Day 14: Lightning Ridge > Dirranbandi > St George > Westmar

A bit of a quieter day today, with a pretty straightforward trip from Lightning Ridge, through Dirranbandi and St George, and onwards to Westmar.

It occurs to me that I may need to be more cautious what I say about some of the places that we see, visit, or pass through. I need to ensure that I don’t say anything derogatory about them.

In yesterday’s post I mentioned a place called “Come By Chance” only to learn from one of the comments that the wife of friends of ours came from “Cumby – as the locals call it.”. I’m glad I didn’t say anything bad, but I kinda wish I’d visited the place now to see what it is like.

It was hot in Lightning Ridge yesterday. So hot that once we set up, I got out of my jeans and put on shorts and my crocs. If you didn’t know that I have a pair of crocs, sorry for disappointing you 🙁 I wore them around the town centre while we were out for a walk, and I didn’t see a single other person wearing crocs.

What does that tell you? Either I am a fashion trend-setter, or … ?

I’m not sure that MBW approves of them either, to be honest. She was with me when I bought them, but sometimes I put them on and she just looks at me, frowns, shakes her head and says “no”.

Last night we spent the night at the Opal Caravan Park in Lightning Ridge. A very nice park with amazing amenities. It looks like a fairly new amenities block with lots of toilets and showers – certainly not the one or two sad and dirty offerings that you see in some parks.

The showers were amazing. Big waterfall shower heads, loads of hot water, a glass screen door so that your stuff doesn’t get all wet while you are in the process of showering, and the shower cubicles were each big enough to fit probably 4 people!

Not that I would necessarily want to share my shower with three others – I like to think of shower-time as “me time”, where I get to solve the big problems of the world.

I did notice that the water feels very soapy. I don’t know how to explain that except to say that you feel a bit slippery afterwards and you feel like you are sliding on the tiles more than you should be. It might be because it is very soft, or maybe it’s bore water. Who knows? I’m sure that someone will enlighten me.

I came out of the shower all red and glowing, and I felt like a new man.

After spending two weeks in the car with MBW I suspect that she may feel like a new man also. Particularly after me wearing my crocs out on the town.

You see all sorts of strange things in caravan parks. There was a van behind us where the tow vehicle (or “tug” as some people like to call it), had the front end up on stands and the bonnet up, with various people standing around and scratching their heads and talking quietly amongst themselves.

Obviously there is a problem. No doubt everyone has an opinion but I expect that nobody really knows what to do next.

I suspect that he may not be going anywhere anytime soon. Personally, I’d be calling the RACQ, or the NRMA. I don’t like getting my hands dirty.

Today was just like most other days that we have had on this trip. Up, breakfast, pack down, connect everything together, and pull out of the caravan park at around 9.00am.

There were two differences today, though.

Firstly it was warm. We started the day at about 17 degrees and by the time we were on the road it was close to 20 degrees. Shorts and T-shirt weather. Beautiful!

Secondly it was overcast (again). Not like it was going to rain – just that we didn’t have blue skies. I think that the blue skies may be a thing of the past as it looks like there may be more rain coming. Bummer.

According to the RACQ website, there is “long-term flooding” on the way from Lightning Ridge to St George, with the biggest problem being near Dirranbandi. I put out a call on UHF40 asking for a road report, but alas I got no response … so we ploughed on regardless.

I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Sometimes I think that the Spotify gods like to have a laugh at our expense. By the time we had pulled out of Lightning Ridge onto the highway towards Dirranbandi and realised that we hadn’t made a deliberate choice of playlist today, we had lost mobile coverage so we had to sing along to whatever was already set up and playing.

I’d been hoping for something “rock and roll” or “shake, rattle and roll” to suit the quality of the roads, but we had to play the hand we were dealt – Classic Road Trip songs.

I’m OK with that. First song: “9 to 5” (Dolly Parton) which is exactly what we are NOT doing at the moment, then “Shook me all night long” (AC/DC) which is exactly what we ARE doing. Then lots of Jimmy Barnes, Midnight Oil, and other stuff that I like.

More bumpy roads, more rearranging of my internal organs, more of my brain being turned into custard … and then something truly magical happened.

We found Queensland. Right where we left it!!

I’d love to say that the roads were smooth and flat, that the grass was greener, that the air was sweeter, and that the coffee was better … but all that would be untrue.

The roads were better for a short while. The speed limit dropped from 110km/h to 100km/h (which didn’t bother me BTW, as I like to putter along at about 90-95km/h regardless).

Then the roads got bad again. And we started seeing more roadkill, but a variety of roadkill, strangely enough.

A few kangaroos, a fox, an emu, several sheep, and an echidna. We tell ourselves that the animals we like – like echidnas – are not roadkill … they are just resting. Having a little sleep, perhaps.

But I’m pretty sure that those sheep we saw weren’t resting. They had suffered some serious impact with a truck, followed by being run over by all of the trailer’s wheels.

We had a very brief stretch of the legs in Hebel QLD, and then kept motoring on towards Dirranbandi.

If I said that Hebel was nondescript, insignificant, and probably the most lifeless place I’ve ever seen, I wouldn’t be exaggerating. Nobody around, no movement, zip. Kind of what you’d expect a place would be like if aliens had visited the township and abducted everyone.

But then if we consider that aliens are smarter than us, and yet they chose Hebel to abduct everyone, then … they probably made a poor choice.

If you come from Hebel however, then I’m sure that it is vibrant, exciting and a fun place to visit … but I’m just not feeling it, sorry.

Onwards towards Dirranbandi – about another 45 minutes up the road, and just in time for coffee at the Green Frog Cafe.

I could tell you a funny story about a green frog on a toilet seat in Hebel, but then you’d know that I needed to stop and make a comfort stop, and I promised MBW no more talk about bladders, toilet stops, recycled effluent or “code yellows” … so I won’t mention it.

Sorry.

Coffee, stretch, a quick walk up and down the main street, and we were off again to St George – another hour or 100km further up the road.

The roads continued to be narrow and rough, all of which makes it a challenge when you have these big trucks loaded with cotton coming at you at 100km/h.

Into St George and we just did a quick drive through of town because we have been there before, but we needed to get fuel, lunch and travel another 100km or so to tonight’s stop – at Westmar. So we didn’t hang around.

Although to be fair, I’d be delighted to come back to St George and Roma another time when I have more time. Like when I’m retired.

We have noticed an increase in roadtrains now that we are back in Queensland. There were certainly lots of semis in NSW, but in Queensland you see the roadtrains with 3 trailers that are about 53m long, packed with sheep.

We are staying at the Westmar Roadhouse and Pub tonight – a free camping facility behind the roadhouse.

Westmar is the epitome of a ”blink and you’ll miss it” township.

There is something of a moral obligation to buy dinner (or something) from the pub when you stay for free, but let’s just say it would have been cheaper to stay in a caravan park with full water and power hookup, than eating dinner in the pub and having a couple of soda waters. Easily half the price, or even less.

Anyway, you live and learn.

353km today, and I have to say it was an exhausting 353km. Long, straight, bumpy roads with very little traffic and very little to see on the way.

The only real excitement – if you call it that – is when we went down into a dip in the road at one point and Percy obviously thought I was in imminent danger, so he told the ESC to apply the brakes of the van unexpectedly.

Code brown!!

There was also the other excitement of the green frog on the toilet seat in Hebel … but I’m not allowed to mention it.

Tomorrow we keep heading towards home. It’s about 400km, so we may just make a run for it and get back a day early. I get the feeling like I am delaying the inevitable by trying to stay one more night somewhere, and these “free” campsites cost a fortune!

We will see what happens and how we feel in the morning.

It was a bit of a sad day for me today … May 4 is the day that my dad died in 2017. He hated road trips, so he would probably think I’m crazy hauling 2.5 ton of caravan all around the country. But I still miss him, particularly when I see things that I’d like to tell him about.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2022

#AlmostHome

#LoveQueensland

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