Category: Roadtrip NSW 2023

“Take me home, country roads”

That’s what John Denver sang … just before he died from massive multiple blunt force trauma in a fatal (plane) crash after his vehicle ran out of fuel.

Our only goal for the day was to achieve the first bit of that story (getting home), while avoiding the second bit (multiple blunt force trauma). Although JD’s plane running out of fuel and Elsie running out of fuel are two quite different scenarios.

It goes without saying that Stanthorpe in the middle of winter is going to be cold, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. When the sun is shining and you are in Queensland, everything just feels warmer. Seriously!

And the fact that the sun had risen over the yardarm some hours earlier probably took the edge off the cold too.

There didn’t appear to be any particular set of rules associated with departure time at the Top of the Town Tourist Park (aka TotTTP), but 10.00am is a reasonable time to pull up stumps and set sail. Sorry about the mixed metaphors.

The nice lady in the office told us that the markets were on at the showgrounds this morning. The more observant of you will realise that they were the very same showgrounds that we were supposed to stay at last night, but the caretakers had to go away.

No time for campers, but all of the time in the world for markets.

And MBW does like markets.

Ironically, the showgrounds were next door to the TotTTP, so it was only a short hobble (for MBW) and we were there in a jiffy.

No charge for entry. We have been there to these markets once before on our last trip to Warwick and Stanthorpe in the middle of COVID, and the experience – from memory – was underwhelming. And that wasn’t COVID’s fault.

It turns out that – for once – my memory was correct. Underwhelming again. We had a poke around, looked at some overpriced handcrafts, and were walking back out the door about 10 minutes later.

Let’s play a quick game of ”Where’s Wally MBW?” Can you spot her in the picture below?

Percy was all ready to go, but he just needed to be unplugged from the power and water and hooked up to Elsie. We were out of the park and on the road well before 10.00am.

Just look at those blue Queensland skies!!

While I have to say that travelling all over the countryside with Percy on the back is my happy place, the closer we get to ”civilisation” (and I use that term loosely), the more anxious I feel. Other drivers on the road are far less courteous and considerate, and I constantly feel at risk of being in a serious accident.

And having our trip end the same way as John Denver’s is not in my immediate forward planning just now.

There was one particular overtaking lane between Stanthorpe and Warwick where some moron in a poo-brown Tesla (which is probably all that you need to know about the guy to judge his decision-making ability) very nearly ran me off the road at just under 100km/h when I ran out of ”slow vehicle lane” and he just HAD to get past me.

Turkey.

The roads were pretty good, considering that we were on a major highway back to Brisbane, but I have to say that some of our national highways/roads are a national disgrace.

Uneven, potholes, patching on patching on patching, and rough. And with Percy on the back you feel every bump and bang a second time when the van hits it. Although they do have plenty of overtaking lanes so that the clueless and desperate can go roaring past you to get where they need to be.

To be fair, many of the other drivers on the road are pretty pragmatic and considerate. There is only a select few that just need a bit more chlorine in their gene pool.

Anyhow, we arrived safely in Warwick, saw a coffee shop and purchased take-away caffeinated beverages, and we were back on the road again.

Past a Hipcamp that we have stayed at previously near Maryvale (we must go back there some time), and over Cunningham’s Gap. Maryvale (population 303) is a delightful little township just off the highway with a cute little pub and the best pork ribs I’ve had in a long time … but that is a whole other story for another time.

It felt as though Percy was resisting me dragging him home. He just felt heavy and sluggish and I wondered more than once if I’d forgotten to release the handbrake before we left … yet we got the best fuel economy on that trip than we got on any other tank of fuel for the whole roadtrip – about 16.5 litres/100km average – despite going up and over Cunningham’s Gap.

Home not long after 1.00pm and unpacked.

Elsie and Percy are both so dirty that I don’t know whether to wash them or plant potatoes.

This is what today looks like.

All up, we (MBW, Elsie and Myself) did about 4,080km total. Percy didn’t do quite that many because we left him parked a few times and went on day trips.

OK, so here is the answer to the ”Where’s Wally MBW?” question.

Thanks for tagging along.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

If I was a cheese, I wonder what sort of cheese I’d be?

Maybe something “rich, crumbly, and spicy” like a Pepper cheese? Certainly not rich though, not after all of the cheese we have bought.

Or maybe something “mature and full-bodied”? I’ll have to give that some more thought.

I’ve mentioned already that we stayed in the Moree Showgrounds last night. A beautiful spot – quiet, green, peaceful. If I’d had more time I’d have done the “pay 3, stay 5” special like all of the other lucky retirees. That would have given us more time to soak our weary bodies in the artesian waters, and go fossicking in the shops in town.

I probably don’t need to tell you that it was cold, but it was cold. 2 degrees that feels like -0.9 degrees. Cold enough to freeze the you-know-whats …

Now in case you think that we have an unnatural obsession with Op Shops, we don’t. We just enjoy poking around in little craft shops and Op Shops to see what bargains we can pick up. I particularly like looking for any autobiographies that are on the shelf, and you can get books so cheaply in Op Shops. $5.00 for 3 books is not uncommon … and it’s a bit of fun that also goes towards a good cause.

We woke to an absolutely stunning day today. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and all was good with the world.

Breakfast, showers, hooked up Percy, and we were on the road by just after 9.30am.

And what a road it was. Fast (110km/h), flat, smooth … everything that you could hope for on your penultimate day of travelling.

A tiger in the tank, all of the horses straining at the bit, MBW sitting up front with me. A bag of Minties to munch on, and coffee in my belly. A great day for a drive. And a great road for driving on.

We overtook a slow-moving road train and I found myself going more than 110km/h, but it all felt safe and secure.

The road we were travelling on takes you to Goondiwindi, and that’s not the way that we were going. We are heading to Stanthorpe, which is further east. It wasn’t long before – surprise, surprise – Dolly wanted us to do a right turn onto the highway to Stanthorpe.

Except it wasn’t a highway 🙁 It was another of those rough, bumpy back roads where you really don’t feel safe going faster than 80-90km/h for fear that you will rupture something internally, or you will be bounced off the road.

I’m pretty sure that I have put on a couple of kilograms during this trip, because it felt like there was an unnatural amount of shaking and jiggling and wobbling going on. I didn’t ask MBW if she felt the same way because … well, you don’t stay married for 38 years if you ask questions like that.

Certainly not a highway, but an OK back road so long as you keep your speed under control.

Until it wasn’t even that any more. It was worse.

Suddenly it was a wannabe road that was in desperate need of some good quality bitumen. I mean it was OK to travel on, so long as you slowed down just a bit more and took care not to get into a slide, and even more care not to shower Percy with stones.

Before long we came to a pretty little township called North Star (population “about 50”) and we had high hopes for a little coffee shop … that either didn’t exist, or we blinked and missed it.

And then? Yep you guessed it. Even the little bit of tar holding the potholes together disappeared and we were on a dirt road – albeit a relatively smooth, wide dirt road. We just had to slow down a little bit more.

And then, it barely qualified as a road. More like a track, or perhaps a driveway. Hmmm, maybe not even a driveway.

36km of dirt. 36km of not much fun. 50-60km/h tops, and if we happened to see something coming the other way – which we did a couple of times – we slowed to a crawl to figure out how we were going to pass each other.

Left turn, right turn, slow down for a rough surface, and then …. we finally saw it. Home.

The air was cleaner, the sky was bluer, the birds were chirpier, the cows were moo-ier, and the world was just a better place. A place where men are men, and we win the State of Origin.

Now to be fair, I had assumed that we we would hear a legion of angels singing as we entered into the Promised Land, but I think it was actually Kenny Rogers singing – for about the 20th time on this trip … “You gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run …” and “you picked a fine time to leave me Lucille …”

Over the Queensland border and we arrived in Texas, Queensland (population 790).

Texas is one of those places that I’d really like to explore some more, as it is a pretty little Queensland country town. And there is an AirBnB that I’ve got my eye on. I might surprise MBW with that one some day.

See the photo above? Definitely mature and full-bodied 🙂

The town’s coffee shop was closed, so we stopped at the little fast food shop promising “hot food” and “great coffee” and we purchased a couple of coffees that were … OK.

The roads from Texas to Stanthorpe were very different again to everything that we have experienced on this trip. Very hilly with lots of tight turns.

A slow trip. Not much other traffic on the roads, but lots of crawling up hills, winding around corners, and going over narrow bridges (hoping that nobody was coming the other way).

And constant reminders that there has been “15 accidents in the last 5 years, and counting”.

Staying tonight at the Top of the Town Caravan park. We were supposed to stay at the Stanthorpe showgrounds, but they called a couple of days ago to say that they (the people that manage the showgrounds) needed to go away for a few days and there was nobody available to manage caravan bookings … so we got a spot at the TotTCP instead.

And a very nice park it is too, with very friendly site managers. I’ll put some photos of the site up tomorrow. If I remember.

We set up Percy, and had a late lunch. Late lunches are becoming a bit of a habit for us. But that’s OK – when you are on holidays you can have breakfast for dinner, and lunch for breakfast if you want to … although we are pretty traditional. Breakfast, then lunch, then dinner.

Even if it means having lunch at 2.30pm because it is simply the next meal for the day.

After lunch, we went for a drive to Jamworks, a little place that we went to last time we were in Stanthorpe. Last time we were here, we stayed at Warwick in a HipCamp (someone’s back 40 acres) on a long weekend, and made a day trip into Stanthorpe.

The thing I particularly remember was that it was the middle of COVID and Jamworks only allowed a certain number of people in the store at the same time.

It was also in the middle of the great toilet paper crisis of 2020 – remember the toilet paper crisis?

So we asked Dolly to take us to Jamworks, only to find ourselves heading in exactly the opposite direction to where we thought we should be going.

But arrive at Jamworks we did, and … while it was Jamworks, it wasn’t the place that we were looking for. We were looking for the place that made and sold the cheese, not the place that made and sold the beautiful relishes that went with the cheese.

We did buy some relishes – Fig and Walnut, Apple and Walnut, Plum and Pecan.

It turns out that the place we were looking for – Stanthorpe Cheese – (the “Cheese” in the name is the giveaway) – was exactly where we expected it to be. So we did a quick dash to the other side of Stanthorpe arriving about 15 minutes before they closed, and did some cheese tasting.

And we bought more cheese. We do like cheese.

Back home to Percy for dinner of steak and salad and chips. We bought one of those handy dandy little air fryers for the van, and it did the chips to perfection. And I cooked the steak just the way we like it.

Tomorrow we pack it all down and make a final run for home, and back to reality.

There is a market here in Stanthorpe tomorrow (Sunday), and MBW does like markets. So we will see what time we wake and are packed to go. Elsie is already fuelled up.

That’s about it for today.

Coffee, Nelson DeMille and off to the land of nod.

This is what today looked like.

You can see the gross error in judgement that we made going to Jamworks instead of Stanthorpe Cheese … but hey, we got to both of them and made a small investment in both 🙂

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

Today we are going to be answering one of the big questions of life: “Why is the sky blue?” I will address that question later.

Yesterday I mentioned the extensive list of rules that govern life here at the Getaway Caravan Park.

After getting MBW’s blessing to publish last night’s post, I went off to the showers. I was concerned that the small shower heads would not give a satisfying shower, but they were good. Well, they were OK.

Not as good as Mudgee showgrounds showers, but then I also didn’t need to wade through ankle deep mud to get back to Percy afterwards.

I probably broke the ”excessive water usage” rule, but I must say that I had a lovely long hot shower and eventually I was feeling relaxed, glowing pink and tingling all over.

I did have a moment of concern though because as I was luxuriating in shower stall #4, I thought I could hear a couple of females speaking close by, and I wondered if I might have gone into the ladies showers by mistake.

While I didn’t see anything in the rules specifically about males using the ladies showers, I did rationalise it by thinking that they shouldn’t need to spell out a rule like that. It should just be common sense.

And then I realised that they shouldn’t need to spell out a rule about defecating in the showers because THAT should be common sense, yet it made the list of rules. Maybe they have a greater problem with people defecating in the showers than they do of men using the ladies showers.

That is concerning.

But it was all good. It was just a couple of pre-pubescent boys whose voices hadn’t broken yet, so all was good with the world again. But I might just mention to the lady in the office that they should perhaps include a rule about weirdos and perverts using the wrong showers, just to be sure.

You never know what happens in these small towns where anyone and everyone can buy a copy of “50 shades of grey” in the local Op Shop.

So here are a couple of fun facts about Coonabarabran:

• I mentioned yesterday that Coonabarabran has a population of 2537
• Coonabarabran has a postcode of 2357. How weird is that?
• If I’d kept reading about Coonabarabran in Wikipedia, I would have discovered that in the 2021 census, Coonabarabran has a population of 3477 … which obviously warrants their own Woolies. Sorry about that misunderstanding.

When we woke this morning it was cold and I have a recollection of it raining during the night, but one peek out the window and the sky was blue. And the sun was shining.

So back to today’s science question: why is the sky blue? Because it’s not raining any longer.

I decided to use the amenities block for my shower again. I was feeling reckless after breaking the “excessive water” rule last night and I was going to do it again. I had to use a different show stall this time because someone was in mine, and the experience wasn’t quite as satisfying as last night.

Breakfast, hooked up Percy and we were driving out of the park by 9.45am, being careful not to break the “out by 10.00am” rule. I was only prepared to be so reckless and didn’t want to push my luck.

MBW wanted to have a quick look at some Crystal Palace on the way out of town, but by the time we got there we just couldn’t be bothered. We are not really into crystals (the “healing” type, anyway), although MBW doesn’t mind the odd diamond … but those are not something in the budget for this trip.

The roads were much better today. Wide, fast(er) with a speed limit back to 110km/h, and much smoother that we have been experiencing lately.

While I will never do the speed limit with Percy on the back, the roads just felt so much safer honking along at 95-100km/h because it didn’t feel like we were about to be catapulted off the road after hitting a dip (or bump) too fast.

We got into Narrabri at around 11.30 and decided to stop for a caffeinated beverage. We found a little coffee shop, but unfortunately needed to park about 200m away because it seems that Narrabri is not a particularly RV friendly town … parking anywhere was tricky with Percy on the back.

The coffee shop that we stopped at served great coffee and lovely banana & walnut cake, but they must have also been the local Yeti dealer because they had everything Yeti.

We did a quick spin through town just to have a look around, and found an Op Shop so that we could continue our search for old-fashioned ice-cream scoops and/or Nelson DeMille novels … we purchased a few books and things that we didn’t really need, but nothing that we were specifically looking for. It’s all for a good cause, I guess.

The more observant amongst you will notice that Narrabri has gone for the “nose in” parking in their main street, which I think is a far better option. With “nose in”, if you see a space you just drive in.

With “rear in”, you don’t really see the space until you have passed it, so it is a bit concerning to be following someone who suddenly sees a parking space, stamps on their brakes and throws their car into reverse to back into the parking space. It is even more concerning when you need to pull up Percy in a hurry so that you don’t run up their clacker.

Anyhow, you will be relieved to know that Narrabri is “nose in”.

It was all pretty pedestrian after that.

We rolled into Moree at around 2.30pm and I asked the nice lady who looks after the Moree showgrounds if we could have something close to the amenities block, and she showed us to a lovely spot. She also said that she felt “sorry for the poor bugger with the broken foot” (MBW, that is). I’ll be sure to pass that on.

Moree showgrounds is a lovely spot, a very friendly lady who looks after the place, and no rules that I am specifically aware of.

We had a quick bite of lunch – yes, I know that 2.30pm is a bit late for lunch – and then headed off into town to find the Moree Artesian Aquatic Centre so that we could soak those aches right out of our bodies in glorious 39.5 degree artesian bore water.

MBW and I have been here (to Moree) once before for a roadtrip (I think it was a long weekend and we went for a drive). The thing I do remember is that it was very hot and we were outnumbered by flies by about 10,000,000 to 1.

We have also been to the artesian baths before and know that they can be very therapeutic. When we got there today and got into our swimmers, one of us discovered that they had failed to bring a towel, so we had to share. No judgement, no blame, but it just showed poor planning.

I did the “right thing” and allowed MBW to go first, so I got the soggy towel once I got out.

As I said, no judgement. Life is too short.

Last time we were here (at the Artesian baths) they had another pool open that is the “hot” pool – I seem to recall it was around 45 degrees. You can only stay in that pool for about 10 minutes before you feel light-headed, but it is wonderful. Unfortunately that pool was closed today.

We went for a quick spin around town, and got some groceries at Woolies (all very dull, I know, but we needed milk, yoghurt, cream, salad and coffee and we had to stop somewhere). Elsie also needed a drink so we fuelled up just to make sure that we had enough to get us to where we are going tomorrow.

We went for a drive down the main street of Moree just to have a look around, but at 4.30pm everything was closing. Maybe we will have another drive through town again tomorrow, on our way out.

Back to the showgrounds and I had a quick look at the 12 pin plug on the van because the fridge sometimes doesn’t work like it should when hooked to the car, and I thought that opening up the plug and oo-ing and ah-ing a bit might help.

I won’t know the answer to that problem until tomorrow, but I would be willing to make a bet that I either a) haven’t fixed anything or more likely b) made it worse by creating another problem.

A few last pictures of the showgrounds in the fading daylight …

You have probably noticed that we have stayed at showgrounds most of the time on this trip. We felt that it was good to support the local show associations rather than caravan parks, although there are a few observations that I’d like to make:

• Showgrounds seem to be a great deal more casual in the way that they are run (where “casual” = poorly organised and managed in many cases). Some of the places we stayed – like here at Moree – are fabulous with great facilities
• Staying at showgrounds means that the facilities are often not as good as you would expect at a caravan park, but then you pay for the privilege at a caravan park. Sometimes showgrounds have no facilities at all (other than power, which was a mandatory requirement due to the cold weather)
• Costs at showgrounds are quite cheap. Here at Moree we paid $28 for one night with power and water, but they have a special where you can pay for 3 and stay 5 nights. And then you spend more money in town, so the town benefits.
• Showgrounds have generally been very wet and muddy, while caravan parks tend to have more permanent infrastructure (roads and paths). Yes I know that it has been raining
• In any case, if you use Wikicamps or Google Reviews, you can get the scoop on the places ahead of time and make an informed decision.

I’ve already done my research and found that the showers here at the showgrounds have big waterfall shower heads, so I will be sneaking over there after dinner for a long hot shower.

Tomorrow we are off to QUEENSLAND! Stanthorpe, to be exact. Tomorrow night will the last night of our trip as we will be home on Sunday. I’m feeling a bit sad about that and looking forward to retirement when we can take benefit of the specials, and be able to be a lot more flexible about where we are going and when.

But it’s not over until the fat lady sings, and she’s not singing yet.

Author’s note: OK, I confess. It was me that forgot to take a towel 🙁 But you probably figured that out a long time ago …

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

Shake, rattle, and roll. Another day battling NSW country roads.

To be fair, we have been through some really pretty little country townships, but the price of that is driving roads that are sub-optimal (at best), and that have rearranged all of my internal organs and plumbing (at worst).

I’ve had a bit of a whinge already about the Mudgee showgrounds, so I won’t complain any more about it. Sadly I forgot to take any photos of the place, but it was like every other showgrounds that we stayed at – muddy.

On the bright side, the showers were amazing, with nice big waterfall-style shower heads with heaps of scalding hot water. They also had free washing machines, so we were able to do a couple of loads of washing. I’m pretty sure that my jeans were starting to crackle when I wore them, so they were certainly due for a wash.

No dryers though, so first thing this morning we packed down everything in the van ready for our departure, and took our wet washing in search of a laundromat so that we could dry it.

There was one thing that I really wanted to do while we were here, and that was to visit an historic township called Hill End that was part of gold rush history, but unfortunately we just didn’t have the time. It would have added a couple of hours and a couple of hundred kilometres to the trip, and we just didn’t have it.

Besides, who wouldn’t rather go to a laundromat any day to dry your smalls that look at an historic township.

Clothes dry, and we went into Mudgee to have a poke around. ”Went into Mudgee” makes it sound like an adventure, but it was really only a couple of blocks from the laundromat. Nothing is far away in Mudgee.

Mudgee is another pretty little country town, although it is unusual in that they have reverse parking in the main streets, rather than front-in parking. Lots of beautiful old churches and architecture to be seen.

MBW and went our separate ways for a short time, while she looked at craft shops (yawn) and I just went for a wander. I was bailed up by a couple of dudes in PPE wanting to know where to find a good pie shop … they must have thought I was a local, and I assume I must have had a ”why can’t we win the State of Origin?” look of despair on my face.

I must make an effort to smile more often so that other people don’t make the same mistake 🙂

We bought a few odds and sods, then headed back to the showgrounds to hook up Percy and head off towards Coonabarabran.

We wanted to stop in Gulgong (population 2,521) for morning tea because a reliable source (yep, the same reliable source that we were supposed to have dinner with last night but he didn’t show …) told us that there is a fabulous bakery there.

Gulgong is only about 35km up the road from Mudgee, but we hadn’t even gone 5km and we stopped at the Honey Haven to check out their … honey.

MBW said ”here, try this” as she shoveled a spoonful of something into my mouth from the testers jars. It was beetroot chilli relish, but I think it only had chilli in it. It nearly too my head off. And I’m sure that will be fun when it has made it’s way through my digestive system.

Onwards to Gulgong. Gulgong is a pretty little 19th century gold rush town that considers itself ”RV Friendly”, except that their streets are way too narrow to comfortably tow a van through the township, and every cross street has a deep gutter across the intersection which makes navigating a bit of a challenge.

The challenge is not to scrape your tow hitch on the ground as you go through, and even more importantly not break your suspension as you tackle it at a very wide angle and the car and van are twisting in different directions on opposite sides of the gutter.

First world problems.

Some beautiful (although likely non-functional) buildings that just begged to have their photo taken.

We found the bakery and had a pie and a coffee and … it was OK. The reliable source must have been thinking of a different cafe, me thinks.

We needed to get some fuel for Elsie. Prices in Mudgee were 20+ cents/litre more expensive than in Gulgong, although goodness knows why. Probably an element of supply and demand, plus all of the mining-related vehicles in Mudgee means that they can price gouge get a better price.

So we had already decided to get fuel in Gulgong, but there were only three possible fuel stations and the decision came down to which one was easiest to navigate into and out of, with Percy on the back.

Out of Gulgong, we had a song in our hearts and a tiger in our tank, so what could possibly go wrong?

Tallawang (population 165). That’s what could go wrong.

Actually it wasn’t Tallawang that was the problem. It was Dolly. If we are going to have a blame conversation, then I blame Dolly.

We were hooting along at about 80km/h and Dolly casually announced “take a slight left onto Tucklan Road”. And then “…stay on Tucklan Road for the next 29km”.

Allow me to present Exhibit A: Tucklan Road …

As you can see, Tucklan Road is not the type of road that you particularly want to travel when you are towing a van. Dirt, rough, narrow … should I go on? I certainly didn’t want to go on Tucklan Road any longer than I needed.

Oh, and nowhere to turn around. We finally found a spot about a kilometre along where there was some space either side of the road, and we executed a beautiful 17 point turn so that we were facing back the way that we had come from.

Bad Dolly.

This is what the road was supposed to look like. I also realised that I hadn’t needed to use the wipers yet today. Hooray!

A brief stop in Dunedoo (population 1,021) to look at some silo art and take some snaps to prove that we were really there …

… and onwards towards tonight’s stop at Coonabarabran.

We made an unscheduled stop in Mendooran NSW (population 275). I say unscheduled because despite feeling like we had been thrown around on a roller coaster for the previous hour or so and just wanting to get to Coonabarabran, we made a bet with each other: if the next town had a coffee shop that scored better than 4.7 on Google reviews, and it was open, then we would stop and purchase a hot beverage.

If none of the above were true (or perhaps any of the above were not true) then we would go without.

So the pressure was on.

Now with a population on only 275, it is reasonable to expect that it is unlikely to have a McDonalds McCafe, or even a choice of coffee shops … but we didn’t see any that I can recall.

But we did see a little crafty shop advertising cheese, and we do like cheese.

So we stopped and bought some cheese plus some finger lime, salt and pepper rub (which went very nicely on our salmon tonight, I must say).

I’m sorry to say that’s about all of the excitement for today.

We arrived at the Gateway Caravan Park at Coonabarabran (population 2,537) around 3.30pm. Not the most friendly soul who checked us in, but they did lose the State of Origin. It’s a quiet caravan park on the south side of town, with an entrance that you go sailing past if you are not paying attention, and then have to do a few right turn, another right turn, etc to get back where you wanted to be.

Here is a fun fact: Coonabarabran has a population of only 16 people more than Gulgong. Gulgong has absolutely nothing of interest and it felt like we had stepped back in time, yet Coonabarabran has several caravan parks, a Woolies supermarket, and several Op Shops.

How is that fair?

Into town to find the local Woolies and buy a few things (milk, bananas, veges for our vege stack tonight, yawn, zzzzzzz) then back to Percy for the night.

An interesting set of rules and warnings at the caravan park where we are staying, including:

• No pets in the cabins (penalty $300)
• No smoking in cabins (penalty $300)
• Tree limbs have a habit of falling, so park at your own risk (accompanied by graphic photos of caravans than now resemble pancakes)
• No late checkouts – be gone by 10.00am or pay extra
• No leaving the toilet block open
• Parents are responsible for their children’s behaviour
• Management reserves the right to charge you more money if you use excessive water or electricity
• No washing your car or van in the park because water is too expensive
• No noise
• No wiping snot on the walls of the bathroom (seriously – that’s what it said!)
• No bleeding on the floor of the toilet blocks (again, seriously!)
• No defecating in the shower (I hope you are not eating dinner …)
• Enjoy your stay (I’m not sure if that is a rule or just some pleasantness??)

I guess I’ll just have to find somewhere else to defecate.

I’ll take some pictures of the caravan park in the morning assuming a) I remember and b) I’m allowed to do so. I will need to check the extensive list of rules.

This is what today looked like. I hope that you are having as much fun as we are (even considering the restrictive defecation rules).

PS I just realised that we are at the Getaway Caravan Park, not the Gateway Caravan Park. There’s probably a rule for that too. I had all the right letters, just in the wrong order.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

I’m not feeling particularly happy or charitable tonight. That’s the bad news.

The ESC is working perfectly. That’s the good news.

I’m getting tired of the rain. Not the rain, per se, but the effects of the rain. Cold, wet, difficult roads. You know how it is.

We stayed at the Cowra showgrounds last night. And when I say showgrounds, I don’t actually know where the showgrounds were, but we didn’t appear to be anywhere near them. When we asked Dolly for directions, she took us to the showgrounds entrance, several streets away.

The place we stayed was somewhere else entirely. And it was wet. And boggy. And muddy. And I have to say that they didn’t do themselves any favours, because there was nowhere for you to direct your grey water except to discharge it on the ground … which exacerbated the problem.

Being the righteous and thoughtful person that I am, I shut off the valve on our greywater tank and collected it all, for the greater good.

I had planned a long hot shower at the amenities block before retiring for the night, but I’d popped over earlier to use the facilities, and the showers were … uninspiring. I can’t really explain that, except to say that it wasn’t a place that I felt like taking myself for a shower, and being able to feel comfortable. I wouldn’t have been able to relax.

It was just one of those uninspiring places. Besides that, I wasn’t sure whether dog-paddle or breaststroke was the best way of getting back to Percy after my shower – figuring that I would only have ended up very muddy again in the process of navigating the vast expanse of water between the shower block and home.

So I elected to have a short, hot shower at the van.

We woke this morning in the usual way – by opening our eyes – and it was around 7.30am again. That is becoming a bit of a habit. One that I am going to have to break because I will be expected to be at work not long after 7.30 when the holiday is over and I am back to reality.

We really are creatures of habit. Showers, coffee, labneh on toast for MBW and muesli with yoghurt for me. Locked everything down, hooked up Percy and off we went.

Off to look at the Cowra Japanese Gardens.

So here is a fun fact. Cowra had a Japanese Prisoner of War facility back in the day. Seems like a funny place to have a PoW facility because it is a long way from anything, but I’ll have to do some research on that.

Anyhow, after the war, and after the bitterness and hatred had subsided (their words, not mine), Cowra formed some sort of alliance with their Japanese sister city and they ended up building a Japanese Garden.

A very pretty Japanese Garden, as it happens.

We rocked up to the venue at opening time – 9.00am – and were asked to choose from a selection of entry options. Adult, senior, child.

Seemed like a funny way to do it, but we live in a funny world. Given that we identify as seniors, we opted for the senior price and the young lady behind the counter didn’t even bat an eyelid. We asked if she needed to see our National Seniors cards and she declined the offer.

I couldn’t figure out whether that means that we look like seniors, or whether she couldn’t have given a rat’s armpit if I’d said we identified as cats.

Anyhow, $10 better in my pocket, I guess.

Despite the incessant rain, the gardens were beautiful. Sorry, I went a bit overboard on the photos 🙁

I wanted to ask if Mr Miyagi would be interested in popping around to our place to give our hedges a bit of a trim, but MBW thought that would be either a) racist or b) in poor taste. I just figured that it was proof that I really was old enough to have seen the original Karate Kid movie when it came out, as evidence of the senior discount.

C’est la vie.

After the gardens we headed off towards Mudgee. There are two ways to get from Cowra to Mudgee – the A41 via Bathurst or the A32 via Molong and Wellington.

We have been through Bathurst previously; in fact it was the last road trip if I remember correctly. So this time we went the other way. Kilometres and time are roughly the same.

But the A32 wasn’t a great road. It was really hard work with Elsie and Percy wanting to bounce in different directions, and another day of playing dodge the potholes.

I’m not saying that the other road was better, but I suspect that it probably was.

Lots of other drivers kept getting held up by some silly old fool towing a caravan at 20km/h below the speed limit, but I let them all pass when I could.

We stopped into Molong (population 1,674) for a coffee at a place that rated very highly on Google reviews. And it was a great coffee, with an equally great chocolate, chocolate chip muffin, plus a nice chat with the friendly chap and his wife who ran the place.

It really is worth a visit if you happen to find yourself in Molong NSW.

We did a quick walk around town in our endless (and fruitless) search through Op Shops for an old fashioned ice-cream scoop (I still don’t know what it is or what it looks like), or any further Nelson DeMilles.

What I DID notice in the Vinnies though was not lingerie, but a couple of copies of ”50 shades of grey” … and it just made me wonder what the ladies in the CWA would think of that if they knew about it.

Molong is a very pretty little town, like all pretty little towns. Old, historical buildings, and a main street wide enough to swing a full bullock team around in one clean turn.

Back to Elsie, and onwards towards our lunch stop at Wellington (population 4,077). A much more industrial little town complete with their own McDonalds and KFC.

A sandwich at the side of the road for lunch, and onwards, always onwards.

We had a few moments of sunshine that raised our hopes and our spirits, only to have them dashed again when it started raining again a moment later.

We passed possibly the largest solar farm in the world …

Roads were predictable and boring. Predictably boring. Boringly predictable. And rough. And just when you thought you were past the worst rough bits, a sign pops up and says “Caution: Rough surface” and they get even worse.

That’s when we knew that Percy’s ESC was working, when he locked on his brakes and I lost about 5 years of my life.

We finally arrived in Mudgee at the showgrounds around 3.00pm.

Even though they don’t take bookings, we called ahead and were told (after we asked for something close to the amenities block to save MBW a long hobble) that they had chosen powered site 22 for us.

They have 23 powered sites, numbering from 1 – closest to the amenities block – to 23 – furtherest away. And we had site 22. Figure that out for yourself.

And we needed a hose that was about 30m long to reach to the tap, and we needed a power cord about 30m long to reach to the power box. Probably 50m long if you wanted to run them both in a way that nobody else would a) drive over them or b) trip over them.

After a follow-up discussion with the camping coordinator, we were told we could move to “17 or 18 if that was more to our liking”. And it was closer to the amenities block. I’m not sure why that offer wasn’t made before. Another mystery.

But we still needed to pop out to Bunnings for hose fittings to join our hoses together, even with site 17.

It’s a lovely showground, but poorly organised, poorly managed, and their whole attitude just made me cranky. Crankier.

Oh and they didn’t give us the toilet code, because we hadn’t paid yet. Even though they were happy for us to pay in the morning. Go figure.

But it wasn’t just us apparently; it seems that they consistently didn’t give the shower block codes to anyone because the opening comment from anyone else in the camping area that you bumped into was ”excuse me … do you know the code to the toilet?”

And the stupid toilet light was on again, and I found myself stumbling around in the dark on the other side of the showgrounds trying to find the elusive dump point.

And it was dark. And muddy. And boggy. And dark. And it’s still raining. And it’s still a long walk to the amenities block, even though we are 5 sites closer than we were before.

Not. Happy. Jan.

Dinner out at the Lawson Hotel for a steak (me) and a Parmy (MBW). We were supposed to have dinner with our middle son who was working in the area up until a couple of days ago, but he has now gone back to somewhere else because that job is finished.

So MBW and I went by ourselves. And we had a lovely meal.

I had myself a long, hot shower in the amenities block to wash away the stress of the day and I’m sure – after a good night’s sleep – that I will be back to my usual cheery self.

It could be worse though. Queensland could have lost the State of Origin. We still have that!

This is what today looks like. Only about 240km, but it took us about 6 hours to achieve it.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

Let’s start today’s post with a sing-a-long, shall we?

The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish … all the way to Cowra.

Yep, it’s raining today. Just to be clear, it wasn’t ”better start building an ark” type of rain … just that constant light rain that makes everything wet. And boggy. And muddy. And complicated.

We woke to the sound of rain on the roof of Percy and you know what that means? It means that we are going to have to negotiate the small inland lake that is AKA the Junee Golf Club Camping area and carpark.

Our planning skills leave a little bit to be desired. We were told that the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is worth seeing and so we wanted to have a look. But unfortunately today (Tuesday) is the first time that the Art Gallery opening times align with our availability.

Actually that is not strictly true. It has been open at other times, but that is where our planning has been lacking. We have never managed to be in the right place at the right time. But today is the day, even if it means that we need to retrace our steps just a little.

Now just to clarify an important point: we are not just some redneck Philistines that sing along to Country and Western Spotify playlists. We are educated and sophisticated people who appreciate the finer artistic exhibits in an art gallery.

I think.

For those of you who are geographically challenged, Wagga Wagga is south of Junee, but today we are heading to Cowra which is north of Junee. See the problem?

We did all of the usual stuff (ablutions, breakfast, coffee) and then we packed down Percy. Wound up the legs, latched the windows, and disconnected the water. Locked all of the things that needed locking. Stowed all of the things that needed stowing. Latched all of the things that needed latching. Put away all of the loose things that could become a missile under the wrong circumstances.

I’m sure you get the idea. Percy was ready to roll … when we get back from Wagga Wagga.

We left the Junee Golf Club to the sound that now epitomises the JGC – the sound of mud being flung off Elsie’s tyres and hitting the inside of the wheel arches as we drive down the road.

We did a quick run down to Wagga Wagga via the Olympic Highway (not the alternative route that Dolly likes sending us along), leaving by 9.00am so that we were in Wagga Wagga in time to get fuel and be at the art gallery ready for opening time at 10.00am.

Why get fuel in Wagga Wagga? At 25c/litre cheaper than anywhere else around where we are or where we are going, it was worth the extra stop. And because Elsie was thirsty. Very thirsty.

We parked in a 1 hour parking zone outside the art gallery and learned that there is both an art gallery and a glass gallery … hmmm … so we asked the nice young lady for advice: “With limited time, do we see the art gallery or glass gallery?”

The art gallery is achievable in one hour, and it was the recommended option.

So off we went.

The art gallery is a lot of paintings, sketches, old photographs and textured paper done by an aboriginal artist.

Interesting, but I’m not sure I really understand it. It didn’t speak to me. It didn’t move me.

We did a quick zip around and found ourselves in the glass gallery, so we had a look there too.

All very clever and interesting, and better than I could do. I’m not sure that I would be prepared to put any fruit into any of those glass bowls … but maybe they are not designed for fruit. What would I know, anyway?

It seems that we were able to see both the art gallery, and the glass gallery, AND make a comfort stop and be ready to head back to Junee by 10.35am. Did you see the two photos above of MBW standing next to one Art Gallery sign and me standing next to another? Did you see the timestamps? One was us going in, and the other us coming out.

And then I had an unpleasant realisation. Maybe we are redneck Philistines after all? Two exhibitions and a tinkle inside 35 minutes.

Absolutely no risk of getting a parking ticket for overstaying the 1 hour parking limit.

They have some very pretty grounds and gardens at the art gallery, which I imagine would be very nice lit up at night.

Back into Elsie and a quick drive through Wagga Wagga, and we were ready to head back to Junee to hook up Percy and get on our way.

Going out of Wagga Wagga we crossed the Murrumbidgee River – something I think I learned about in year 5 (1972?) but I’m sure that I have never seen.

Dolly insisted on taking us the ”alternative route” back to Junee in order to save a couple of minutes, so we played another round of ”dodge the potholes” and I think we did OK. No blown tyres and no damaged suspension, which is always a bonus.

Back to the Junee Golf Club to hook up Percy and be on our way to Cowra.

The road from Junee towards Cowra was wet and treacherous, making for a relatively unpleasant day of driving.

The more observant among you will have noticed that I forgot to put the towing mirrors onto Elsie before we left, and that thought only occurred to me about 15 minutes after we hit the road. Fortunately there was a rest stop at a cosy little place called Illabo (population 144, although I find that hard to believe because we didn’t see a single one of them …) and that problem was rectified.

It was tough going today. We seemed to spend the day hauling Percy up steep hills, yet that seems improbable because Cowra’s elevation is only 30m above Junee’s (310m Vs 280m).

We also saw a contender for NSW’s silliest name for a township: Wombat NSW (population 225, which makes sense. Who could say ”I like in Wombat” with a straight face?)

But it rained, and it rained, and then it rained some more.

Too much rain for the intermittent wipers, but not enough to declare an emergency. An emergency would mean we could justify pulling out the emergency Pringles from the centre console armrest.

Bugger 🙁

Enough rain that the roads were wet and slippery, and every passing truck showered us with spray. Mind you, we were throwing up plenty of spray of our own.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts the broken red Anderson plug that controls Percy’s ESC. I fixed it. I thought it was still broken, but it just needed a new fuse as well as a new plug.

Seeing that cheery green light (= ESC powered up and working) is a happy thought, but it’s a bit like life insurance. You need to have it, but you hope to never make a claim because … well, just because. Because something bad will have happened.

We got to a fuel stop/truck stop at Cootamundra and stopped for a bite of lunch and a hot caffeinated beverage, and we were on our way again …

… and really not much to say after that.

We got into the Cowra Showgrounds at around 3.00pm and it was still raining. Reviews on Wikicamps said that it is a bit boggy. Pfft. A “bit boggy” my eye.

This place makes the Junee Golf Club mudflats look like a desert.

We did a quick drive around town to get some milk and locate the Japanese Gardens, which we want to look at tomorrow, weather permitting. I did jump out of Elsie and get a picture of Cowra just in case the weather is worse tomorrow and Cowra disappears underwater, but the weatherman says rain easing. We will see about that.

Leftovers again tonight and it’s my favourite sweet dry curry that I made a couple of weeks ago and froze just for this trip. Yum.

It’s almost 5.30pm as I’m finishing this post. I’m listening to the rain falling (more heavily) on Percy’s roof. MBW is playing catch-up on MasterChef and I need to get back to my latest Nelson DeMille.

Shame I didn’t bring some goggles and a snorkel … I think I’m going to have to swim over to the amenities block for my nice long hot shower tonight.

Bugger again.

Still, it could be worse. I could be at work.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023.

Another quiet day today. Someone had told us that the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is worth seeing, so we wanted to go and see that while we are here.

It was closed by the time we got into Wagga Wagga yesterday afternoon, and it is also closed Monday … so we came up with a “Plan B” instead.

We decided to go for a drive to Temora (population 4,693), 56km or 40minutes north of Junee. Not a small township, but not a big one either. Big enough that it has a Woolies supermarket and a McDonalds.

I’m not sure if that is considered “progress”, though.

Remember yesterday that I said that sometimes the blog is about the minutiae of life on the road? Well I’m a bit light on quality content today, so strap yourself in for some seriously “down in the weeds” commentary.

We peeked out through the curtains at about 7.30am and saw … blue sky and sunshine!! It was only 3 degrees that felt like 0.6 degrees, but the sun was shining.

Showers and breakfast. MBW had some of that Coolamon Labneh marinated in Chimichurri and Garlic on toast for breakfast, while I had toasted muesli and yoghurt. It’s not hard to see which of us is more committed to staying regular.

We threw a few things into Elsie, asked Dolly for directions to Temora, and off we went.

They call this area the Canola Trail, and I assume that is what is growing absolutely everywhere around here. As far as the eye can see.

I’m assuming that the green stuff growing in the fields is canola plant, and all indications are that at some point it gets bright yellow flowers, which I imagine would be very spectacular. But not something that we are going to see on this trip.

The other thing that grows around here is sheep. And sheep have lambs, and we do like lamb. In fact, we have some pies for dinner and one of them is lamb.

We got into Temora at around 10.00am and did a quick recon, and then parked Elsie to go for a walk.

George Gershwin once (allegedly) said, “Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise”.

Rough translation: “If you haven’t got the right brackets and screws, use tyres to prop up your air-conditioning unit”.

Temora is like every other Central NSW town: pretty, historic, laid back.

It has two (2) Op Shops that we found, and we do like Op Shops. Almost as much as we like cheese. Or lamb.

And guess what? Another Nelson DeMille novel was added to the collection. When we get home, I might just donate them all to our local library because they are severely lacking in Nelson DeMille novels, yet I am finding them all over NSW in Op Shops.

I had a bit of a moment where I though that the PC (political correctness) police need to be notified about a sign that we saw in Temora … but it appears it is referring to a horse.

We boght coffee and drove down to Lake Centenary for some morning tea. A very pretty place indeed.

Back into Temora to have a look at some craft shops (all closed) and a bookshop (also closed) and we decided to head back home to Junee for lunch.

Back in Junee and MBW suggested that we swing by the Licorice and Chocolate factory again, and we made a further contribution to the local Junee economy in exchange for some white chocolate and raspberry licorice. 500g of it.

The box says it is organic, so I assume that means it is good for you?

Back home to Percy for some lunch and a nap. This holidaying is exhausting 🙁

It turns out that there are craft shops in Junee that MBW wanted to visit, so off we went again for a last look around town before we head off to Cowra via Wagga Wagga tomorrow.

Both craft shops were closed (of course), but we had a quick look at the train station and went to the local Vinnies for a poke around.

We went for a quick drive around Junee to see if there was anything exciting that we missed and ended up at the Rocky Hill lookout that was … underwhelming. It looks like the area hasn’t been maintained in the last 10 years and the speed bumps on the road going up to the lookout were redundant, because you had to crawl up the hill to avoid the potholes.

No chance of getting a speeding ticket because the potholes were a far greater risk that the speed bumps.

The view was uninspiring. So uninspiring in fact that I found some moss growing on a rock far more interesting.

That’s about it for today, and that’s about it for Junee. Unless something truly magical (or catastrophically newsworthy) happens in Junee overnight, I will never speak of it again.

Tomorrow we will head down to Wagga Wagga to see the Art Gallery, then back by lunchtime to hook up Percy and head off towards Cowra.

Short and sweet, just like MBW 🙂

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

Where do I start today?

I probably need to start todays post with a warning: There is some graphic content in today’s post and you read at your own risk. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The other thing that I probably need to say is that I don’t write the blog for your benefit. I actually write it for our benefit. It is not meant to be read as a travel guide; rather it is a warts and all travel diary of the things that we see and how we feel at the time.

Sometimes I describe some really exciting stuff and you might go ”wow!!”, and other times I describe the minutiae of everyday life and you’ll just want to poke your eyes out. I am just reflecting on what we do and acknowledging that both the exciting things, and the mundane things together make up our journey.

But it’s nice to have you tag along, and even nicer to see your comments on our adventures (or mis-adventures).

If you cast your mind back a day or so ago, you will recall that we were in Beechworth and I found a Nelson DeMille novel in an Op Shop. The first one in a series of 2 books, where I have already read the second book. I am now the proud owner of book 1 that I can’t even borrow from the local library.

$2.00 I paid for it, and I didn’t think it had ever even been read. I started it a couple of nights ago and guess what? The corner of page 20 was folded over which says to me that someone did start reading it and didn’t get very far before giving up. Certainly they didn’t get to the good stuff that started a few pages later.

Anyhow, the reason that I started this DeMille novel is because I’d finished reading the previous book I’d brought. ”How full is your bucket?” is what I would describe as a ”personal development” book about making sure that every interaction with other people fills their (emotional) buckets rather that dipping from their buckets and leaving them emotionally drained.

I try my best, but goodness knows that there are some people I deal with that leave me feeling like I am dehydrated in a dust storm 🙁 Interactions with them are so emotionally draining that it is exhausting. Their negativity knows no bounds.

But that is another whinge for another day.

In a completely unrelated but nevertheless uncanny coincidence, the light on the toilet came on last night, so that bucket was clearly full also … but in a whole different way from the concept discussed in the book I have been reading.

In any case, the toilet light coming on means just one thing: Geoff has to empty it. That was one of the first jobs that needed to be done this morning.

Just a quick recap: we are staying at the Junee Golf Course. Lovely spot just out of town, with power and water although sadly no amenities. They do have a toilet that we can use inside the club-house, but no showers.

Alas, no dump point either. Think about that for a minute and join the dots.

We woke at the crack of dawn – about 7.00am – and it was cold. A quick peek out of the window and it was also foggy. Not just foggy, but “can’t see your hand in front of your face” foggy.

“You could probably cut it with a knife” foggy. Seriously, seriously foggy. And cold. 4 degrees cold that felt like 2 degrees. Only an idiot would be out in this weather.

And then I heard it. ”FORE!”

Yep, that sums it up. Only an idiot …

Out of bed and a hot shower, and I decided to cook myself some bacon, eggs and tomato to fortify myself for the task ahead.

The toilet canister.

Now in case you have been unable to join the dots yourself, let me do it for you. No dump point means that I have to take it somewhere else to empty it.

I am certainly not too ashamed to empty the toilet canister – that is just the price you pay for not having to wander around a caravan park (or golf course) in the middle of the night, in the cold, when you need a tinkle.

I gave some very serious thought to going around the golf course, starting at the first hole, and emptying some of the canister’s contents into each hole … just to see how many holes I could get around before the canister ran dry. That would serve two purposes: getting the canister empty, and showing my displeasure at the fact that they don’t have their own dump point.

In the end, good sense won the day and I decided to take it somewhere else.

But having to take it somewhere else means having to load it into the back of Elsie and drive it around town until you can find a dump point so that you can make a deposit of liquid DNA.

Solid DNA is not allowed in Percy’s toilet, except in the case of dire or exceptional circumstances such as a zombie invasion or the apocalypse. Anything less that that means holding on until you can find suitable toilet facilities.

And so it was that I found myself driving around Junee at 8.30 on a Sunday morning, fortified with bacon, eggs, tomato and coffee, with a canister of liquid DNA in the back, and looking for a dump point. As I drove, I considered the worst possible things that could happen and I came up with the following list (in order from best to worst):

1. Having the canister tip over in the back and leak. This particular risk was mitigated by placing it inside a plastic tub, so I wasn’t too concerned about that;
2. Being pulled over by the NSW Highway Patrol who decide that they need to perform a particularly thorough search of this Queenslander’s vehicle, and insist on knowing what I am carrying in ”that canister”;
3. Being involved in a particularly nasty nose-to-tail accident, resulting in the unsecured canister going flying past my head, smashing against the windscreen, and exploding.

Fortunately none of those catastrophes occurred, but I did have a great deal of trouble finding the dump point which turned out to be at the Laurie Daley sportsground. Laurie is a Junee native, and obviously so highly respected in these parts that they named a sportsground after him and installed a dump point.

Or maybe they named a dump point after him and installed a sportsground?

And then the next challenge occurred.

At the entrance to the sportsground there is a little guard hut, with a man in it stopping every vehicle and having some sort of conversation, or possibly collecting an entrance fee. I confess to having a mild panic attack and rethinking the strategy of tipping it onto the golf course … but then I realised that there was a side track off the main entry road that led to the dump point … so I casually went down, made my deposit, and escaped back to the golf course.

OK, that’s probably the end of the graphic stuff, and I’m pleased to report that all went well with no crises. Canister empty, hands thoroughly washed.

It certainly gives a whole new meaning to the expression ”I’m just going to splash my boots”.

We decided that we wanted to go for a bit of a drive today. We have three nights here in Junee and a few things that we want to see here, in Wagga Wagga and surrounds.

We packed up a few bits and pieces and headed off towards Coolamon.

I’ve mentioned that it was foggy, but it was seriously foggy.

We made a brief and unscheduled stop at a little dot on the map called Marrar, which was literally a main street with shops on one side only, mostly closed.

Onwards from Marrar to Coolamon whose claim to fame is … a cheese factory! We do like cheese.

Coolamon is a pretty little township (population 2,275) and the cheese factory seemed to be the main attraction open on a cold, foggy Sunday morning.

We got to taste test some beautiful cheeses, made a significant contribution to the local economy, had coffee, and were on our way to the next stop for the day, Narrandera (population 3,746)

Onwards towards Narrandera, we came across the NSW town with the stupidest name that I have ever heard.

Grong Grong. Population 150 … or 287 … who really knows?

Narrandera is known for two things: a big playable guitar, and water tower art. Both were pretty impressive.

By the time we had seen the sights in Narrandera it was close to 1.00pm and we needed to get back to Wagga Wagga to have a look at the art gallery which closes at 2.00pm.

But it takes an hour to get there from Narrandera, so that is clearly not going to happen today.

We still need to eat and we also need to get some groceries, so we headed back to Wagga Wagga anyway as it was the only way back to Junee … other than going back the way we came.

A quick pub lunch of steak sandwiches at Wagga Wagga. They may not be able to play football, but they make a GREAT steak sandwich.

Went to Woolies for a few groceries, and we made the 30 minute trip back to Junee again. The sun had finally come out.

Even though we have a washing machine in the van, it is only good for a couple of hankies and a pair of undies before it gets overloaded, and we had sheets, towels, and other clothes that really needed a wash.

Into town to the local laundromat, a quick load through an industrial sized washer and dryer, and we are back at the Golf Course for a spectacular sunset.

No dinner tonight, as that steak sandwich and chips is still working its way through my digestive system … but I will need a coffee to stay awake for my radio licence class tonight.

Clean sheets, clean towels, clean jammies and no work tomorrow. Does life get any better than this?

We plan to puddle around Wagga Wagga tomorrow, so I’ll tell you all about that later.

This is what today looked like.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

Time to move on from Albury, heading back deep into enemy territory NSW towards Wagga Wagga and Junee.

North, and you know what that means? Towards home. Home is north.

I’m not sure of the correct pronunciation of Junee. I pronounce it June-e, but I have heard others say Jun-ee. The jury is out, although I suspect that the locals will know the correct way to say it.

Another cold day in NSW. It gets light so late here; you wake at 6.30am and think it’s still the middle of the night. By 7.00am it is getting light enough that you can’t justify lying in bed on the electric blanket any longer.

Ablutions, breakfast, coffee. Note to self: buy some more Sultana Bran because I ate the last of it this morning.

MBW told me that it rained quite heavily during the night, but I didn’t hear a thing. Earplugs are a wonderful thing.

The Albury mudflats were even muddier after the rain, so we just needed to brave it and hope for the best. Packing down Percy, I took the opportunity to spread some joy and happiness with the people who set up their camper trailer next to us late yesterday afternoon. I can only imagine how much fun they are having in this cold weather in a camper trailer in the rain.

Turns out that they are Queenslanders also, from Blackbutt. He works at the Kingaroy Hospital and had to treat a lady from Victoria who broke her leg and … zzzzzzz. Argh!

Why do people feel the need to tell me their life stories? I have spent a lifetime trying to cultivate an expression that says “I don’t want to know your life story …” but it must be faulty 🙁

Before we headed off, I decided to change the red anderson plug so that we would have ESC for the journey. Long story short, the plug was changed and the stupid ESC still didn’t work and I wasn’t feeling any love towards the world.

No ESC again, then.

Fortunately it is only a short run today. Albury to Junee is only about 100km and an hour and a half.

There are a couple of ways to go … via Holbrook (remember Holbrook? Op Shop, can’t alphabetise their books, lingerie …) or we could go the other way.

We went the other way.

Really not much to say. These are the days that we enjoy with just relatively short trips so we can take a leisurely drive in the country.

The roads have certainly changed now that we are in ”the country”. Single lane, not quite as fast and smooth as the highways, but back into that country atmosphere where every passing motorist towing a caravan waves at you.

Or maybe they are from NSW and they notice that we are from Queensland and they are … not waving? Like a two-fingered salute? Or a one-fingered one?

When I say that the roads are ”not quite as smooth” as other roads that we have travelled, what I mean is that it can be a bit of a white knuckled ride on roads where there is more patching in the road than original bitumen.

And the pot holes … don’t bother travelling to the USA to see the Grand Canyon. You only need to drive the road from Albury to Junee. There are potholes along that road that are worthy of being a tourist attraction in their own right!

There were a few painted silos on the way that we wanted to stop and look at, but other than that there was not much to see.

The first one was at Yerong Creek (population 173) …

… with the second at Uranquinty NSW (population 909).

In addition to the silo art, the other thing tham amused me on the way were the names of the townships that we either passed through or saw signs towards:

• Burrumbuttock
• Walla Walla
• Wagga Wagga
• Cookardinia
• Little Billabong
• Mangoplah
• The Rock
• Tumbarumba
• Book Book
• Wantabadgery

We got into Junee in time for lunch and had a ham, cheese and tomato toastie, then we were ready to go out exploring.

Ian – the caretaker at the Junee Golf Course where we are staying for three nights – kindly put us in the ”dry” section of the grounds, because it is less wet and less muddy. I would take a photo of the place where we are staying, but I’d need a boat to get over to the other side of the carpark.

Maybe tomorrow.

First stop, the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory. We paid our $4 each (including senior discount) for the tour, and learned all about the history of the factory. We got to sample all of the different types of licorice and chocolate, then spent a small fortune on ”souvenirs” on the way out.

I’m willing to bet that we have consumed most of the ”souvenirs” before we cross the Queensland border again, just saying. In case there are none left when we get home, you will have to trust me that the chocolate coated freeze dried strawberries were AMAZING!

Due to a misunderstanding between MBW and myself, we ended up with two coffees and TWO pieces of cake for afternoon tea. (Come on guys, back me up here. When your significant other points out three different cake options and says ”and we can share”, it’s pretty clear that you are supposed to purchase more than just one piece, right? Right?)

After visiting the chocolate factory and buzzing from all the sugar in that cake and chocolate, the last thing on today’s list was the railway museum.

Good value with the senior’s discount for only $5 each, but well worth seeing a bit of our railway history.

And that is about a wrap for today.

We got back to Percy around 4.30 and had another quick look at the ESC connector, and I have found a blown fuse. That will certainly make it not work.

Me thinks a trip into Wagga Wagga tomorrow for some spare fuses and we might just be back in business.

A bit of a lazy day today, as discussed already. Not many kilometres, and not too much drive time. Planning on going exploring tomorrow around the area. Hopefully we can slip in another tour of the chocolate factory for some more samples 🙂

I’ll have a poke around in the freezer and see what leftovers I can cook up (= reheat) for dinner tonight.

Ciao

#RoadTripNSW2023

I had a really weird dream last night.

I dreamt that we were with another family (but I don’t know who) and they had a young daughter that saw something (but I don’t know what). We all ended up in witness protection and they put us into a very angular secret house that was built on the side of a hill with stunning views over the city (but I don’t know which city).

It was one of those dreams that just kept going, even after I woke up several times. Don’t you just hate that?

If there are any dream whisperers out that that can tell me what it means, I’d love to know.

We had a day in Albury today. A chance to wash out our smalls, catch up on some sleep and see the sights. I could tell you that after a recent Wikicamps upgrade we seem to have lost all of our saved places, and the latest version of Wikicamps is such a dog that it won’t even load. But I won’t bother, because if you have a look at the Wikicamps reviews, it seems that everyone is burning up about the same problem. It’s not just us.

So we had to make plans the old-fashioned way.

Using Google.

We had a lovely sleep-in and by the time we’d had our ablutions, breakfast, coffee, and done the dishes it must have been about 10.00am. So with a song in our hearts and a spring in our steps we stepped out into … the Albury Showgrounds Mud Flats, that were even muddier that last night because it was raining ever so gently.

There were a few things that we decided that we wanted to see around Albury, so we dropped some pins in Google Maps, and decided to look and see what else there is to see surrounding Albury.

Here is a quiz for you. When you have been driving solid for the last 4 or 5 days and you have a quiet day to explore, what do you do? You go for a drive. Of course. We wanted to see the monument, the Hume Dam, some wetlands, and some nearby townships.

It looked like there were a couple of places nearby that were worth exploring, so we packed up Elsie, said goodbye to Percy and headed off.

Left turn, right turn take the third exit, recalculating route … blah, blah, blah.

Good roads, but complicated by the rain, trucks and road-trains on the road, and the spray coming off their wheels. We headed out of NSW and into Victoria.

Our first destination was Beechworth, Victoria (population 3,290). What a pretty and picturesque little town 62km southwest of Albury. It is an historical township that has its roots in the gold rush from the mid-1850. Many of the old buildings are very beautifully restored, and the whole place had a very quaint, old-fashioned vibe about it.

You might notice in one of the photos above that a little cafe in the main street had a blanket hung over the back of every chair – for patrons to use, presumably. That’s how cold it was.

MBW bought herself a beautiful woollen scarf, then we found the local bakery and indulged in coffee, a beesting and an apple turnover.

Across the road was an Op Shop, and we do love Op Shops. MBW is on a mission to buy an “old-fashioned ice-cream scoop”. I’m not quite sure what that is, but I go along with the game. I’m sure that we will find one eventually, but in the meantime I use the opportunity to look at the books and see if I can find any biographies or autobiographies that interest me.

It turns out that I found a very-hard-to-find Nelson DeMille novel that I have been looking for. MBW bought me book #2 in a series some time ago and I really enjoyed it, but I can’t even get book #1 at the local library.

But I found it. In Beechworth!! For $2.00 (plus about $700 in fuel … but let’s not think about that). ”The Gold Coast” by Nelson DeMille, and I am the proud owner of a copy.

But here is an interesting thing about Op Shops – specifically the one in Holbrook that we visited yesterday. Amongst the ladies clothing, I noticed that they had a selection of lingerie.

That raises two quite concerning questions for me:

1. In what universe would some lady think to herself “I don’t need this lingerie any longer, so I’ll donate it to Lifeline”?
2. Even more concerning is that someone would think “I need to get myself some lingerie, so maybe I’ll pop down to Lifeline and see what selection they have available this week”

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

The other curious thing about the Holbrook Op Shop is that their books are sorted in alphabetical order (allegedly).

• Lee Child
• Michael Connelly
• Danielle Steel
• Nelson DeMille

Can you see what I did there? Do you understand it? Nope, me neither. Someone needs to explain to them that sorting in alphabetical order means by surname.

But they have bigger problems … the lingerie, for example.

After Beechworth, we loaded up our purchases into Elsie and headed off to Wangaratta, about 40km due west. By Beechworth standards, Wangaratta is a thriving metropolis with a population of 29,087.

But it was a bust. You can’t get a parking space in the main street within cooee of anything worth seeing, and if you could you have to pay for the privilege of parking. But there was nothing of interest to see other than the trees in the main street that look like they had been trimmed by someone who failed bonsai school.

A pretty little township to be sure, but nothing compared to Beechworth. So we got back into Elsie for the trip home.

Back to Percy by about 2.30pm for a late lunch of a ham and cheese toastie and coffee/tea, then we both had a brief nap. We wanted to look at the local Harris Farmer’s Market to see what there was to see, but from my (possibly ignorant) perspective it was a whole bunch of Alburians ooing and ahing over some ridiculously overpriced organic produce that you could buy for half the price in Coles (albeit not organic, and probably not as fresh).

Home to Percy for dinner. MBW has done a fine job of putting aside some leftovers from meals that we have consumed over the last few weeks and frozen for this trip’s dinners. Nothing beats a tub of satay chicken and rice on a cold, wet, miserable evening.

I’ve decided that we must be a bit of a freak show.

Every time we walk into a shop, people stare at us and ask one of four questions:

1. “WHAT have you done?”
2. “What HAVE you done?”
3. “What have YOU done?” I always feel like that one is directed at me.
4. “What have you DONE?” Ditto

They get a quick, dumbed down explanation that “I broke my foot and needed surgery”, because “I have a lisfranc fracture” just prompts more questions. Inevitably they – or someone they know – has ALSO had a broken foot and they are ever so keen to share the details and compare injuries and recovery times.

Better that than hearing about their difficulty with childbirth, I suppose 🙁

This is what today looks like. Just a drive in the country, really.

The more observant amongst you have probably picked up that we never actually visited any of the local attractions in Albury – the dam, or the monument, or the wetlands. We were too cold and wet to be bothered.

C’est la vie.

Ciao.

#RoadTripNSW2023