3rd December Saturday
A truck came onto site in the middle of the night, very noisy with air brakes , reversing and leaving the engine running, also very cold last night. It is sunny this morning but with a nip in the air (just like home). Left site at 10am heading to Tamworth, stopped at info centre, again very helpful. Popped into Coles for fresh meat, then on way out of town stopped at Big Golden Guitar
(Tamworth is country & western capitol of Oz). Colin spotted a memorial area to Truckers on the same road.
we left on the Werris Creek Rd and stopped at Carrabubula rest area for lunch before arriving at the Australian Railway Monument & museum at Werris Creek. Colin had a go at the train simulator and ended up going backwards. Nice little place. Onwards along Gap Rd to Caroona before joining the Quirindi Premer Rd to the Lions Pk for the night ($7) The drive today has been through the Plains of Plenty - very flat arrable land,(makes a change from hills). Saw lots of Cockatoos in the trees. Spent the evening catching up on journal and charging battery(on the picnic benches until it got too dark to see the keys)
4th December Sunday
Rose bitten again.
Woken in night by neighbours talking till 4am. We got up at 8am and while Rose went for a shower Colin banged a few doors to make sure they woke up(cool). They just woke up got out of their Swags and drove off (dont mess with the Brits). Watching the Gallahs landing on the overhead wires, they keep losing their balance and hanging upside down then flapping to get upright again. Left 9.30ish on road to Coonabarabran where we joined the Oxley Highway to Gilandra where we stopped for lunch at the info centre and Coo-ee Heritage Centre. We had a look round the heritage centre which is full of memorabilia of the Coo-ee march of 1915 in which 25 men , given no support from the army, marched the 500kms from Gilandra to Sydney to enlist for WW1, along the way they recruted over 200 men, announcing their arrival with a call of Coo-ee. The march sparked several others such marches from other country towns. It was quite moving as one of the leaders of the marches William Hitchen was ill when he arrived in England and died at Harefield hospital, never having seen service. Joined the Newell Highway, which is the main roadtrain route to Melbourne, we saw a few, but dorring the week it is full of them. Stopped for the night just before Dubbo at Terramungamine reserve. there are a lot of campers at this site, and including us 3 tents, one of the neighbours told us about a website for casual work which might be useful to us if we can get board and lodging in the future.
5th December Monday
Very windy night, cold as well. Left just after 9.30 heading towards Dubbo where we stopped for oil, bbq beads and bread before dropping onto Mitchell Highway to Wellington, turned off onto Burrendong Way hopefully a bit more scenic.
It is farming country and very dry. At Orange got back onto Mitchell Highway and stopped for lunch, we decided to make for Bathurst and stop for 2 nights at the Big4 campsite($26) but it is a very good site with all the facilities including a pool. Sat in the sun for a while but wind got up and it turned chilly. Colin made a list of jobs to do in the morning. Used the camp kitchen and sat in the TV lounge for a bit in the evening before going to bed.
Rose slipped on the grass earlier and is a bit sore all down one side (no sympathy from Colin all he said was "thought i heard something").
6th December Tuesday
Better nights sleep, warmer with both sleeping bags on and not so noisy. Started out cloudy but sun did come out. Colin doing jobs on LR, gearbox oil, sorting oil leak, and new umbrella clip (old one broke) whilst Rose did the laundry made breakfast and just general dogsbody. Rose also trimmed her fringe again, but not bothering with the rest yet, as when its hot just clip it up,(dont let anybody tell you its hot all the time in Oz, they lie). Went out to racetrack at Mount Panorama,
where they hold the Bathurst 1000,
it has been a race track since 1938 and used as a venue for the Australian GP in the 50s. The endurance race came to Bathurst in 1963 when the track at Phillip Island needed substantial repairs,originally over 500mls (805kms) but later changed to 1000kms in 1973.The Land Rover covered the course in probably the slowest time ever.
The track is a public road and you have to stay within the speed limits, easy for us.
The mounting stage is very steep and twisty,
still it was a lot of fun. Had a look round the centre of Bathurst, some of the buildings are very pretty,
cant get over how wide the streets are. Back to camp to do the ironing (Rose not me). After dinner in tv lounge (warm)me on computer Colin on the PS2, we got chucked out at 8.30pm.
7 December wednesday
Another cold night
down to 6 degrees. Sunny when we got up and left site just after 10am. Took photo of the Big Gold Panner
then took road to Oberon, farming country still. after Black Springs scenery changed to logging country
then twisty very steep roads, now we are in rolling hills between the Abercrombie National Park and the Blue Mountains, it is windy and a bit chilly and we have all the windows and vents closed. Stopped in Goulburn for shopping and took a photo of the Big Merino,
headed down the federal Highway towards Canberra, we couldn't find the rest area we wanted so carried onto the Canberra Exhibition Park for the night. They have a track for Harness racing(horses) and whilst we were eating dinner some of the teams came out to practice,
lovely sunny evening.
8 December Thursday
very grey sky this morning but not cold. Tried to top up dongle but credit card rejected, rang Telstra and after a bit of waiting was told it is a problem their end, as a sorry the girl gave me 1GB for the next month for free (result), but she advised I top up with a voucher next month.
Left the site after 10am and drove into Canberra to Parliament House (they have underground parking for tall vehicles) we had to go through security xrays before entering the building. It is a very modern building
which has a nice feel to it, they have taken some ideas from the British Parliament in that the House of Representatives chamber is green
and the Senate is red.
No politicians about as they are on their long break. As you walk away from the building you can see the Old Parliament House (white building).
It was an enjoyable couple of hours. we headed out to teh Kings Highway towards Batemans Bay, the road surface is better than we've seen for a while, which is good as the road is very twisty up and down with some very sharp bends (25km limit), drove through Braidwood where the film Ned Kelly was filmed (with Mick jagger). when we reached Batemans bay
dropped onto Beach Road till Broulee then picked up Priness Highway to Waldrons Swamp rest area for the night. We were the only ones on the site for a while but quite a few other travellers have pulled in. The weather has brightened up and is warmer, it is staying light longer.
9th December Friday
Lovely sunny hot start to the day. Stopped at Moruya library to upload some photos, the WiFi was very slow so copied the photos onto a memory stick then used library computers. Had a short walk round the town, another interesting town. ON the road again and just past Bodella we hit a traffic jam, 2 cars had collided head on, 1 dead and 1 still trapped in car, so we pulled off into a layby and had some lunch(very carring arnt we). Got talking to a Dutch couple who are over here for 7 weeks in a camper van, they are also finding it very expensive.We were held up for about 50 mins. Carried on through Narooma, it looked very picturesque,
before we stopped at Pambula for fuel and decided to head to Wallagaraugh River Rest Area, but it was right beside the road also couldnt pitch tent beside the Land Rover, so we decided to go to Newtons Crossing Picnic Area instead, we decided to trust the SatNav and map and drive to it from Broadaxe Rd., took a right turn into O'Neils River Rd that took us right through a forrest on tracks just wide enough for vehicle, that took us to the top of a mountain, we had to use 4WD for quite a lot of the time. An hour later than planned we arrived at the site, what an adventure. We are in the trees, no grass and Colin said the pegs feel like going into concrete.
(Very long tiring day). We really are in the middle of nowhere and all alone.
10 December Saturday
Very tired still, Rose stayed in bed and went back to sleep till 8 30. Blue skies through the trees. Saw a small Monitor lizard, took a walk through the trees to the river
but couldnt quite get to it as fallentrees in the way. Another couple turned up with their off road caravan, intending to stay a few days. They were retired (mid 50s) and decided to travell Oz. Very slow chilled day. Had shower in the afternoon with hot water from solar shower. About 6pm it started to cloud over and heard thunder, just after 7 it started to rain so we got into bed and read till sleep.
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