Narrandera to Wagga Wagga 9th April, 2019

A short day of travel today, just over 100 kms. We had a relaxed morning and our only chore was to refill the water tank and our bottles before leaving.

The countryside has changed again, being a bit like our southwest. Much less dry, although when Stephen spoke to the wife of a local farmer at the museum today she said rain is really needed here.

The big event of the day was going to the laundromat. Before we left I googled for a laundromat in WW, and found one called Splash, with wonderful washing machines. We spent about an hour there after getting to town washing two loads and then drying both loads in one dryer. It was expensive, about twice what it costs at a caravan park, but the large machines were very efficient and dispense their own detergent.

On the website it said they had a special pet bedding washing machine and dryer and I joked on Facebook that we would be able to wash our teddy’s bedding.

Stephen bought coffees at the nearby shopping mall and suggested we have lunch at the food hall when we were finished. So, we did.

We then went to the Visitor Centre where I bought a WW fridge magnet and Stephen found out about the Museum of the Riverina nearby. We spent about an hour there.

The museum was fo using on women of the Riverina past and present, the people whose names were rarely mentioned as being important in colonial history.

This is the free camping area which is across the river, but in the same area as the Visitor Centre. We drove past a block or two with about four beautiful churches, something to explore tomorrow morning.

We were amazed at the number of vans parked here. The only facilities are toilets. But, it is very central to the town, yet has wildlife.

The kangaroos are very close to our van. They didn’t mind when I got out of the van to take photos, I guess they are used to people being around. I didn’t have a long enough lens to get good photos, but can’t resist posting these.

Narrandera Rest Day 8th April, 2019

We both had tummy disturbances in the night. Stephen’s was quite severe with really bad nausea. He improvised a double bag system just in case. In the morning we slept in for a while, then after our cups of tea went for a short walk to the canal. We have a river, a canal, a wetlands and a lake nearby.

After a leisurely breakfast and ablutions we went to the dump point at the Showgrounds, then to the town centre where we found a Coles. There were three cafes nearby, all very busy with queues for ordering. We chose on which had soup and roll special for our lunch.

We went to the nearby Visitor Information Centre where Stephen spent a long time reading in the small museum and I bought a fridge magnet. There was a training school for pilots during the time of the British Empire and the museum has a Tiger Moth, so it is actually very interesting. On the fridge magnet thing, I recently realised that our fridge has a metal door, very good for attaching magnets. I will take a photo when I have more of a collection.

Stephen at the Visitors Centre.

The canal

The lake

The Wetlands. There is a short walk around this little wetlands/lake, just right for an evening walk.

Balranald to Narrandera Sunday 7th April, 2019

Daylight saving ended today in our part of the world. We had our alarm set for 6.30 a.m. and for the first time in ages it was light outside when we woke up. We made a good start, adjusting to the new time, and got away by 9.00 a.m. After getting fuel and water, we attempted to go to one or two of the places we had seen in the video at the Discovery Centre. One was closed and the other didn’t look all that inviting, so we headed down the road.

We didn’t initially plan on a 300 km driving day, but a combination of getting away quickly in the morning and wanting to make progress out of the very dry country we are travelling through helped to spur us on. Our stay in Balranald overnight was disturbed by a party at the recreation centre nearby, plus a some rowdy folk at 2.30 in the morning playing very loud music for about half an hour. Despite that, we felt well rested.

We are only about one day of driving away from Canberra now, which means we do have a few days up our sleeve to explore the surrounding areas if we wish. Once we arrive at the Festival site we can catch buses to travel around Canberra if we have a few days before the Festival begins on Good Friday. The gates don’t open until Monday 15th, so we have at least seven days.

Stephen says there are some places to explore in this area. We haven’t yet decided what to do tomorrow.

We came this way four years ago with our caravan. At that stage I wasn’t blogging very often and it’s frustrating that we can’t check back on that journey. We have our patchy memories and photos, but having a connecting narrative would be very interesting for us.

Mildura to Balranald Saturday 6th March, 2019

We haven’t travelled very far today, about 160 kms. We had a very hot night last night until early morning when the doona was needed. We woke to a much nicer day, with sunshine and clouds and a cool, fresh breeze. Driving was a pleasure.

We chose this town to stay in because of the facilities offered to travellers. We are in one of two free camping areas, basically a car park. This is the nicer one, though the flushing toilets are old. The other camping space is enclosed with buildings, whereas we have playing fields and tall trees. They have nicer toilets and hot showers, plus a cafe.

We arrived relatively early, at about 2.00 p.m., and after lunch and a rest we went to the Visitor Centre, which included a delightful small Discovery Centre, with lots of information about this area. We are close to the dry lake, Lake Mungo, where Mungo Man and Mungo Woman were found, and also to another nearby lake with birdlife and wetlands. We will be following the Murrumbidgee as we head east and after Hay there are better free camping options near towns on the river.

We are now just over 800 kms from Canberra, making good time despite driving short distances. Of course, we needed more time for this trip, 2.5 months is cutting it fine as we want to be back in time for the Denmark Festival of Voice at the beginning of June.

We haven’t booked anything in Sydney at this stage as we hope that we will have a clearer picture of Mum’s health by the end of our stay in Canberra. We can cut things short and head home if necessary.

The Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers are green and opaque. We are wondering if the Murrumbidgee will have clearer water by the time we are closer to the mountains. There appear to be an abundance of fish, which attract a lot of birds, including migratory flocks. This suggests the water is healthy. The featured image is a sort of abstract of the river with reflections.

Plushs Bend to Mildura Friday 5th April, 2019

After a wonderful camping experience came a very difficult day. On the drive we had a warm and gusty side wind, combined with dust storms that got worse as we got closer to Mildura. Although it wasn’t a really long drive we felt battered by the time we arrived.

We had our lunch parked in the shade under a bridge and the wind coming off the river helped to make it more comfortable than it would otherwise have been.

We needed some groceries and found our way to a supermarket thanks to Google Maps. We decided to stay at a caravan park for night as we felt we needed the comfort. That’s when the next thing happened, a tap in the bathroom was on when Stephen attached the hose and switched on the water. We only realised what had happened when water started coming out from under the slide out.

We mopped up and washed all the towels we had used on the floor.

It’s still over 30 at the moment, cooler weather is still a couple of days away. We are on track to reach Canberra by Sunday 14th. Hopefully.

We left the gas on this morning and drove quite a distance before realising. That is the third thing.

Burra to Plushs Bend near Renmark Thursday4th March, 2019

In the morning we parked the van in a parking area next to the caravan park and went to the local IGA for some small items and fresh fruit. We enjoyed walking in the attractive small town we remembered from four years ago.

After Burra we continued our drive through dry countryside.

It was warm in the van, so we set ourselves up outside and ended up having our dinner outside and staying to watch the stars come out. We had a little citronella candle between us, but it probably wouldn’t have worked against lots of mozzies, we can only assume there were none.

We sat outside to watch the sun come up this morning (dawn is quite late here) and only came in once the sun became too bright to be comfortable.

There is a range of birdlife here.

Our neighbours on the other side ran a generator for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. There are quite a few vans around the place, but no one got nasty and told them off, we all just accepted it. After sunset it was switched off and peace returned.

We’ve been fortunate in the weather here, warm enough to sit outside, no wind, and sunny. This is why we love road trips, enjoying scenery as we drive, sometimes having beautiful campsites, and a different experience every day. And sometimes friendly fellow travellers.

I’m inside writing this blog with a coffee made from hand ground beans, with bird calls and the occasional pelican swimming by. We have the river view on one side and attractive trees on the other.

Port Germein to Burra 3rd April, 2019

If you were to check on the map it’s only about 100 kms from Port Germein to Burra. Whilst Stephen was sorting out the hoses and connections this morning just prior to leaving he noticed a bulge in one of the rear tyres, the innermost one on the driver’s side. This was very worrying. We asked about a tyre place and our host recommended a business in Port Pirie , about 24 kms down the road.

Should we drive there on 3 rear tyres or call for help? We decided to drive there. I was so tense on the trip that I gave myself a headache. But we arrived safely.

The man said they were too busy and we should go somewhere else. We rang another tyre place but they did not have the light truck tyres we needed. I guess he didn’t realise that we are not impatient, especially as the the Visitor Centre is next door and there were some cafes within walking distance.

He said we would need to have two new tyres, so they would match, but closer inspection revealed that the other one was beginning to collapse as well. We now have two new tyres on the back, two nearly new tyres on the front, and two old tyres on the rear passenger side. He assured us we are safe to go and that they look fine, but it it feels odd to me and slightly worrying. The new rear tyres look really fantastic.

At the Visitor Centre we learned all about a great white shark that had been accidentally caught in a fishing net in the gulf. They have a replica as the real one was sent to a university research department. It has made me reluctant to ever swim in the sea again.

We also enjoyed a hot drink and toastie at The Sanctuary Cafe across the road. The cafe is run by one of the churches in town.

By about 1:30 we were on our way. It has been warm today, and we found we were too tired to drive far. Burra is a very pretty town and we are in a caravan park on the river, opposite the bay where we stayed here in 2015. Having full hookups is very comforting. There is less free camping on this route, but if we make our next destination we will have free camping with flushing toilets on the Murray River in Renmark.

Last time we were here in Burra we walked around and I took lots of photos. I didn’t feel up to it tonight, but Stephen went for a short walk.

Yesterday morning we made our usual slow start, getting our chores done and on the road after 10.00 a.m. Our first stop was to see the silo art which has happened since we were in Kimba last time. There is a special viewing area, thank goodness, as sometimes silo art is very hard to see clearly because of local infrastructure.

Then on our way. One of our favourite parts of this drive is the part where we drove towards Iron Knob, then on to Port Augusta. The scenery is splendid and we are also getting close to the sea again, albeit the large inlet. Then we get to the views of the Flinders Ranges.

We stopped at our favourite cafe in Port Augusta, the one with the golden arches, which is just off the main road on the left hand side. Spicy chicken wraps, a large coffee and a chocolate thickshake later we were on our way to Port Germein.

We have been to this little hamlet before for lunch. The free camping options on this part of the road aren’t good, plus we needed to do some washing, including the bed linen. We have a choice of this caravan park or one in Port Pierie, and the Wikicamps community said this was the best, plus we loved this little place before and wanted to spend more time here.

We arrived here at 3.30ish and did the washing straight away. I checked with the office about security for leaving it on the line overnight and was told it was perfectly safe. Although we have very long evenings at the moment it was unlikely that all of the washing would be dry.

Stephen had an ambition to walk to the end of the very long jetty, 3kms return. We set off after 6.00 p.m. when the sun was lower and as we began the walk we realised that we could see the tide coming in. The water continues to be fairly shallow for most of the length of the jetty even at high tide. It was an incredibly lovely walk, with the sun setting with yellows and oranges on one side and the Flinders Ranges and water being lit in blues and reds on the other side of the jetty. It took me far longer to get to the end than it should have done because I kept stopping to take photos as the light was changing.

The chem trails added leading lines on each side of the jetty.

Stephen waited for me to catch up at the end of the jetty before we walked back. It was a long twilight, but we still had to watch our feet in the dim light, with uneven boards.

I went out this morning to get a couple of pre dawn shots as well, but as I was in my dressing gown I didn’t go as far as the jetty.

Kimba to Port Germein Tuesday 2nd April, 2019

This evening we went for quite a long walk and had a late dinner. I’ve spent ages processing images from the walk and am too tired to blog. Tomorrow!