8th September to 9th Ocrtober 2014

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. J
I 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.

8^th 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.
9^th 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.
12^th 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.
13^th 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.
15^th September Said farewell to Jenny and Lyn as they headed back to Wagga and work tomorrow.
16^th 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.
19^th 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.
20^th 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.  24^th September – it bucketed down ALL day and night.  It wouldn’t be a Campertrailer National Meet without rain…….
28^th 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.

1^St 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.

3^rd 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.
4^th 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 5^th 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.
6^th 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
7^th 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.
8^th 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
9^th 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.

Glen Innes 19.10.11

Hello everyone

Friday 14^th October

Well last night the live music was good but the volume and the base were very much over the top and it started to cause me to spin – so Darryl walked me back to the van.  Had to take some extra medication to get me settled L

I was unable to get up until about 11.30am this morning.  I was still quite unsteady for the rest of the day.   Darryl noticed that the fridge in the car was not getting enough power to keep it running so we had to turn it off and take the car for a run to charge the secondary battery.  We headed to Delungra and then west to Warialda.  Six kilometres out of Warialda we saw a sign for ‘Cranky Rock’ recreational grounds.  So we decided to investigate.  Four kilometres of reasonably good dirt roads bought us to a campground and our first sight were three Emu’s grazing. 

There were another couple there from the ACC and we stood chatting to them for a while.  We then went for a walk to the lookout and saw the balancing rocks

  Cranky Rock

and then down into the creek area for a different perspective. 

  Reedy Creek

We had to walk across a suspension bridge and Darryl waited until I was half way across and then he started bouncing the bridge…… L Not a good move…..

 Suspension Bridge

Back to the car and called into the kiosk come office.  There are three powered sites here and they can fit up to 28 RV’s in the area.  Whether this be campertrailers, tents, caravans, motorhomes or campervans.  Reasonable rates of $15 per powered site and $10 unpowered.  Reasonable amenities also.

Back into the car and off to Warialda.  We had visited Warialda last year and it is still a lovely little town. Continued on our way to Bingara and returned just in time for the Blue Ribbon Afternoon tea. (This was to raise funds for prostate cancer awareness amongst the men.  And the group raised $800 to go to the cancer research).

 Doreen and Ken

Saturday 15^th

Today we were up early and off to the township and the iconic Roxy Theatre for a day of presentations. 

 Roxy Theatre built in 1936

 Inside the Roxy

First up was a local truckie who runs a big business and he was promoting safe travel and communication between truckies and the caravanning world.  He gave us some good hints and tips and he was also taking notes to take back to his drivers.

There was a bit of delay before the next presentation so they screened part of the movie “The long, long trailer” with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez.  What a great old movie and you can just SEE some of those events happening today.

 Long, Long trailer

Next we had the ACC legal-eagle give us a talk on most legal matters and the best way to get things in hand.  This was a very interesting talk and we got a lot out of it.  We then took a break for lunch and to return for the AGM.  We took the opportunity to check out the 1950’s milkbar that is attached to the Theatre.  The council is trying to get someone in to re-open the milkbar and operate it in the 50’s theme.

milkbar

 ahh milkshakes.....

We were then entertained by the Inverell Male Choir.  12 men aged from 62 to 85 performed for us for about an hour.  It was very good.

 Inverell Male Choir

Back to the van and getting ready for a group photo before dinner.  This should appear in the ‘Caravan and Motorhome magazine’ issue 168 J  we then went in for the Dinner.  This was very well catered for with lots of well-fed attendees.  Afterward we were entertained by the band ‘Brumby’s Run’ from Newcastle.  The music was fantastic and to prevent a recurrence of Thursday night – I had the use of earplugs and was tapping along to the music quite happily until about 10.30.  Once we returned to the van I was able to remove the ear plugs and sit and listen to the music – what a great way to be ‘rocked’ to sleep J  During the night we had a huge thunderstorm and big winds that truly rocked the van.

Sunday 16^th

Today started out with a communal breakfast at 8am and some people came in their PJ’s as it was early :D.  We were treated to juice, preserved fruit, danishes, eggs, bacon, toast and coffee or tea.  All for $7.50 a head.  Not bad.

This was then followed by the raffle draw.  Darryl and I won two bottles of wine and Ken and Doreen won a set of wheel chocks that can take 8 tonne.  We were very happy to win anything and there was $2,500 raised from the sale of tickets – so another good effort for funds for the local Community fund that supports people with illnesses that are struggling to keep their heads above water.

We then had the closing ceremony.  This did not take long at all and we had people leaving whilst this was going on.  This was disappointing as some were only leaving the showground to go and camp by the river. I think there must have been at least 50 vans pulled out on Sunday afternoon.

Our dear friends Doreen and Ken left Sunday afternoon to go to Bellata to visit Doreen’s sister and mother.  This would take them about an hour and a half.  It was sad to see them leave but it was fantastic having the week parked next to them and sharing so much time together.  Reminded me of when we lived next door to each other in Raymond Terrace J J

Happy hour was quite subdued as we knew that tomorrow many more would be leaving L

Monday 17^th

There were people who pulled out at 5.30am this morning !!!!!! L Seemed a really silly time to be leaving when we knew some only had to travel a couple of hours to get home.  By the afternoon there were only 14 of us left…….  Everyone gathered at 5pm for happy hour over near the main building and then we all went our separate ways for dinner.  We were hoping to have Chinese but when we got there the restaurant had just closed at 7.15pm L  so off to the Imperial pub for dinner and a very filling one it was too.

 not many left

 'Nigel-no-friends' :(

Tuesday 18^th

We were up and packed up by 9.30am.  By the time we said goodbye to those left behind it was 10.15 before we drove out of Bingara.  We arrived at Glen Innes at 11.45 and stopped for lunch before proceeding to the van park.  Whilst having lunch we met up with a couple of ACC members who were on their way home to Queensland.  We pulled into the Glen Rest Tourist Park and met with Helen and Bill again.  We met them when we were here last November with our friends Jenni and Gordy from Maitland.  It was so COLD here compared to Bingara.  Only got up to 22 degrees….  And we had had 31 at Bingara.

 Glen Rest Tourist Park

We joined Helen and Bill for Happy hour and then returned to the van to cook dinner.  We rang Darryl’s brother Neville to check on our niece Samantha.  Sam suffers from Crohns Disease and had to have major surgery on Friday.  She went back to surgery today to remove more of her intestines.  When we rang she was only just coming out of theatres.  Hopefully all will go well now.

Wednesday 19^th

Up early this morning and it was very cold again, only 5 degrees…  We got the two loads of washing done and then headed into town.  We got some groceries and then went to get some supplies for lunch.  When we got back it was to find that Ross and Brigitte the owners of the park, had returned from their holiday in Townsville.  It was so good to see them again.  They have made some really good changes to the park and improved it immensely.  We are going to stay an extra night and spend some quality time with them tomorrow and leave for home on Friday. 

Our trip is almost to an end. L  It is hard to believe that we have been on the road for 18 weeks today.  We are so used to this little space that we are calling home – that I think we will find it strange to be in a whole house again…… J  It will be great to get home and see the family and spend some quality time with them.  Then there will be the chore of emptying out the van and giving everything a really good clean.  We want to put the van over the weigh bridge as we think that the weights they have given us are incorrect.  We think it actually weighs MORE than the rego sticker says.  So for peace of mind – we want to get it weighed empty and then full to make sure that we are not going over the weights specified.

There are some things to come out of the van and the car that we have NOT used over the past 18 weeks.

Hoping that you are all keeping well.