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.