Just the World as We See It
Oh man, was it cold last night! Minus 6° overnight and it was still minus 2.5° when I was cooking the porridge outside this morning. Still, it meant we had a lovely sunny morning.
Headed south through Young then across to Gundagai (and The Dog On The Tucker Box). From there we headed to Woomargama for our last free camp this year with the Willies. Its been a great trip, home in a couple of days.
Well was last night cold or what! The outside temperature dropped to minus 6° and inside the van it dropped to 2°! Good thing we had put an extra blanket on and donned the thermals before heading to bed. We woke up to sunny skies and set out on our adventure for today. First visit was to the Borenore Caves south of Molong. Great caves to explore and we spent an hour or more going through the different caverns (self guided)
From there we headed down to the Historic Village of Cargo for lunch then onto Canowindra and the Ages of Fishes Museum. A really awesome display of fossilised fish which you can reach out and touch. Its amazing to feel the skin texture of a species that lived (and died) millions of years ago. I never thought I would be so impressed by fossils. I highly recommend it to anyone passing that way.
Left Moree after a freezing night – we even had to forego the usual evening drinks because there was such a bitter breeze. It dropped to minus 0.5° this morning but the sun was out as we made tracks south.
We headed south down the Newell Highway then onto the Mitchell Highway, pulling in to tonight’s stop 3o kilometres south of Wellington. The sun’s out and its a bit breezy. We’re hoping the breeze dies down so we can have a fire and drink tonight.
We only had a short drive today because we decided we would have a stop at the thermal springs before heading south into the cold. We need a recovery day after having a meal at the Nindigully Pub last night. Nice meal but pretty pricey $40 for a steak, salad and chips, $26 for fish, salad and chips. We probably skip this spot in future –been there done that.
My back is playing up today so it might be time for a thermal pool plunge.
Only a very short run down death row (there were hundreds of dead kangaroos on the road) through to St George (where we topped up with water at the Information Centre and fuel at the Caltex Service Station) and then onto Nindigully to try and find a campsite amongst all the other free loaders. We eventually found one but it was hard going. Off up to the pub for a shower, drinks and a meal tonight.
Travelled a different road today, headed down to Injure then across to Womblebank Station then down through Mitchell to Womalilla Creek free camp. Beautiful spot beside the largely dried out river bed and small waterhole frequented by kangaroos, cattle and other wildlife. Had a roaring campfire while watching the southern skies – glorious!
Travelled down the highway to Virgin Rock free camp, arriving to find it was largely occupied at the back of the site so had to settle for the roadside area – plenty of trucks to keep us entertained. They have now incorporated a light show to light up the Virgin and her rocks. Moving further south tomorrow.
Bob had his new tyres fitted yesterday, so today its full steam ahead. We travelled to the old railway town of Bogantungan where we set up camp in the free camp in the middle of the largely deserted town. Tomorrow we will head into the gem fields for a bit of prospecting.
We drove into Winton from our free camp and headed straight to Tuff Tyres who were able to do a great deal on the new tyres. They didn’t have all the tyres there so it was decided that the Willies would wait until all the tyres were in stock (tomorrow) before having them fitted. Meanwhile our Solar system was functioning at reduced power so we decided to book into the Pelican Caravan Park (yes, seriously in outback Queensland) to carry out some maintenance. Turned out it was just a bit something (probably dust) in one of the connections so simply undoing it and reconnecting it fixed the problem. A bit of shopping then back to the park for a shower after grovelling in the dirt yesterday. Feels great!
Before we could even leave camp this morning Bob had to change a blown tyre. So we didn’t leave as early as planned. We headed back along the Cork Road toward Larch Quarry. After about 60 kms the recently fitted spare tyre delaminated so it was a torturous trip into Larch Quarry. Bob tried to get RACV service as he now had the left hand rear duals reduced to one inflated tyre. After viewing the spectacular Dinosaur Stampede (I would seriously recommend this site to everyone – its the only example in the world) we waited for the RACV to confirm that they would provide assistance. After waiting for hours we decided that we best head back to Winton while we still had daylight. Off we headed and got 40 kms down the track when the delaminating tyre spat out some more tyre and dragged the inner mudguard up onto the duals. This meant we had to jack up the vehicle on the side of the road, remove both wheels, straighten the inner guard, put the original blowout back on and head back into town at a reduced speed. We made it back to the Long Waterhole free camp where we celebrated with a fire and a few drinks while watching the stars once again. Into Winton tomorrow for new tyres for the Turtle.
