Author: Freya1

Wonderful to catch up with Suzy, a mate from teaching in China, and meet her lovely partner, Bob.  Great night in Barham.

Also met Bill, Chief of the Cohuna Hospital.  Such wonderfully open, friendly people here in the country.

Over the last few days I’ve been mostly doing …. nothing!  Am camped by the Murray at Tocumwal ($5 per night).  There must be at least 30 others here.  Lots of chatting and happy houring has been going on over the last few days and many notations made on maps and in Camp 7 books.  Wow, so many places to go!

Over behind me in a 4×4 van and car are Allen and Pam.  He’s a retired NAB bank manager.  He retired at 55, is now 67 and has been travelling ever since.  They have lots of information on places to go and tips etc.  A veritable mine of travel wisdom.  Over the last 2 nights we’ve been having happy hour (or 3) and lots of fun.  They took off for a walk this morning and shouted out ‘See you at 4.30’.   Lovely, friendly people!

As I said, I had intended to stay at Lake Wyangan tonight but have moseyed on to Finley and am camped by the lake here.  Andrew thinks I’m lake hopping and he may well be right!  I like to be beside water.

 

However, on the way here I went through a little town called Jerilderie.  What a lovely little spot that is.  It was so nice that I stopped and wandered around for an hour or so.

Anyway, an old bloke comes up to me as I’m about to get back into Betty and starts having a chat.  He tells me that he and his wife are wanting to buy a motor home and would I mind if they had a look inside.  So, in they go and check everything out and ask lots of questions and ooh and aaah appropriately.  Then he asks how much I paid for it.  A few expletives later, then he says, “I’ll give you double if you’ll sell it to me.”  Well, blow me down.  I laughed but they were serious.  It seems that, because they are out in the donga, whenever they see a motor home advertised, by the time they get there it’s sold and they’re getting desperate.  He tried every which way to convince me to sell Betty but, sadly for him, I had just been walking along the street thinking how lucky I was to have Betty and be doing this.  Sorry, guys, I hope you get one soon.

Said a fond farewell to the beautiful Lake Cargelligo

and toodled along to Griffith which is a large country town in Central NSW.  The Flower and Orange Festival is on at the moment so I may have been seeing Griffith at its very best.  The citrus and roses certainly do very well in this little neck of the woods.

Everyone I came across in Griffith was really friendly so I thought it was a lovely place.  I stayed overnight in a park in the town.  Also, Griffith has a Dick Smith where I bought an inverter (12v to 240v) which means I am now truly self sufficient as the only thing I couldn’t do previously was charge my computer.  Now with this amazing little gizmo, I don’t need power (except from the sun)  for anything.

I intended today to go out to Lake Wyangan (about 10 or so Ks from Griffith) and spend a day or so there but it turned out to be a bit of a dust bowl, so I kept on moving along.  Aaahh, the freedom of it all!

 

Have been staying at Lake Cargelligo …. wow, wow and wow!  What a beautiful place and a bird watcher’s paradise.  After travelling for miles in dusty, dry, brown countryside you come to this beautiful lake with abundant birdlife.  I counted 11 species before I even turned the ignition off.

As you can see, I was very busy over the last 3 days.

To round off a really lovely time, I had the great fortune of having Adrian, Jill and their dog Monti next door.  However, they like to party and I confess I wasn’t feeling very well on Thursday morning!!

What lovely people are out there exploring this amazing Playground of ours!

Ok, here’s the laugh for the day.  I said to Adrian that one of my gizmos wasn’t working and I didn’t know if it was serious or not.  We both had a good look at it and couldn’t work out what the heck.  So, good old Google came to the rescue … it is a converter of 240v to 12v.  Duh!!  Oh well, I’m learning.

Am still here in Dubbo staying in the paddock of Janet and Peter Watters with their gorgeous dogs, Sach Ke and Nellie.

Went to the Western Plains Zoo today.  What a big walk that was but what an outstanding zoo it is.  Mind you, I don’t like the idea of animals being contained for us to look at but at least this is better than any other zoo I’ve seen with wide open spaces and no bars.

For a moment I thought I was back in a legal office! (Aw, c’mon, that’s a good one.)

Compare the meekat.com.au?

 

No, seriously honey, does my bum look big in this?

And, for sheer cuteness –

Oh, and this one’s for you Rob –

Then I just pulled into this street when an almighty storm hit and the hail belted down.  I was worried about the solar panels on the roof but everything seems to be working ok so they must be alright.  Apparently we are in for more tomorrow so I just hope that when it hits I’m not on the highway.

Decided it would be nice to camp by a lake somewhere for a few days, so checked out the map and Lake Cargelligo is not exactly out of the way.  That’s where I’m headed tomorrow.

Well, I’m here in Dubbo and doing my first spot of free camping.  Janet and Peter Watters, CMCA members, have a rural retreat just 1.5Ks out of Dubbo and have opened up a ‘paddock’ for free camping for CMCA members so long as your rig is fully self contained.

I’m the only one here but I have friends.

Ferocious animals but nice to have around just the same.   It’s a lovely spot with lots of wrens, willy wagtails, topknot pigeons and parrots in the trees and bushes.  Both Peter and Janet have been over and we’ve had a great old chinwag.  Might stay here tomorrow night too.

Am off to the zoo tomorrow.

Have been pushing the Ks a bit over the last couple of days, not exactly intentionally, but for one reason or another.

I was going to do my first spot of free camping at a lovely place called Rocky River Fossicking Area just SW of Uralla but there was a bloke living in the bush there in an old wreck and he gave me the heebies so I continued on to Tamworth.

However, although I knew it was quite a long drive, I was nevertheless surprised to read a sign saying “Welcome to Bolivia”.  I’d no idea I’d gone that far.  However, I seriously blinked and that was the end of Bolivia and I was back on the New England H’way.

You know you’re really in the country when signs say ‘School bus stops next 39Kms’.

Am now camped in a delightful spot on the edge of Coonabarabran and am staying here today to put the feet up and read a book.  The manager of the park suggested I have a glass of wine, so I feel I’m among kindred spirits.

On the way here, I was busting to find a loo and along the highway is a little place (post office/cafe/petrol station) at Glencoe so I stopped and asked for the loo.  “No public loos here, love, you’ll find one at Guyra”.  So off I hurtle down the highway, crossing my legs as I went.  Got to Guyra and spent a good 10 minutes driving around to find the purported public convenience when, at last, there’s a grotty loo in the park.   Returning to the beautiful Betty, I realised that I had a perfectly pristine loo not 3 feet behind the driver’s seat.  Duh!!!

Off to Dubbo tomorrow and hopefully some free camping.  Am also going to check out Western Plains Zoo.

Cacking my pants all the way, I drove from Brissie to Stanthorpe where I’ve stopped in the Top of the Town Caravan Park.  Lovely place nestled among the trees and huge.  Because I was on my own, I was only charged $20 a night.  Freaking bargain!

These things I have learned already –

– buy your food when you get the chance otherwise you’re at your overnight stop, you’re tired and the shops are not that close.  A can of chickpeas is not an interesting dinner.

– you need to walk a lot when you drive a truck.  The parking spots for trucks are far, far away from anywhere you want to go.

– and remember that when you drive a truck , you’re bigger (and better) than everyone else.

Haa, it’s been interesting.  I’ve also learned how to hook up to all the services and even filled my water tank today.

Plus, I am now a true nomad.  When I arrived here yesterday afternoon, I set up Betty then had happy hour starting at 4pm, dinner was at 5.30 pm and I was in bed and out like a light by 7pm!

Shall look at the maps now to see where I might rest my head tomorrow night.  Thought I’d try a spot of free camping.

Holy freaking dooley, I now know why nomads take so many years to travel around Oz … they bloodywell talk too much!  It took me nearly an hour to walk out of the park today so I could go shopping.  Heellllppp!!!