On the Coast – Over 55 Issue 29 I May/June 2019 | Page 16

Orange
the new Short
Black
Words by Dorian Mode. Photos by Lydia Thorpe
Orange is a cool autumn getaway
for seniors on the coast
Y
ou know you’re old when
you cancel your restaurant/
movie booking to stay home to
watch the 30th Anniversary of
Gardening Australia. But we love
gardens. And for that reason, we
love Orange.
Orange is a NSW country town with
pretty gardens, rolling maple-lined
streets, four distinct seasons, vineyards
and a flourishing cultural scene. It’s here
you’ll find both crisp country air and
a killer short black. Yet it’s only a few
hours from the coast 1 . It is supposed that
Sir Thomas Mitchell named the parish for
The Prince of Orange in the Peninsular
War when both were aides-de-camp to
the Duke of Wellington, whose title is
bestowed on the neighbouring town.
Our digs for this bucolic sojourn
is aptly named Serenity Studio. This
boutique accommodation offers a modern
self-contained cottage on a lazy five
acres and is just a short drive to Orange’s
CBD. Senior readers will adore the prize-
1 Those with a pension card can use the regular Countrylink service to Orange for $2.50.
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S E N I O R S O N T H E C OAS T
worthy garden, which shrouds the
cottage in a potpourri of sun-touched
reds, oranges and yellows. We loved our
cuppa on the terrace, watching the bees
hop from flower to flower in pockets
of sunlight, punctuated by the distant
bleating of a sheep. With Serenity five-
mins out of town, you really bathe in that
luxurious country silence. A tonic. This
is, after all, why you visit the country.
The cottage at Serenity is finished to
a very high spec, even the carpet is
luxurious underfoot. (Having written
travel for over 20 years you notice these
little touches.) So Serenity is highly