The Big day has arrived

Well here it is Sunday 31st January, the big day for the crossing to Tassie. We drove down from Numurkah today after farewelling Laurie and Timmy and Annie and Skye and it was a very easy run being mostly highways and freeways. Sure am glad I had the GPS as I would have been totally lost in Melbourne, it has changed so much since I was last here. We  somehow took a few wrong turns once we were off the freeway but still managed to to find the terminal.

We have had to park  in the back streets to wait until loading time as the area around the terminal is packed with Sunday revellers. Allan's problem with not being able to separate the car off the trailer has cost him an extra $245 to get it on board. Must be the most expensive brake switch in history with all the inconvenience it has cost. I offered to back the car and trailer into the ocean to solve the problem but the offer was refused.

Last night at Numurkah we had a couple pull in with a camper trailer and they had been to Tassie several times and gave us some good tips. If we do every recommended "must do" tourist thing we will end up in the poor house. This couple are going over tonight on the same ship so we should meet up again with them.

Today on the road down we passed through some of the burnt out country from the Victorian bush fires from 12 months ago and even now you can see the devastation, it must have been horrendous for those involved.

This is some of the artwork we have seen on the way. Pity about the body!

A Day of Rest

Well we haven't travelled far today but have met up with friends Laurie and Timmy and Annie and Skye. I think Timmy recognised me and jumped all over me, but maybe he is that friendly with everyone he meets. Had Buffalo Pie for lunch at one of Laurie's favourite eating places, it sure pays to have someone with local knowledge.

Laurie very generously lent us her car to run into town to stock up, not with fruit and veggies though as we cannot take them to Tassie. This is the first time we have met Annie in person, although we felt we knew her through the club forum, what a lovely person. Laurie's new rig is just great and I tried to get her to accept a Coaster as a trade in but no luck. I'm sure she is going to be very happy with it.

We have decided to have another rest day here tomorrow and do the run into Melbourne on Sunday morning.

Alan is having some troubles with the Hyundai he is towing with the battery going flat and today he had another auto electrician look at it. Discover he had a broken brake switch on the pedal causing some problems and effective having no brake lights while driving it but they still work while it is being towed.. We decided to take it off the trailer to run in to Shepparton to try and get a new switch but while the switch is broken the car cannot be put out of "park" effectively making it impossible to get it off the trailer. Life wasn't meant to be easy!

While we were sitting outside tonight just on dusk two possums  just came strolling by no more than a  couple of meters away from us, Apparently some of the people here feed them and they are quite tame.

General Comment

We have been motorhoming for about eight years but basically long weekends and short on schedule trips to get somewhere and be at something. This is the first time we have been able to really relax and take our time and smell the roses. I am typing this as I sit outside the motorhome and gaze across Lake Mulwala and to be quite honest I am finding it hard to concentrate on what I am typing.

It is amazing how unwound we have become and what happened happens. The occasional person strolls by and stops for a chap and suddenly half an hour has gone by, surprisingly most of them have already been to Tassie and offer some advise or help. I'm having trouble remembering what day it is and quite frankly don't care, and I think Wendy is getting the same. I could get used to this style of life.

We're getting close

Well here it is day twelve of the trip and we are camped at Kyffins Reserve just north of Yarrawonga. Today we moved on from Police Paddocks which was quite restful on the Murray river and took our time not travelling very far at all. We spent quite a bit of time in Rutherford and helped the local economy by buying some provisions and particularly some fruit as we are now in the fruit fly zone and couldn't carry fruit into it.

Funny part of the story is while looking for this site we crossed a bridge and find ourselves back in NSW and we can't legally take the fruit we bought in VIC back over the border. Sure is a ridiculous situation.

The trip has been relatively uneventful but Allan has been having trouble with the battery in the vehicle he is towing on a caddy constantly going flat and needed to be recharged. I think this is due to the ridiculous way the auto electrician has wired the lighting set-up. Today the battery seems to have said enough is enough and has given up the ghost and he will have to tow it into town tomorrow to have things attended to.

We are tonight camped on the edge of a man made lake and there is quite a breeze. Always seems a pity to me the those who build these things don't have the foresight to remove all the trees as this lake is littered with dead trees standing in the water.

We will camp here for a couple of nights and then move on to Numurkah where we will catch up with Timmy and his driver. Timmy has his own blog and you can see it at http://www.dogdogs.com.au/ Timmy and his driver are great company and we have enjoyed their company in the past when Timmy and his driver camped at our place.

Just about every second person we talk to is heading for Tasmania or offers to carry our bags if we let them climb aboard. Might be quite busy down there.

Day Eleven

Left Lockhart today for the short journey to Corowa just north of the Vic border. The country we drove through was flat and dry and you couldn't help feeling for the farmers in the area.

As we were approaching a small town called Urana Allan called on the UHF to say his spare wheel was flapping around in the breeze. The top bracket on the tyre holding swing arm had broken and temporary repairs were effected (probably last the whole trip)After all that hard work LOL we had a cuppa and went on to Corowa where we pulled into a park for lunch.

As soon as I stepped out of the bus I noticed water dripping from several place where my water tanks are fitted and I immediately thought the worst that I had split a tank. A quick dive into the boot soon found a leak where the water pipes entered the hot water system. Repairs were simple by tightening a couple of nuts and it was discovered that I had only lost about five litres which we soon replaced. It is amazing how much area five litres of water can cover on a bitumen car park. Just lucky we were parked on bitumen or we may not have noticed it and could have arrived at our next bush camp without water.

Tonight we are in camp at Police Paddocks about 10k outside Corowa. While there are no facilities the peace and serenity is amazing parked right on the Murray River with the bird life and the most amazing sun set. I have taken some photos to send to my Son in Law to make him jealous (he loves river fishing)

Tomorrow we will probably move on to yet another Murray River camp as there are many in the district and we have a few day to fill in before having to be in Melbourne.

Day Ten

Oh Boy! we had a real long trip today, about 70k south to the lovely little town of Lockhart. We are camped in a very nice little park just down the street from the shopping centre. As we drove into town the first impressions are great with the town looking very prosperous but on closer inspection the town is struggling with many of the shops closed.

The town is steeped in history with bush rangers and early settlement. Mostly the building have retained their early charm and much of the history of each building has been engraved on the wall or embossed in the footpaths.

Wendy fed the geese in the park today and was real brave until they got a bit cheeky and started demanding food. They mustn't have a water problem here as there are sprinklers going everywhere in the park and it is a green oasis amoungst a very dry surrounding country.

We have had an easy day today and rested, Alan and Maureen still are not out of their air-conditioned motorhome, having a nanny nap and it is 5.15pm as I write this.

Tomorrow we are off to the Darling and will be camping along the river bank. Lets hope the weather improves.

Day Nine

Well we left Boorowa this morning in cool conditions which was a pleasant change from the day before but the heat grew during the day. We travelled about 30k to Harden where I stopped to look up fellow CMCA member Geoff "The Sauceman" Crocker. Geoff is multi talented,making sauces, artist, writer, publisher and editor as well as inventing various machines etc. On top of all that he is a genuine funny guy and nice to boot.

Alan and Maureen reckon the trip would have been worth it just to meet Geoff.

We had lunch in a park at Harden  before journeying on via Cootamundra and Junee to Coolamon where we discovered a very expensive caravan park provided by the local community for the traveller. $8.80 per night with power with excellent facilities. Can highly recommend this site to anyone travelling in the area. U don't know how they do it but it is certainly an attaction to the travelling fraternity as the park is well patronised tonight.

Must be time for happy hour so will sign off for today.

Day Eight

We said out farewells at Molong having met up with some people from WA and went on to Orange. What an impressive town with lovely streets lined with trees or all shapes and colours, beautiful parks and gardens and the sort of town you could spend a week in and not see everything. Parking for motorhomes was not plentiful as they all have this reverse in parking in NSW and Allan with his car behind(which can't be backed up) takes up a lot of space. We eventually found a car park a few blocks from the main street and squeezed in. After we got in I did wonder if we were going to get him out again but managed some how, now doubt he will claim it was his driving skills.

I went looking for a Telstra shop to get the change to the new increased data allowance on the data pack I am using for mobile internet and got an increase from 400MB per month to 1GB per month without increasing my cost. About time Telstra woke up to themselves and became competitive. So friends and family you can send through the jokes again LOL

From Orange we headed for Canowindra and the "windra" part of the name sure is true, we ran into some severe cross winds and had to fight the bus all the way with gusts seeming to come from all directions. When we stopped for lunch the wind was so hot, must have been 40+ degrees it dried out everything, including the sandwiches, with in minutes. We escaped back to the comfort of the closed up bus with the air running full blast where it was a "comfortable" only 33 degrees. The air-con and fridges were working hard this day.

We proceed on to Cowra, a nice town with lots of history. There was a Japanese POW camp here in WW2 where a mass escape was made and lot of prisoners were shot. The war cemetery attests to this event. Liked this town with its lovely parks and garden and a magnificent rose garden right on the highway.

We finished the day at Boorowa and once again decided to camp in a caravan park to have air-con but what extremes we have. First the day was HOT, then just on dark a howling wind blows up and we all batten down for the night then this morning (Sunday) as I write this there is a COOL breeze.

I wonder what today will bring. Only about 700 K to get to get to Melbourne so we will now slow down and smell the roses as we have 7 days to get there.

Day Seven

Well today is Friday and completes our first full week on the road. We got away from Premer quite early at 8am which is really 7am but are slowly getting used to the daylight saving time but it is still a bit strange sitting out at night at 8pm and still daylight.

From Premer we went south Coolah, Dunedoo and stopped at Gulgong and had lunch in a nice little bakery. Gulgong impresses with its quaint narrow street and it's old world charm with much of the town still in it's 18th century condition. The girls went shopping and us blokes went looking for the Museum which I had heard was a "must do" thing. You enter through what looks like a small corner shop and a whole world of acres of memorabilia and machinery of all sorts and sizes confronts you. Could have spent a whole day there but there who must be obeyed we waiting back at the motorhomes and we had to move on.

From Gulgong we went west to Wellington, quite an impressive town and then moved along the Molong road where Camp5 had three possible camps site listed and we intended to stop for the night. The "campsites" were an absolute disgrace, being nothing better than a patch of bitumen truckie stop and in our opinion should never be listed in a Camps Book. However it was stinking hot, the hottest day we had experienced so far so we pulled into a nice little caravan park at Molong and turned on the air-conditioning and soaked it up. Lots of others seemed to have the same idea and we had met quite a few nice fellow travellers.

Pleasantly cool this morning as I write this but no guarantee it will stay that way. We are now entering country neither of us have been in before so who knows what the day will bring.

Day Six

Well we have been on the road almost a week and today we are having a rest day at Premer a small country Town west of Tamworth where the Country Music Festival has been in full swing.
Premer is typical of small country towns that have seen better days with dilapidated buildings, a school and a very small country store where you very importantly get an ice-cream, milk and a loaf of bread
amongst other essential.

Yesterday we left Split Rock Dam for Manilla and of course we found a perfectly good bitumen road all the way instead of the road we used to get to the dam.
We left a bit earlier and Allan and Maureen and they caught up with us in the town. I am starting to think I must be very important in this part of the world
have found Arthur Streets, Arthur's Rest and Arthur's Seat, obviously all named after me.

From Manilla we planned to take the Keppit Road via Lake Keppit but somehow missed the turnoff in Manilla and ended up on the Carol Gap Road on which there was a turnoff to the Keppit Dam which of course we took
and after travelling about 6/8k down a dusty road were met with a sign saving private property, no public access. Did manage to get both the rigs rather dirty and dusty for our efforts. Just after returning to the roadway we came across a gliding school just beside the road
and stopped for a while to watch their operation. Brought back memories of my gliding days at Kingaroy,was tempted to say lets stay for the day and have a flight but thought better of it.

We continue on to Gunnedah where we had morning tea/lunch in a park. Had a most interesting conversation with a 72 year old wheat farmer who was driving a B-Double delivering his wheat to a dealer.
Just so happened he was a caravanner as well and we had a great time chatting to him.You meet the most interesting people on the road. You should have heard his opinion on day light saving and politicians who make these decision without ever being in the west to see the effects. In fact he still had his watch on real time as his own personal sort of protest.

He was also rather critical of media reporting of recent floods in the area with "They weren't major floods, just covers a low level bridge and some creek or another(can't remember the name), in 55 I sat on my roof for three days, now that was a flood."

We then continued on through Mullaley to Premer where we arrived early afternoon and settled into the camp. We were sitting having a cuppa when the airforce
put on a display for us with F16s screaming over our camp at about 100ft on low level exercises and disappearing in the distance before you could catch your breath. Quite spectacular for an aircraft enthusiast like me. We have heard them in the distance again today but I guess they are not using us as target practice today.

Done the Washing today and repaired Allan's door (well actual his motorhome door) which he broke the handle on the first day out.Everyone, except me, is currently asleep in there rigs with the air-conditioning on as it is quite hot outside today.

Day Four

Our Travel map is here 


We left Wells Crossing after a very peaceful night camped on the Severn River. There were five rigs in camp and we were the first to leave. Went back into Ashford to have a look at the town and it is a pity to see these small country towns dying with lots of empty shops in the main street. Went on to Inverell and had lunch at the RSM club (RSL to us Qlders) and had a great meal for $7.00. After refuelling, the dearest so far, we went on to Bingara via Delungra and Alan showed us where he had camped in the leadup to the Bingara rally, lovely spot on the Gwyder River, but it was too early to camp so we went on to Baraba and pulled into the Lions Park rest area just south of town for afternoon tea. The site was not our cup of tea for an overnight stop being right on the highway with trucks constantly going past so we opted to head for Split Rock Dam.

Our adventure started when I set the GPS for the camp site and it took us down a very narrow dirt road (Allan was barely able to get his trailer through some of the cattle grids) for 11k with no sign of a dam anywhere.There was nowhere for Allan to turn around with his trailer so we had to keep going. Eventually it told us we were at our destination at a road Junction in the middle of cattle paddocks. Somebody obviously got the co-ords terribly wrong. We did however see lots of country the normal tourist would not see.

We eventually found the camp site which overlooks the almost empty dam and Allan shouted me a hot beer for happy hour, that is how we found his frig hadn't been working all day. I think we have now fixed the problem, but neither of us know exactly how, but we did have to eat all his ice-creams before they completely melted.

Happy days tomorrow as we head towards Premer.

Day Three

Well today has been uneventful after yesterdays "excitement" and we met up with Allan and Maureen at Texas today and have now entered into the dreaded daylight saving time. I am typing this at 7.12pm sitting outside the motorhome is broad daylight with the sun still hot enough to fry an egg. Seems strange how these southerners think this is a good thing but I guess we will get used to it as we journey further south. The country down this way is looking great with recent rain and all the locals seem happy, I guess it is about time they had a good season after all the droughts. Must download a few pictures from the camera and post them on here

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EDIT! Early day 4 and boy did it cool down overnight, good practice for the summer chills of Tassie.Last night was a beautiful of sky and we spent some time counting lots of satellites, haven't done that since I was a kid.

Day Two

Well we have had an exciting day today, left Kumbia and was a few Ks down the road when I realised I had programmed the wrong town into the GPS and we were heading the wrong way. Well having no set plans we continued and eventually went through Dalby, Cecil Plains, and finished at Walpole Park in Millmerrin where we spent the afternoon with a solo traveller and later joined by another couple. The exciting part was the arrival of a male person in a car who was obviously intoxicated/drugged and continued to spend the rest of the afternoon in the camp site. Long story but local from across the road got involved because of their concern at his behaviour. He eventually sped out of the camp site nearly collecting a motorhome and promptly lost control of the car and almost crashed back into the camp site before speeding off around town and then toward Cecil Plains. Police were promptly informed and last we knew police, ambulance and fire brigade were seen travelling hastily towards Cecil Plains. We can only assume this idiot has become another statistic.

The whole episode has shaken Wendy and the solo lady up a bit but we were actually in no danger and hopefully we will get a good nights sleep. A big thanks to local Jim who kept calling into the campsite to ensure our safety and keep us informed on what was happening.

Off tomorrow to catch up with our travelling companions a bit further down the track.

Day One

 

First Night Camp at Kumbia Rest Area

Well it seems like it would never come but we are on the road and had an uneventful but enjoyable day. Left Bundaberg around 9.30am after doing all those must do things before you leave and had lunch at Ban Ban springs. Must say I have never seen Coulston Lakes looking so good after recent rains. The place was an absolute picture book scene, green and lush. We stopped off in Kingaroy to visit an old friend of Wendy's, before continuing on to Kumbia for an overnight stop. This rest area is great, power supplied for a donation, hot showers for $2.00 and a 48 hour limit on the stay. Only drawback is the water is unsuitable for drinking.

When we were leaving Kingaroy we passed the airfield where I did a lot of my gliding instruction and they were operating, put a real tingle in the fingers to get back in the air again but can't afford motorhome travelling and gliding at the same time.

One more sleep to go

Well here we are with, as our grandson would say, one sleep to go before we start our great adventure. The last few days have just flown with friends dropping in to say “hooroo” and a couple of dinners out to farewell us and of course the last minute rush to do all the things you forgot to do in the past week.

The brake saga continues and isn’t resolved and to top it all the modem on the desktop decided to have a holiday as well (partly due to me) but I have got the laptop working and hopefully it will last without problem for the length of the trip.

Our travelling companions Allan and Maureen have taken off today to visit rellies and we plan to catch up with them in three days time, somewhere around Texas (that’s Qld not USA) Our first stop will be Kingaroy to visit with an elderly friend, who was one of Wendy’s dress shop customers and has stayed in contact now over many years.

The bus is all packed and I swear it is bulging at the seams. I envy those people who can travel light and just buy what they want as and if they need it. I reckon we will not need to go near a supermarket for about three months with all the provisions on board but I wouldn’t bet on that, I’d be sure to lose.

Catch you on the road when next I post.

Frustration

Well the best laid plans of mice and men are bound to go astray. I had the bus booked in for a service before Christmas and I wanted them  to look at the exhaust brakes which were not working properly. Of course they didn't get the exhaust brake done and said bring it back after Christmas which I did today and guess what the problem is a bit more complicated than what they originally thought so I haven't got the bus back yet and hopefully they can sort it out tomorrow. Its frustating justing sitting around waiting to pack the bus. Of course it has been raining on and off all the time since Christmas making things difficult and tomorrow we are supposed to be getting our "free"government insulation in the roof. Would be just our luck if it was pouring rain and that was put off also.

2010 - Already!

Well we survived the New Year Eve party and low and behold it's the 1st of January 2010.

Only 15 days to go and so much to still do. Got the bus booked in for some final work on the exhaust brakes, which was supposed to be done before Christmas but like all businesses at this time of the year , of course they have to have holidays and we have to wait. Hopefully we will have everything packed and this will not cause too much disruption. Other than that the bus is in tip top condition and with luck we hope to have no dramas along the way.

Starting to count the days now and the excitement grows as the time gets closer to hit the road.