cabin from $480,river cabins $360. Cabins areself-catering, so bring foodand linen, or pay a fee for linen.Camping $22 a car per night.

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

Bookings: (02) 9969 3818 orwww.turongates.com

Lush outlook:One of the cabinsat Turon Gates

notes urge guests to minimisepower use to preserve the bat-teries, but the huge bank ofsealed lead acid cells under theporch looks like it could power asmall submarine.

After a hearty breakfast wemeet horses Jasper, Wizard andCup Cake. The drive down to thestables by the river is along a well-maintained, unsealed road.

Excited children gather in thecorral like a scene from SaddleClub. Kids are supplied with

sturdy helmets and authentic,well-weathered RM Williamsboots. Beginners and experiencedriders are catered for,and the one-or two-hour rides follow the riverupstreampast sheer granite cliffs,powerful stands of ancient, thick-trunked river gums and sprays ofvibrant wildflowers.

Stocky little mountain walla-bies stop and stare for a momentbefore you amble on.

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

moves. He endures several deter-mined tail flicks across the jowlsfrom Cup Cake without dismay,stoppingoccasionally tomunchona tuft of succulent grass.

The caravan meanders past in-tricate and intriguing rock wallsconstructed more than a centuryago by Chinese gold miners.

There’s still gold in the Turonyet, and each cabin comes with apan for extracting a few dots ofshiny ore.

‘‘We bought the land nearly 20

years ago as a weekender,’’ saysSonya, ghosts of city life clearlylong exorcised. ‘‘Now we have 17cabins down here on the river andthe new ones up on the ridge.’’Next to their ownmodest ranch

is a lush green campground, cur-rently occupied by a patrol ofluxury Land Rovers, each parkednext to a neat, military size tent.Kids play innocently with a

collie that delights in a fewrounds of fetch. Yes, pets arewelcome at Turon Gates.

The Lunoes now live full time atTuron Gates, having divestedthemselves of their urbanentanglements some years ago.Soren was a chef and Sonya asuccessful fashion designer.

‘‘Each cabin is privately owned,’’says Soren, still in his dressinggown and busily turning out es-pressos for the string of guestspopping in to register. ‘‘A coupleare for sale at the moment.’’

I do the mental arithmetic andbriefly fantasise about a luxuryinvestment weekender on thefringe of the Blue Mountains, butI’m happy enough just to be re-minded of my own carefree child-hood away from the city crush.

Even though it saddens meslightly to know my own kids willnever experience that, I’m reas-sured by the little effort requiredto find a refreshing pocket ofinnocence so close by.

■ The writer was a guest ofTuron Gates.

THE HOLIDAY PROGRAM OF VIRGIN BLUE virginblue.com.au/holidays

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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