Week 13 Sun 13 May – Sat 19 May

Lake Keepit 13 May
After a lazy start we had a look around the camp site which is quite big (around 10 kms) overall. After lunch we drove back into Gunnedah – and as it was a Sunday and Mother’s Day not a lot was opened.  Most shops (if they opened) shut at 12.00 pm.  The only shops open were Coles and Woolworths and the Cheap shops – of which we made the most of before heading back to the Lake.  Unfortunately, today the wind was much worse than yesterday and it was just too windy to sit out for too long – especially at night.  But we still managed to have a fire and cook our Corn Meat and roast vegetables (which by the way were absolutely delicious).

Bingara 14 May

Today we headed to a free camp on the Bingara River.  It was a lovely day bright and sunny with hardly any wind – so we said goodbye to Lake Keepit (saying we would be back) and headed for Bingara.  We arrived around 3.00 pm and as you enter they have now sectioned off a no camping zone to a camping zone.  From the bridge you cannot camp less than 350m – so you have to come down the river a bit.  After the floods, the ground is now pebbly and sandy and has lots of horrible weeds.  A pack of horses were grazing in this paddock and they were covered in burrs – all over the manes and tails and feet.  This must really annoy them and will be horrible to get out. But we managed a lovely fire but it just got too cold to stay outdoors.  That night the temperature got down to -3 degrees – the coldest night on the whole of our trip.  We felt it too – brrrrr!!!

Glendon Camping Ground, Thane  15-16 May

Today we headed to Glendon camp ground (Thane) via Warialda and Texas.  Lots of caravans at the Texas border free camping as we drove through.  We have wanted to go to Glendon Camp Ground for a while but never got around to it – so our time was now.  We drove in the long dusty driveway and checked in – there was only 1 other couple in – so very quiet.  

As there were not many around, the birds decided to move in – so many varieties, and at 6.30 am the next morning we were attacked, by all of them.  They were on the roof, the tables, under the van, around the van – we were surrounded. Help!!! After deciding that we had no food to offer they all eventually left. Yeh!!

We went for a drive through the 4WD tracks, to the Gold Mine area and then later the Picnic Area.  They have not had any rain out here for a while and wow – it is dusty.  The car now looks like an unwashed potato – very dirty, inside and out.  Not looking forward to the clean up when we get home.

Esk 17-18 May

We decided to spend our last two days of our mammoth trip relaxing at Esk.   Esk is one of those places you just have to keep stopping at, even if for a cuppa or to look at the shops.  Every time we pass through this place, we have to stop.  We both love Esk as a destination and it is nice to see that it has fully recovered after all the floods.  Esk has grown over the past year with a number of new art and craft type shops and cafes popping up. We spent Friday just walking around town, looking at all the shops and walking down to the river on the rail trail.  The park has been really well laid out and the one thing that impressed was the fact that there were several water bubblers scattered around the park – normally you struggle to find one anywhere.

Before heading off Saturday, we treated ourselves to a nice Devonshire Tea from the Bakery and then started our short drive home – the realization that this was our last day of our trip. We arrived home and did the ritual unpack of clothes and food leftovers and then went to pick up the dog – who has probably forgotten us.

The trip now seems a distant memory as we settle into the normality of being home, but we will shortly plan our next adventure for next year – but maybe not as long next time around.

Hope you have enjoyed our 3 month adventure as much as we have done travelling it.

Great Ocean Rd

Tracey & Tony

Week 12 Sun 6 May - Sat 12 May

Week 12 Sun 6 May – Sat 12 May

We need to get some much needed miles in, so a couple of overnight trips to get back to northern NSW is now required.

Narrandera  6 May

Today we are heading to Narrandera to a free camp on the river.  We left Echuca at about 10.45 am, then stopped over the border in NSW at Moama, then headed up the highway to Deniliquin.  Being a Sunday, there was absolutely nothing open.  We were surprised, not even the coffee shops were open. Deniliquin is a nice little town with a town centre lake and park – much like all little towns we have visited.

In this part of the world, the only thing you see is farm after farm and dead straight road, and it it is nice to come to the small towns just for a change in scenery. Jerilderie was our lunch stop and this town has a small claim to fame, in that Ned Kelly held the town to ransom over a weekend.  Jerilderie is a really nice town, it has a really nice lake and walk, a river walk and the quirkiness of the Ned Kelly fame, plus a miniature rail ride.  We stayed here for over an hour and a half enjoying the town and its hidden treasures.  Finally, we arrived at our final destination, the free camp at the Narrandera Boat Ramp.  To our surprise there was the Oakbank Brewery prominent landmark on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, which is now just a façade going to rake and ruin. It stopped production in 1986 and is heritage listed, but is in a state of disrepair. Shame as it is a great part of this towns history.  We got our campfire going, watched the moon (closest and brightest in years) rise, and then got raided by a herd of cows, munching away on the grass. They are incredibly noisy at night when you hear them moving and munching away.  The cold weather finally got to us and it was time for indoors – and bed to keep warm.

Forbes  7-8 May

Narrandera has an amazing fact in that it used to have the largest playable guitar, until recently.  This guitar is held in the Information centre – so we went in to have a look – of course.  Got the picture with the guitar and then went next door to see the Tiger Moth.   West Wyalong was our stop for lunch – an odd town as Wyalong grew first, then came West Wyalong.  Now West Wyalong is the centre of town, with Wyalong basically dying with little to nothing here. From West Wyalong to Forbes, we discovered a few more free camps at a few of the little town pubs – not surprising really, but handy to know for the future. We found the Top Tourist Caravan Park on the Lachlan River, a very pretty tidy small little park in a natural bushland setting. We spent our day visiting the Motor Museum and walking around town.

Dubbo  9-11 May

What a big day it was leaving Forbes heading to Dubbo.  We started off visiting the Information Centre at Forbes before heading out of town to Parkes. 

Parkes is a bigger town than Forbes, but nothing really that exciting.  It is really all about the Elvis Festival and The Dish, which is where we headed to next.  The CSIRO Parkes Observatory is quite well done – not too much but just enough displays and information.  The Dish is so much bigger than you expect and quite amazing to see.  We arrived and the Dish was down, and when we came out after reading the displays it was up.  We took copious amounts of pictures and then decided to sit and have an ice cream, as it was quite a nice warm day.  After another half and hour we got hungry so decided to stay for lunch at the Café and while we were waiting the Dish was brought back down to the ground.  So again copious pictures taken while down and again while it was going back up.  After being here for just on 2 hours we finally got going for Dubbo.  The next town was Peak Hill which has an Open Cut Mine – so we walked up and spent another half hour here walking around taking photos.  By now it was getting late and we wanted to be in Dubbo by 5.00pm – which we were. 

Thursday we got away by 9.30 am and headed for the famous Dubbo, Western Plains Zoo. This was one of the highlights of the trip that we wanted to do and one of the last touristy items on our trip.  We spent the whole day driving around each compound seeing and watching the animals, catching a few of the talks by the keepers, which were quite informative.  We had a great day and it was the hottest day in May for over 70 years – it felt like 30 degrees, but I think it was about 27 degrees – after having cold for a few months, I was starting to get a bit hot and bothered by the end.  We didn’t get to see every enclosure, so we have to go back again to finish off.  Luckily the tickets are valid for 2 days, coming and going as many times as you like and going around as many times you like.

We were only supposed to take half a day for the rest of the park, but us being us, we took another full day, leaving at 3.00 pm.  We revisited a few of the exhibits to get the keeper talks we didn’t get too yesterday and I particularly liked the Otters – so busy they never sit still for more than a minute. After the zoo we finally drove into Dubbo itself to have a quick drive by tour of the city and do a bit of grocery shopping.  Tomorrow we are heading to a small place called Premer for our last week of travels.

Lake Keepit 12 May

Saturday we headed out of Dubbo to our destination of Premer.  We decided to avoid the Newell Highway and take the Golden Highway, via Dunedoo, Coolah then onto Premer.  We stopped in Dunedoo for lunch – a nice little town but not a lot there except to stopover, relax and rest.  Next stop was Coolah for a cuppa before heading to Premer.  As we had made good time, we thought it too early to stop at Premer, so decided to keep going onto Gunnedah and then to Lake Keepit.  This is a really nice place to spend a day or a week.  We elected to bush camp but it does have a caravan park with full facilities, which we can utilize even though bush camping.  It is a really lovely spot on the lake and we are literally about 5 foot from the water’s edge and there is hardly anybody here.  The place is massive and can cater for many campers although you compete with the hoards of kangaroos and birds that the place has to offer.

Week 11 Sun 29 Apr - Sat 5 May

Week 11 Sun 29 Apr – Sat 5 May

Smythesdale (Ballarat) 29 - 30 Apr

Today was really cold and a cold breeze was blowing – definitely more clothes required. We made the 20km drive into Ballarat to see the sights and being a Sunday, the Ballarat streets were not busy, and to our surprise a lot of the shops were shut! We made the most of our walk, taking in all the history of this city, so many beautiful, historic buildings and so spread out. 

Ballarat is a big city and the city centre is so spread out, it is hard to understand where town starts and stops as it covers so much area.  The main street is wide and a cleverly designed in one way system so traffic runs in both directions either side a massive centre strip which is lovingly decorated with gardens, bandstand, fountains and beautiful statues.  One thing that Tony & I really noticed was that there were no take away type food shops in the city, all the food places were cafés – making it very hard just to get a pie or something and not a sit down meal.  After lunch we headed out to the Botanical Gardens to Lake Wendouree.  There is a little tram ride here and we just made the stop after parking the car.  The ride is only 1 km long, volunteer based and a really nice and pleasant little ride. The weather was getting colder as the day expired and we could tell we were in for a lovely 0 degrees or less tonight. 

Monday morning we got up late due to it being so cold we just didn’t want to get out of bed – too warm! But we finally got going and headed for the Botanical Gardens which are very pleasant and has a lovely avenue of Giant Sequoier trees and busks of each Prime Minister from 1900 to present day (although Julia is not there yet – ends at Kevin Rudd).  The sun was trying to come out and getting warmer so walking around was becoming a little more bearable. We found a few shops to stock up a few supplies and then made our way to Sovereign Hill.  As it was now 3.30pm it was really too late to go into the complex so we decided to do this on our way out of town before travelling to Bendigo.

Bendigo  1–3 May

It was nice to see the sun and it was a pleasant day much warmer than the previous.  We got away at a reasonable hour and walked into Sovereign Hill by 11.00 am.  We promised ourselves that we had to be on the road to Bendigo by 3.30pm.  Both Tony & I really enjoyed Sovereign Hill, walking around seeing everything on offer, but unfortunately we didn’t get to do some of the tours on offer due to timeframes, with a quick world wind tour of the Mine Museum, which was very good.  We managed to get away and started heading for Bendigo at 3.30pm.  We arrived at the caravan park in Bendigo just on 5.00pm – and set up by 6.00pm, drink in hand by 6.15 pm – not bad.

Bendigo is so different to Ballarat, for one, the city centre is much smaller and a little more condensed but still a very lovely place with some grand buildings, plus trams. We parked the car and then headed for the Tourist Information to get a Discovery Pass (4 attractions at a discounted price).  Our first attraction was the ‘Historical Talking Tram’ which we traveled on to get to the Central Deborah Mine.  The mine tour is 1.5 hours in length and takes you down 2 levels of the mine.  You get to act like a miner with the helmet, headlight and battery pack on while walking through the maze of tunnels underground.   It was a really interesting tour and very dark without lights, wet with the water seeping through the rock but a rather pleasant 17 degrees.  We both really enjoyed this tour and then had a look around the top at the number of other parts of the mine. Again the day disappeared and we still have another 2 attractions to do tomorrow.

The second attraction we visited was the Chinese Dragon Museum and Chinese Gardens.  This was a really good museum and has so much Chinese memorabilia about the mining days and more present settlements, plus some extremely amazing furniture and artifacts.  Of course the other important part of the museum is the fact that they have the oldest dragon over 100 years old (now retired) and the newer Sun Loon and longest Dragon in the world, which is still used every Easter in the Bendigo festival and takes 52 men to carry it.  The head of the Dragon alone weighs 26kgs – hard work but great to watch.  The gardens were also very lovely complete with spitting fish and goldfish in the water.

After this we travelled out on the Talking Tram to the Joss House – a Chinese temple – the only one remaining in the world and beautifully preserved.  There are 3 rooms with a number of temples and as it is still an actual place of worship – there are incense and flowers all over the temples.  A great bit of history preserved.

Friday we were off to Echuca, the home of the Paddle steamer on the Murray River, but before we left Bendigo, we had two more things to do, see the Botanical Gardens (small and pleasant) and the famous Bendigo Pottery Museum.  Surprisingly, the museum was quite well done, and we spent over an hour and a half walking around looking at the various bits and pieces and getting to see inside Kilns.  Of course we had to buy a piece of pottery and we bought a lovely vase made by one of the potters at the museum. 

Echuca  4–5 May

We then made our way to Echuca passing a number of towns in between, Rochester being the biggest.  We are staying at a park on the Murray River not far from the Port.  It is really nice as you can walk along the levy bank to the Port and into town from the park – no car required.  The Murray River stills looks fairly devastated after the last lot of floods, trees raked all over the banks and the scars of volumes of water still dominant, but the Paddle steamers and houseboats still line the shores of the river and still move up and down, going about their business.  We booked a tour on the EmmyLou Paddle steamer for Saturday morning.  The weather was slightly warmer than previous days and the sun was out – a great day for touring on the Murray.

The floods have really devastated the Murray with trees and roots still evident.  But all the Paddle steamer boats are all still running as are pleasure craft and rentals.  We had a great time cruising up the river for an hour and then hit the town – there was shopping to be done.  We found a couple of items that we had to buy and by the time we had done one side over, our tummies took over – ice cream necessary for some sustenance.  Refreshed we did the other side of our shopping spree and then made our way home.    Echuca is an eclectic mix of old and new that really does work quite well – a nice place to stay for a few days.