Denise and Barry's Caravan Travels: May 22, 2022

Merriwa - Newcastle

Heading further east on the Golden Hwy our next stop was Merriwa, situated approximately halfway between Dubbo & Newcastle. Merriwa comes to life with the annual Festival of the Fleeces where Merino sheep wear red socks & parade along the Main Street. Merriwa has a mural on their wheat silo of this event with the Merino Sheep in red socks.

While we were stopped for lunch at the Merriwa park Baz found a set of keys, they had a fob for a jeep and he remembered seeing a fellow traveller that had been at Ballimore the night before stopped at this park when we had driven past earlier. Lucky for her she had a NRMA tag on them for lost keys, Baz rang NRM A who then very efficiently connected him with the owner of the keys. As luck would have it she lived in Newcastle and we were travelling there the next day so she was able to collect them from us. We will now be enjoying a couple of nice bottles of wine for our troubles. Very impressed with the service from NRMA.

Newcastle was our next stop initially booking into the Stockton Caravan Park for one night then extending for one more. Thought it was a good chance to catch up with washing, shopping & visiting our friends Maree & Brian, who have come to the sad decision that they are giving caravanning away. We will miss our time together at Burrum Heads as we always seemed to managed a few good laughs with a lot of good natured stirring. We had been rather lucky with the weather but the second day at Newcastle the rain returned & the forecast for the next week is rain all along the NSW coast. This is rather disappointing as there are some beautiful towns & beaches along the coast that are more enjoyable exploring in lovely weather.

Merriwa wheat silo

Lighthouse & breakwater Newcastle

Better for swimming than playing bowls

Ardelthon Ballimore

Leaving Deni we travelled via Finlay onto the Newell Hwy towards West Wyalong stopping at Ardelthon for the night. The township welcomes RV travellers and has available a pleasant free camp alongside a manicured park right in the middle of the town. This free camp also has power available for $2 for 12 hours a real bargain. A walk along the Main Street found us stopping at the local pub for a drink, it is always good to support the local businesses in these small towns as many are struggling or have already closed down.

Putting in a big day around 350 klms we passed masses amount of flooded paddocks especially between West Wyalong & Forbes. The pour farmers are unable to sow their paddocks as most are looking like lakes. We travelled through Dubbo onto the Golden Hwy that heads out to the East Coast. We ended up stopping for the night at another free camp opposite the Hairy Dog Pub at Ballimore. Only worry is it is right beside a train line hope we don’t hear too many trains during the night.

Ardelthon free camp

Frank Bradley 1937 Stawell Gift winner
lived in the community

The London Hotel Ardelthon

Street Art Ardelthon

Flooding between West Wyalong & Forbes

Free camp Ballimore

Ballimore Pub The Hairy Dog

Hobart - Deniliquin

I always have trouble getting my head around going away for 41/2 months but eventually most things get done and we are on our way. We left home Thursday 12th May travelled as far as Longford where we met our friends Keith and Annie and enjoyed a lovely happy hour with them celebrating their purchase of a new home at Port Sorell.

Our boat booking was for the next day Friday 13th after leaving Longford we stopped for morning tea at the Raspberry Hills Berry Farm where we enjoyed delicious pancakes & crepes. We then headed to Port Sorell to have lunch with Annie & Keith at the caravan park as their house doesn’t settle for a couple of weeks. The weather was superb it was very relaxing sitting in the sun passing the time before heading into Devonport to board the Spirit.

We were first off the boat when it docked in Port Melbourne not that it was of any benefit as we were delayed for 20 minutes waiting to collect Jason’s dive tank. As the dive tank is classed as dangerous goods Baz had released all the compressed air as stated in their instructions but nothing was mentioned regarding the storage. Baz had it laying down in the back of the Paj but an over enthusiastic employee seemed to think it was required to be secured standing up! It was then taken from us to be transported in their cage on board. Quiet a few choice words were muttered quietly to himself about wasting his precious time.

Heading out onto the Citilink we had a good run to the Hume Hwy and headed towards Echuca. A good thing that we had decided we wouldn’t stay at Echuca and go further onto Deniliquin as the Southern 80 ski racing was being held on the Murray. Echuca was jammed packed with people, cars and boats with street blocked off it was total mayhem. I am sure we would have had trouble getting into a van park.

We had an enjoyable two nights at Deniliquin staying at the McLean Beach Caravan Park where we were able to walk along the Edward River into the town. Deni is best known for it’s annual Ute Muster that is usually held in October when the town certainly comes alive. While we were there we also paid a visit to the Depot where there is an amazing number of restored cars, buses, fire engines and heaps of memorabilia, a must to see if you are ever in Deni will really blow your mind away.

Catch up with Annie & Keith at Longford

Edward River Deniliquin

Holden FC Crewman at the Depot

Water tower mural Deniliquin

Travels 2021

Covid is once again proving to be causing problems with travelling. As we were unable to travel in 2020 we really needed to go this year to secure our bookings that we had in QLD as we rolled them over last year.

We left a month later than usual boarding the Spirit 3/5/2021 some restrictions were in place on board with masks required in public places able to use lounges & bar but no food available. With the Tasmanian boarders being closed we have been extremely lucky with only a few cases of Covid, as Victoria has had extremely high numbers of Covid we needed to travel directly to NSW without stopping.

After disembarking from the Spirit we headed directly to Tocumal for a fuel stop which is just over the boarder in NSW, expecting to be checked at the boarder we were surprised that we were able to enter NSW without being checked. Our plan was to get into QLD as quick as possible so we travelled big kilometres our first stop was West Wyalong next day we were over the boarder in Goondiwindi. We had trouble going past Moree as we love to stay there enjoying the thermal pools but didn’t want to risk the boarder closing.

Our next stop was Murgon where we met our friends Alison & David, it was lovely to catch up with them spending the night at the free camp in the towns centre we were able to walk to the RSL for an enjoyable meal. Unfortunately they needed to return home the next day so we continued on further north.

We spent the next three weeks in Tannum Sands with our family it was great to see everyone especially the grandkids who had grown & changed so much in 18 months since we had seen them. Leaving Tannum we went on to our usual bookings at Burrum Heads, Bargara Beach & Agnes Waters all up 10 weeks. We found that the talk at the caravan parks was centred around Covid & the travel restrictions that were again coming into place. We were getting concerned about getting back into Tasmania without having to go into quarantine as now both Victoria & NSW had extremely high numbers of Covid cases & Tasmania had put restrictions on anyone travelling through NSW & VIC. We could have chosen to stay in QLD but if things got worse there we didn’t know when we would get back home, the decision was made to do the big trip home via NT, SA and travelling directly across Victoria only stopping for fuel approximately 5,500 kilometres.

Our friends Cheryl & Greg from Tassie decided to travel with us & were lucky to be able to change their boat booking to the same night as us. With a couple of weeks to make the journey we met them at Mt Larcom north of Gladstone then headed north towards Rockhampton turning west on the Capricorn Hwy to Longreach then in a north westerly direction to Cloncurry. Most days we travelled big kilometres between 500 - 600 klms we made sure we would stop every 200 klms for a break not the way we like to travel but we were on a mission. Crossing the boarder into NT we had to stop at the boarder to have our boarder passes checked, ended up the only boarder other than Tassie we had to show our passes after the stress involved in applying for boarder passes. In case we had trouble at boarders we kept all our receipts for fuel & caravan parks to prove that we were just travelling through & were on a mission to get back to Tassie. We had a stop at Barkly Homestead then Devil’s Marbles before making Alice Springs for a couple of nights to wash & stock up & have a rest from the travelling. Up to this stage we were quiet enjoying the journey until around about the SA border I got out of the car and was in extreme pain when trying to walk only consolation I didn’t have pain while sitting in the car but sleeping & walking was a big problem.

Greg & Cheryl had an evening at the Marla pub to watch the AFL Grand Final, I managed to get it on the fetch box in the van as was unable to walk to the pub. Our next stop heading south was Coober Pedy where we decided I should go to the hospital to get pain relief, what a waste of time was that! A

Rottweiler nurse triaged me on the doorstep saying she would have to call a dr in & they wouldn’t prescribe anything stronger than I was already taking. Certainly not interested in travellers! We had a night at Woomera before a well earned stop at Burra for a couple of nights where I was able to see a local doctor who prescribed nerve tablets & pain relief not that it helped a great deal. I couldn’t wait to get home to get to the root of the problem. Upon reaching Tas found out I had two bulging discs that was pressing on the nerve had to have a discectomy to relieve the pressure on the nerve.

Leaving Burra we travelled via Pinnaroo making our way to Bordertown where we would stay for the next three nights before our dash across Victoria, only stopping for fuel & food before boarding the Spirt for home.

Our friends Raeles & Ken wanted us to stop in to see them at Horsham but due to Covid restrictions didn’t risk it, they waited along the highway to wave to us as we passed. Cheryl & I had streamers we waved out the window like a couple of idiots but it was all good fun.

Arriving in Port Melbourne it was a relief to have those big kilometres behind us & just hoped that we had done all the right things to get back into Tassie without having to quarantine. Border closures had been a real pain in the neck for us this trip. There were tighter restrictions on board the Spirit on the return voyage with us having to go straight to our cabin & stay there until we docked. There were supplies delivered to your door & if you needed hot drinks you could call the purser & get it delivered. All was good when we docked & had our passes checked able to go home no hotel quarantine!

Hopefully next year will be less stressful.