Meandarra-Injune

Yesterday we left Nindigully Pub rather weary after last call for drinks was at 1.40am and music being turned off at 2a.m., not that we were partying but trying to get some sleep. We set off in fine sunny weather but this changed as we traveled towards St George with the occasional light shower of rain and of course cold temperatures. We only refueled at St George as we were there last year and continued on to Meandarra, arriving about 2 o'clock at a free camp and were promptly greeted by Tom who gave us a low down on the camp and then asked us what type of music we like and offered us a CD with 339 mp3 filed on it of easy listening songs. After a late lunch we unloaded the bikes and had a ride around town and along a walking track beside the river and  back to the van for a quick sit down in the sun. Today before  leaving we enjoyed a visit to the Anzac Military Museum. It has a fantastic display for a small town and we were very impressed, it even has a Canberra Bomber supported in the middle of the building along with a Grant Tank weighting 23 tons, It has a lot more memorabilia and they have plans to add more as they are receiving more donations.

We back tracked to Surat and head North to Roma where we stopped for lunch and fuel and then to Injune for tonight's stop over. Along the roadside you often come across self seeded cotton bushes. We also saw two wild pigs with about ten little piglets racing off into the bush as we approached.

(P.S.) 'Him' asked 'Err' if she would like to drive today and 'Err' promptly climbed into the drivers seat and took off driving quiet well until 'Err' decided to take a power nap at 100klm hour towing a 2ton van! 'Him' realising that the car was going straight ahead instead of going around a bend shouted out 'what are you DOING?',  or words to that effect,  'Err' snapped into action and resumed steering. Needless to say that 'Him' is now doing the driving.

Nindigully

This morning we parted company with Carlene & Rex they were heading North East towards Harvey Bay and we went North West to the Nindigully Pub. There are lots of people here as it is the Queens Birthday long weekend and the Pub is also holding a fundraising day for the Thallon Cricket Club from a nearby town.

There have been Yabbie races, gumboot throwing, thong throwing, raffles  & auctions. At Happy Hour this afternoon we were sitting on the veranda listening to Adam singing & playing the guitar in the bar when some of the local "boys" who were already well primed, came out and were talking about doing a "moonie" Bazza thought they were only joking but sure enough bare bums were exposed and stuck up to the bar window. We also had an enjoyable meal at the pub, the meals are huge they do this massive hamburger that feeds eight people, wish I had my camera with me ! Tonight there was a great display of fireworks lasting around 10mins, we are now back in the caravan and can hear the entertainment very well. We are camped in a paddock at the rear of the pub, as there has been lots of rain previously and the area down by the river is very muddy and boggy, there are lots of chickens, ducks and a sheep and goat over the fence behind us. Lets hope they don't have and roosters!!

Boomi

Today we left Moree and headed North West to Boomi passing acres of cotton fields with thousands of cotton modules lined up in the paddocks waiting to be picked up and transported on semitrailers.The round module is similar in size to a large round hay bale,

 We only had to travel 100 klms today but after 50 klms the road deteriorated quite considerably with a large warning sign advising to proceed with caution. We had checked at the Information Centre in Moree and had been told the road was sealed but had been damaged by the floods, but had since been repaired. Most of the road was OK but there were quiet a few areas that had been flood damaged, and the verge appeared to be very boggy, so was glad that we did not have to pull over for any large vehicles.

People ask us "what is at Boomi "? We answer "not much" a pub, primary school, general store and a small caravan park that's adjacent to the thermal pool. We had a meal at the pub tonight and that wasn't too bad. The young girl that brought out our meal has to travel the 100 klms each day to go to High School in Moree. She said that she gets up at 5.30am to get the school bus by 6.30am so it is a long day by the time they do the return trip.

Moree

Arrived here at Moree by Tuesday lunchtime, only had time to set up before we saw Carlene & Rex pulling into their site, it was great to see a familiar face from home. The weather was quite chilly on Tuesday but it was not long before we headed to the heated pools. The caravan park where we are staying has five Thermal Pools all varying in temperature from the coldest at 25 degrees to the hottest of 39 degrees some people come here for a couple of months just to enjoy the hot artesian waters. It is so funny to see all the oldies trotting off to the pools in their toweling robes, very much like a gaggle of Geese, Bazza & I feel a little out of it. I was in the pool before 9am this morning after only getting out of it at 9.20 pm last night. Rex and Barry only go in once a day not as dedicated as Carlene and I !Carlene and I are getting a little water logged I don't think we will be going in again tonight.

The weather is on the improve, the last couple of days have been lovely with blue skies and a scattering of clouds temp around 18 degrees, just glad that we are not down the Gippsland area now with all the floods and wild weather. Have seen on the news that Bairnsdale, Paynesville & Lakes Entrance are all flooded and we were only there within the last couple of weeks.

Today I cooked a roll of pork in my turbo oven, along with roast spuds and pumpkin and lots of steamed veggies. Carlene & Rex supplied the wine and it was very pleasant enjoying the sunshine a lush meal, even if I say so myself ! Lots of crackle..yum yum

Tomorrow we leave here after a lovely three night stay and head north west to the little town of Boomi, we have been told that it is a lovely little town and the caravan park is right beside their thermal pool and you get a good meal at the pub. Carlene and Rex have decided to travel with us to Boomi so lets hope it is as good as it sounds.

Coonabarabran

We stayed two nights at Gulgong after our marathon trip on Saturday. Yesterday we had a lazy morning and as the weather had cleared and we could actually see some blue sky we went for a drive to Mudgee. We wanted to check out a couple of the wineries, previously we'd had a bottle of wine from the Robert Oakley Winery and had enjoyed it, so after a visit to the Information Centre to find out the location of their cellar door sales we enjoyed a tasting, and left with a stock for the caravan. We were surprised at the number of Wineries in the Mudgee area and the considerable area the vineyards covered. We had planned to go to a couple of others but after consuming a variety of wines at the Robert Oakley Winery we were feeling quiet mellow and decided to return to Gulgong. I was offered a job there after I mentioned I had done cellar doors sales, Bazza was keen to leave me behind.

Today the weather was still overcast and cool with threatening rain clouds as we headed further north through Dunedoo, Gilgandra and the onto Coonabarabran. We stopped at Gilgandra for lunch and visited the Information Centre where they have a great museum and displays of the 1915 Coo-ee March from Gilgandra to Sydney. During World War 1, a recruitment march to Sydney began in Gilgandra. The march was known as the Coo-ee March, after the distinct call of "coo-ee" they shouted at each town along their journey to attract recruits. Twenty-six men left Gilgandra on 10 October 1915 and by the time they reached Sydney just over one month later on 12 November, the numbers had swelled to 263 recruits.

Queanbeyan-Canberra-Gulgong

We left Batemans Bay on Thursday and tackled the drive up Brown's Mountain we did not find the climb as bad as we had expected, we have experienced worse before. Arrived in Queanbeyan early after lunch and headed straight to Alan & Faye's home as they said they had plenty of room for us to park in their driveway. We met Faye & Alan on one of our previous trips four years ago when we were travelling up to the Gulf of Carpentaria, we then crossed paths on a few occasions and spent some time in Cairns at the same caravan park. Since then we have kept in touch and two years ago met up with them in Rockhampton, unfortunately they will be late getting away this year as Faye has to go into hospital for an operation.

We spent Friday in and around Canberra doing the usual tourist thing of a guided tour of Parliament House and visiting the War Museum then reacquainting ourselves with Canberra and surrounds. The weather was fine but had a very chilly nip to it, especially when we drove up to Black Mountain where the Telstra communication tower is.

Today after a lovely breakfast of eggs and bacon with Faye & Alan we set off  at 9.30am to our next destination of Bathurst. Unfortunately the wet weather had caught up with us again as we travelled towards Goulburn and continued all day. Alan had suggested we take the direct route to Bathurst so after passing through Goulburn we headed north through Taralga & Oberon.Yes it was a good road but he had forgotten a couple of important details such as very, very steep descents and equally steep or steeper climbs out with two very sharp hairpin bends which took the momentum out of the vehicle, we thought we may have started going backwards a couple of times. Must remember not to consume red wine when discussing travel plans. Some of the day was spent travelling through fog due to the elevation as we were passing on the western side of the Blue Mountains National Park. We arrived in Bathurst around 2pm weather still wintery & wet so decided to keep moving north. We finally came to rest at Gulgong after travelling through Portland and Mudgee we pulled in around  5.20pm after travelling around 500klms.

Batemans Bay

We left Moruya very early Tuesday morning and travelled a big 27klms to Batemans Bay, we arrived at the Big 4 Beach Resort before other travellers even checked out. Thought we would get in nice and early to give us a full day here, have had a lovely couple of days weather wise have even cracked out the shorts and three quarters although the nights have been quite cold.

On our way here to Batemans Bay we travelled through an interesting little town Mogo which is only 10klm south of Batemans Bay. As everything was still closed due to our early rise, we decided to travel back down to browse around the main street, the boutique shops displayed the usual arts, crafts and gift wares. After enjoying a light lunch we returned to Batemans Bay where we did some sight seeing around the town and surrounding coastline, it is a very pleasant pretty place. Then it was off to the supermarket to stock up on supplies.

Bazza was up early again this morning as he wanted to wash the car, he had given the caravan a spruce up yesterday and I caught up with the washing and gave the van a quick clean inside as well. After all this cleaning we decided we would go for a ride along the water front on our bikes, only thing wrong with this was our little posteriors were not use to the bike seats. After a nice 7klm ride we were very glad to be back at the caravan park and able to sit in comfort and read for a couple of hours in the sun.