So sorry for being sooooo tardy with the updates to the
blog.
We have been having a full-on time and hope that you will
understand. JI will do these updates in a staggered format – otherwise you will be inundated with news.
Hoping that you are all keeping well and safe.
Barb and Darryl.
8th
September Today we went into the
Terminus Hotel at Temora for a lovely lunch with our dear friends Elaine and
Rob. Afterwards Rob took us on a guided
tour of the Air Museum and we spent a lovely 3 hours going through the displays
and listening to the history of the aircraft from a knowledgeable person.
Back to the house and spent a great afternoon in fantastic
company.9th September We said our farewells to Elaine and Rob and then headed off through West Wyalong to Condobolin and set up camp in Wendy and Ian’s driveway. We all went into Condobolin for dinner as Ian and Wendy had a Garden Committee meeting and then we had our dinner afterwards.
12th September Today we were joined by Lyn and Jenny as they have come to stay for the weekend. We met them in town and had lunch at the Royal Hotel and then back to the Research station.
13th September We had a slow morning and then prepared to go into town for the street parade for the Condobolin Pipes and Drums Tattoo and then on to the RSL club for the entertainment for the evening.
A fantastic night was had by all and it was lovely to see so many young members in the bands.
15th September Said farewell to Jenny and Lyn as they headed back to Wagga and work tomorrow.
16th September we headed off to Dubbo and our friends Jenny and Doug. Was soo good to see them and spend a few nights with them both. Jenny spoilt me by making lots of lovely biscuits and slices.
19th September. We waited at Jenny and Doug’s for our friends Robyn and Lindsay to arrive and then we headed off towards Glen Innes and the Campertrailer group National meet. We stopped at Bingara on the river for the night. A lovely free camp site right in town. The town offers free camping all the way along the Gwydir river.
20th September. We made our last leg of the journey to Glen Innes and set up at the showgrounds. There are all sorts of rigs here and it is really good to meet up with some of our dearest camping friends. We have got rigs here from ALL mainland states/territories and Tasmania. We are going to spend the next week here and participate in different activities and seminars on all things camper trailer, camping, 4WD and maintenance. We also have some charity days – where there will be markets and morning teas etc with all funds raised going to local charities. 24th September – it bucketed down ALL day and night. It wouldn’t be a Campertrailer National Meet without rain…….
28th September. We have left Glen Innes after a fantastic week and have headed out to Tingha (SE of Inverell) where we stayed with our friends Sandra and Tom Smith. Very gracious hosts and was lovely spending three nights with them. They have a lovely property and we were given a ‘Cook’s’ tour of half of it….. Such a lovely part of the country. We look forward to meeting up with Sandra and Tom again at the ACC (Australian Caravan Club) National Muster at Lucindale in SA towards the end of October.
1St
October. We said a sad farewell to Sandra and Tom and headed off to find a
camp on the Mehi River out near Walgett BUT all the camps were a LONG distance
from what should be the river. Darryl
decided that we would keep driving and in the end we stopped at
COLLARENABRI. What a great little place
this was. The free camp had flushing
toilets and hot showers – a real treat for all the travellers.
3rd
October – As we were travelling we were seeing the Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone
(FFEZ) signs and thought that we had until AFTER Mount Hope to dispose of our
fruit and veggies BUT as we got near GILGUNIA, there were disposal bins and big
signs – so we pulled over t the rest area for lunch and whilst there stewed up
the apples, ate the Mandarins, finished off our salads and then continued
on. We arrived at Mt Hope and set up a
camp opposite the pub for the night.
Decided to treat ourselves to dinner – what a dismal excuse for a meal
this was L VERY disappointed. Even Darryl was disappointed with his
meal. I could understand to a degree
about mine because they had to cater to Gluten Free request but a small piece
of overcooked steak, 2 slices tomato, 1 slice of cheese, 2 slices of cucumber,
½ a lettuce leaf and 3 slices of beetroot was not worth what was charged.4th October. We travelled the short distance down to Hillston and camped at the Caravan park. We were there early but I wasn’t well and it was sooo warm that it was best just to pull over and let me sleep off the Meniere’s and the heat. In the afternoon we managed to go for a walk along the street and have a look at the town. A nice little place that is struggling (like a lot of others) but the people are just so friendly and willing to chat about the local area. I remember from doing the LEDWIDGE tree for my cousin Rhonda, that some of the family came from here – and found a listing for F. Ledwidge on the Memorial in the main street.
Unfortunately the 5th October was NOT a good day. The world kept tilting on its axis and I stayed vertical for the majority of the day. The’ brainfog’ that followed was not nice and took a few days to disperse.
6th October. We headed off today, although I wasn’t 100%, and travelled via Merriwagga and stopped off for a looksee. Here we found Frank Ledwidge on the memorial in the main park of town, and then continued until we made it to HAY. Here we found a lovely camp in town at Sandy Point. Right down near the river and easy access to the swimming ‘beach’ on the river. Lots of picnic tables and shelters and access to flushing toilets. During the afternoon we saw about another 4 vans roll in that had the ACC stickers or wheel covers on their vehicles. It turned out that these people were all heading to Lucindale in a tag-a-long from Sydney.
We enjoyed a great happy hour with new friends, in amongst the strong winds and dust. It took a whole ten minutes for the van to be completely covered in dust. L
7th October, Darryl has hurt his back L. How???? Who knows!!!! I had him laid up with the TENS machine on and I went into town to get a new hot pack as the old one had sprung a leak. I know the NEW recommendation is to put ice on the muscle but Darryl finds this increases his spasms and prefers to us heat. This afternoon he managed to come out and join in the Happy Hour – albeit with his TENS machine attached. We had gone around the surrounding vans in invited them to Happy Hour as well – so we ended up with about 30 people sitting in a circle. We have been asked by the Sydney City Slickers group if we would like to tag-a-long with them for the next couple of days before we go our separate ways on our journeys to Lucindale. So we have agreed.
8th October. Darryl and I headed off at about 9am (I was driving as Darryl’s back was still causing him grief) to go and find the dump point and then went into town and filled up with filtered water at the Information Centre and then out to the highway for fuel before pulling over and waiting for the rest of the group – another 6 vans. We waited for about 30 minutes before thinking that we had missed them – so headed on our way. We travelled west towards Balranald and then south to Tooleybuc and then west again to Manangatang. A lovely little village that has got a ‘travellers rest’ area in town that offers flushing toilets and hot showers.
We visited the local takeaway and made a donation for the use of the facilities and then waited – as none of the other vans had arrived. It took about an hour and then the others arrived and they ‘rounded the wagons’ in the parking area and set up camp. It was quite comical as they really did look like the old western movies where they circled the wagons in case of Indians attacking. That night we went across to the pub and had a fantastic meal with great company. When we left the pub it was to realise that TONIGHT was the night of the RED MOON. So for the next hour I took photos of the moon. In the end I gave up waiting for the eclipse to pass and went to bed J
9th October. We went on our way at about 9.30am and headed towards Ouyen. Here there is said to be AUSTRALIA’S BEST VANILLA SLICE. We were meeting up with another van from Canberra and Peter was already in Ouyen and he was directing us to a good parking space at an old service station very close to the Ouyen Bakery. We all parked the vehicles and headed up the road and most of us had vanilla slices (I had a lovely fruit and yoghurt muffin GF) and a coffee. We then wandered the street and checked out some of the shops and then the renovated ROXY theatre. The local ladies opened the building so we could have a look through and inform us of the works that had been done. Once we were back at the vans we said our farewells to the Sydney City Slickers as they were going to Bendigo and we were continuing across towards Pinaroo in SA. As we drove out of town, Darryl and I agreed that the Vanilla Slice was not the BEST that we had ever had, and the story at the bakery even admitted that they had NOT won a GOLD medal for their vanilla slices in the past 14 years.
We made it to 25km NW of Naracoorte at a large camp spot with two other campers.
