The Grampians in Victoria ... The Darling River in New South
Wales ...
and on to sunny Queensland.
Our 2009
winter migration started on 18th May
Pics below...
First stop will be the Grampians National Park in Victoria for a week or so of sightseeing. Back in New South Wales, we will then follow the Darling River Northwards from Wilcannia as far as Bourke. The North Easterly run from Wilcannia to Bourke is often called "The Darling River Run" and road conditions are still a bit of a mystery (don't tell Connie) because even local reports vary considerably. The 320km of dirt road can be rated as "Poor - 4wd only" or as "Good dirt road". Some reports say it's OK for caravans and other say not. I've learnt to make considerable allowances when I hear reports of road conditions, mostly because the [dirt] road surface changes so much throughout each year. From Bourke (assuming we get there) we will simply head North to the warmer weather in Queensland.
If you have suggestions of interesting things we should stop and see, send an email to allan_jeal (at) hotmail.com - .. maybe.. we will email you a picture.
Monday 18-May-2009 Slept at Albury - we are now in Lavington (a suburb of Albury).... We drove 475 klms today and it seems that neither of us know how to operate the air conditioning in the LandCruiser. Connie froze all morning and Allan cooked all afternoon. We settled for a quick dinner at Subway. The APRS system is set to transmit every 30 seconds instead of every 30 minutes - sorry Frank, I'll fix it. We plan to reach Halls Gap tomorrow. No pics today, I'll start them tomorrow. The "Caravanner's Caravan Park" was very small. It was generally average but the amenities were spotless. They charged $25/night.
Tuesday 19-May-2009 Slept at Halls Gap - The outside temperature dropped to 6 degrees C during the night, and inside the van it was only 10 degrees C. This morning we were half way to Halls Gap when I realised that I had turned off my HF radio in a service station and had not turned it back on. If there is a gap in our track you will now know why. The town of Ararat was a pleasant surprise with grape vines growing along the awnings in the main street awnings (below left) and Halls Gap caravan park was also a surprise with hundreds of kangaroos and noisy Galahs (below right).
Wednesday 20-May-2009 Slept at Halls Gap - we drove about 50 kilometers around the local roads and checked out a miniature version of the Grand Canyon, the absolutely awesome Boroka lookout (below left), the Reed lookout, the Mackenzie falls and the mysterious Silverband falls (below right) where the water disappears at the base ...!
Thursday 21-May-2009 Slept at Halls gap - We started off with a walk to Venus Baths - (no I didn't, and anyway there wasn't enough water). The amazing thing we found was the grave of Agnes Folkes, a three month old child who died here 140 years ago (below left). After lunch we did the hard yards... we walked 2 kilometers up the steepest bit of road I can ever remember (even after I take into account the ageing process). It took us to the very top of Mount William - the highest peak in the Grampians (it is the highest point you can see on the horizon in the picture above left).
The view was worth it (right and below right).
It's Connies birthday and tonight we celebrated by dining at the Kookaburra Bar & Bistro (below left). It is only 100 meters walk from our caravan - which is just as well because when we are walking back to the van it will be extremely cold. Walking back to the van may also be interesting because ...[in Connie's words] ... "I (Connie) may be more than slightly pissed!". It was a lovely day and Connie did 2 loads of washing while Allan was still in bed... Connie added that!
Friday 22-May-2009 Slept at Mildura. When we got up this morning the temperature was 5 degrees C. By the time I had finished setting up the car and van for travelling, my tiny hands were frozen. It didn't take long to warm up and by the time we got to Mildura (about 400 klms) it was a really warm sunny day. As we drove into Mildura we passed hundreds of vineyards with acres of vines that seemed to include every colour of the rainbow.
Saturday 23-May-2009 Slept at Mildura. Today we shopped at Woolworths and also at a couple of wineries. I purchased a bottle of beautiful tasting port (lower left) and another that was NOT so nice. I bought the second one because the Italian winemaker (lower right) was very interesting and convinced me that even though it didn't taste so good - it was in fact a better port .. ?.. ? ..! Just shows there a sucker born every day. Connie became slightly inebriated after smelling one of the ports. The tourist information bureau frightened the daylights out of Connie when we asked about towing our caravan along the Darling River to Bourke- she said "IMPOSSIBLE"!. The "All Seasons Caravan Park" is small but nice. They charge $25/night and allow a discount for seniors. The amenities are perfect. Our site (47a) is perfect.
Sunday 24-05-2009 Slept at Mildura. Wentworth Tourist Information Bureau is only 30 klms North and we decided to take a drive there to speak directly to them about the road conditions along the "Darling River Run". The "expert" (Carmel) set our minds at rest and assured us that "plenty" of people do this run with caravans. While we were in Wentworth we drove out of town to the Perry Sand Hills (lower left) and then took a picture of the junction of the Darling and the Murray Rivers (lower right). Back in Mildura we enjoyed a pleasant visit with friends, Bruce & Jan who we haven't seen for some time.
Monday 25-05-2009 Slept at Mildura. We awoke to the sound of thunder, lightning and rain and so we went back to sleep. By mid afternoon it was starting to brighten up and so we paid a visit to the ice creamery. We are getting know some faces in town already - like the one at the ice creamery (below left) . The rain could cause a problem on the dirt roads going North but we will wait until Wednesday before we decide when to leave. The guy in the ice creamery insisted on telling us how bad the dirt roads could get - so we went to buy a carton of ice cream at Woolies. Bob (VK2AOR) noted that I did not have a picture of our caravan on this web site, so here it is (below right).
Tuesday 26-05-2009. Slept at Mildura. A thick fog covered our part of Mildura until mid morning and Connie still did two loads of washing - even after eating all that ice cream yesterday! Connie's relatives in Malta may have a look at this web site and so I thought I would post a picture of her here too (below left).
Wednesday 27-05-2009. Slept at Bindara. The drive to Pooncarrie was ok, but we were given instructions for getting to Bindara Station about 90klm North and those instructions turned out to be vague and worrying. The road almost disappeared a few times (above right) and the emus (below left) were no help at all. An occasional weird letterbox (below right) indicated that we were in fact still on a track.
When we finally came across Bindara Station (below left) we were surprised to find a dog sitting in a tree (below right) guarding the farm house
Our camp site was perfect - we looked straight down into the remains of the Darling River (below left). I say "remains" because locals have told me that the cotton farmers up North are sucking all the water out of the river for their dams and storage ponds. We enjoyed a camp fire and some tall stories from Barbara & Bill. The night sky was UNBELIEVABLE !!!!!
Thursday 28-05-2009 Slept at Broken Hill. Last night was cold and required the heater all night. The morning was even colder with the temperature somewhere below 4 degrees C. This was not in our plans. We headed North with another sketchy mud map drawn on a piece of tissue paper. Dirt tracks seemed to wander off in all directions and so it wasn't long before Connie started to worry. I followed the one that looked the most used and this strategy paid off - after 150 klms of dirt roads we finally arrived at Menindee. I almost drove straight through town without noticing it! A few kilometers out of Menindee we saw the remains of the Menindee Lakes (above right). The next stop was supposed to be White Cliffs (via Wilcannia) but things were getting unpleasant. I pinched a nerve in my back yesterday and it was giving me hell. It was now becoming painful to breathe let along move. The cold night has also taken it's toll. I made a sudden decision to HEAD NORTH as fast as I could. This meant going via sealed roads to Broken Hill for the night. We'll come back to Victoria in warmer weather.
Friday 29-05-2009 Slept in the bush - west of Cobar. We are now on a mission to get to a warmer climate. I drove as long as I could and finally stopped for the night in a rest area somewhere just west of Cobar. It was a popular spot with a total of nine caravans stopping there before dark. Several groups of travelers sat around fires telling stories that were impossible to believe (that's the way it usually goes around camp fires). The top story came from a man who insisted that he used to find underground water by holding pieces of wire and walking around - but his ability to find water, increased dramatically when he lost both his legs in an accident.
Saturday 30-05-2009 Slept at Moree. It was a big drive of about 630 klms today with not much time to stop and look. Lunch time in Brewarrina was educational - an aboriginal boy (lower left) asked where we came from, and then told us to go back there. He was then seen checking the doors of the car to see if we had locked them - I guess that if we had forgotten to lock them, he would have come over to the caravan to tell us? At Moree the temperature was obviously warmer and the Mehi Caravan Park (below right) was VERY well maintained by Neil & Dianne.
Sunday 31-05-2009 Slept at Moree. R & R. Connie somehow managed to get a load of washing dry - with no sun or wind. It could be raining tomorrow morning (for three days) so I packed up everything except my antennas. If it is raining we'll be able to get away quickly and I wont have to be cold and wet while I'm driving towards Goondiwindi.
Monday 1-06-2009 Slept at Taroom. Yesterday was much milder. It was a relief
after the cold down south. We cannot wait to get back to the warmth and
sunshine. Today, in even warmer weather, we travelled around 470 klms and were constantly passing or
following the huge road trains that are so common in Queensland.
We passed through the towns of Goondiwindi, Moonie with it's huge motel (right), Condamine and the very majestic Condamine pub (below left), the surprisingly large town of Miles and finally stopped at Taroom for the night in a free rest area. Taroom is the site of the famous "Leichhardt Tree" (below right).
Tuesday 2-06-2009 Slept at Rockhampton. Taroom was very accomodating and we had a free night in the Lions Club Sports Oval. Today we travelled close to 400klms and passed firstly through "Theodore" (Connie saw it - I blinked). The next town was "Banana" which is apparently named after the "lead bull" of a famous old bullock team? The next town was "Wowan" where you have to make an appointment to get into the hardware store (lower left). The next town was Dululu which had the quaintest pub decor (lower right). The final stop for today was the Riverside Caravan Park at Rockhampton where we will stay for 3 weeks or so. Throughout today the temperature rose from 15 degrees at Taroom at 8:00am - up to 25 degrees at Rocky at 2:00pm. Glorious! T shirt and shorts weather. Dinner tonite will be at the bowling club next door ☺.
Wednesday 3-6-2009 Total kilometers so far 3981, fuel cost $1070, litres of fuel 877. Shorts and T shirts are fine here. Temperature today reached about 26 degrees ... ha ha ha.
Thursday 4-6-2009 Rockhampton. Don't need a T shirt, it's about 27degrees. Ahhh! this is great! Friday was the same, and Connie finally found a good pair of joggers that are comfortable to walk in - now I can't find her.. !
Saturday 6-6-2009 Rockhampton. Melissa wanted to see the view of the
Fitzroy River from
the window of our van and here it is (right).
The other picture (below left) is one view from the lookout on Mount
Archer where we had
lunch at a neat little cafe (below right).
Monday 8-6-2009. Rockhampton - big wide roads, few cars (lower left). Apparently Rockhampton has weight problems as well (lower right).
Thursday 11-06-2009. We did a round trip to Yepoon which has a spectacular beach (below left) and Emu Park where everybody takes a photo of the Singing Ship (lower right). The monument was erected to commemorate Captain Cook's discovery of Australia in 1770. The pipes and tubes are tuned to play different notes as the wind blows across them.
Monday - Monday 15th June. Last day in Rocky. Tomorrow we head further North. We took a drive to "The Caves", a little town just north of Rocky with a neat set of "above" ground caves. The tour guide spent an hour underground with us and part of the tour included "the chapel" (right) where a CD was played. The CD was that of a 10 year old boy singing Amazing Grace. The guide then directed us back to the entrance via a tiny tunnel that would cause any claustrophobic person to have a heart attack. The tour guide went the easy way.
Tomorrow will be recorded in "Part 2"