Day 8 - Day 10

Day 8 - Monday July 28th

Travelling from Moore I headed into Goondiwindi. Goondiwindi is the first town on the Queensland side of the NSW/QLD border along the Newell Highway. Before I stopped anywhere I did a lap of the main street and spotted a cafe called 'Laurenz', where I decided to have lunch. The cafe had good coffee too! Rural NSW led me to finding some pretty ordinary coffee.

After lunch I explored the area including the Macintyre River and the Customs House Museum. The Customs House was originally used to tax goods crossing the boarder in from NSW before Australia's federation in 1901.

Looking north west along the Macintyre River

Below are some photos of technology things I found interesting at the museum. It was mostly a collection of period artefacts.

The Executive Ediphone - For making dictations well before the days of digital 

A custom built rail ambulance complete with Model T engine!

House light dimmer previously used in the Civic Theatre

Silvester Switchboard previously used in Yetman NSW (about 70km away)

After taking in some local history I decided to check in at the Big4. Shortly after I arrived the caravan park was providing a free damper and cuppa around an open fire. With my swag and tiny hatch back car, I've become a talking point at most places I stay in, and tonight was no different! Most people I meet are retired and towing a caravan with an inbuilt heater. I opted for a powered site this time (extra $5) so I could charge my modern technology in the car overnight.

Day 9 - Tuesday July 29th - My Birthday

After packing up and eating breaky I headed back to Laurenz cafe in the main street for a take away coffee. Who was to know when I'd find another good place! I went to the local botanic gardens to enjoy my coffee with some morning tea. There I unwrapped my birthday card and present from my parents. (So organised aren't they!)

From Mum and Dad

My next major town was going to be Warwick. Along the way I stopped at two dams. For those who don't know, I visit a lot of water reservoirs (normally with my friend Courtney). Firstly I picked up a ripper sandwich at Inglewood and ate it at Coolmunda Dam. Unfortunately at Coolmunda you can't get up close to the spillway gates but the view was still impressive.

Just outside of Warwick is the Leslie Dam. This dam as 7 impressive controlled spillway gates.

Leslie Dam wall

Spill way with radial gates at Leslie Dam

Staying in Warwick overnight cost me $20, one of the cheapest caravan parks yet and again no other campers in sight. Because both my sister and brother told me to get a cake with a candle, I opted for a doughnut.

Birthday cake

I received a few calls that evening, then went to bed. Thanks to everyone for the calls, txts and facebook messages! It was great to receive them while being so far away from home.

Day 10 - Wednesday July 30th

Overnight was -2^oC! When I opened my swag in the morning all the condensation froze! This actually made for easy drying. I got out my window squeegee and removed the ice. Once dry and packed, I explored Warwick.

I visited a farmers market, but the fruit and veg was in quantities too big for me to carry in my car. I also went to a live stock + trash & treasure market. I safely decided that a live cow, pig or chicken might be a bit much for me! The trash & treasure was a little different to what you would see in a city suburban market; bits of roofing, timber offcuts, chains etc.

Cattle waiting for auction with the current auctions been held under the red shelter

It was almost time to leave town, but I spotted an old railway station which I needed a closer look at. It turns out that it is actually a famous building. Because of a 'legen... wait for it... dary' egg throwing incident at the Prime Minister of the time Billy Hughes, the Australian Federal Police or AFP was created.

Warwick railway station

Commemorative plaque at Warwick railway station

Leaving town I explored part of the Main Range National Park, which is part of the larger Great Dividing Range. The roads to reach the falls was an easy drive at slow speed. Leaving, well that's another story!

Walking track to Browns Falls

Browns Falls viewed from below

Daggs Falls from roadside lookout

Queen Mary Falls from above

Leaving the falls the road was a very step decent with the road only being a single lane in some places, I fortunately didn't pass any cars ascending. After the step decent I took a gravel road to save some time, it was more direct to get over to Cunninghams Gap. At Cunninghams Gap I followed the walking track into the forest. The trees were so dense, that after a short amount of walking, I could no longer hear trucks climbing the steep hill.

Looking back across the mountains during the decent

The steep narrow decent

The gravel road

Cunninghams Gap walking track

I stopped in Boonah for a snack and rest. In town they had an awesome clock tower sculpture. My last quick stop for the day was at Wyaralong Dam, it's a recent addition to Queensland's water storage.

Boonah clock tower

Wyaralong Dam looking toward the dam wall

My stop for the night was in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. I'm going to spend a few days by the beach, enjoying the sun, visiting a theme park and seeing a few friends who are also holidaying around the area.

Day 7

After all this travelling I took a chilled out day. I ventured into the Mt Kaputar National Park. Along the way I had to cross a bridge, which appears to be suffering from age. Presumably to prolong the life of the bridge, there is a gravel track through the creek to the left for heavy cattle trucks.

When getting closer to the national park the road turned to gravel, I'd come this far so wasn't about to turn around now.

The middle sign says '20km Very Narrow Winding Road'

All the winding around was worth the view! I took a few short walks to various lookouts of Euglah Rock. This rock, like those around it, was formed in volcanic times then has been slowly eroded by water to form what is visible today.

I decided to camp in Moree and along the way I witnessed another terrific sunset. While driving along the road I had the sun setting to my left filling that side of the sky with reds and oranges, then over to my right the sky was filled with amazing blues and purples. The blues were also highlighted by lush green fields underneath.

I'm about to take a walk along the Mehi River in Moree, I'll then travel on to Goondiwindi for lunch.

Day 4 to Night 6

Day 4

Continuing on from my last post, I was in Forbes. I stopped at the Motor Museum and took a quick look.

Made of canvas and with a top speed of 30km/h, I'm glad I'm not doing my trip in this

I drove to the town of Parkes, where I had lunch and saw the CSIRO Radio Telescope. The Telescope isn't actually in the town, but just outside. It needs to be free from radio wave interference, like mobile phones.

When approaching the telescope all radio transmitters must be turned off, or to aeroplane mode. The CSIRO have signs everywhere telling you to do this. The only way you could miss it is if you just didn't care, but if you didn't care why are you looking at 'The Dish'. That's right, this is that dish from that movie! Unfortunately there wasn't an option to play cricket on the dish, but the CSIRO do sell stress balls in the gift shop that look that cricket balls.

Parkes Telescope with its old receiver in the bottom right of the photo

From Parkes I drove on to Dubbo staying at the Big4. It's a nice place although the camp grounds were suffering from a lack of rain. By my luck, that decided to be the night it would start to rain! While having dinner I spoke with a group of two families.

Day 5

My swag was wet inside and out by morning. With only a towel to dry it and with the canvas still soaked I rolled it up and went to the Dubbo Zoo. It's an open range zoo, a little like Victoria's Werribee. The novelty of this zoo is driving your car around and stopping off at the various enclosures. Maybe this would be a good place to take a Jurassic Park painted 4WD... In hindsight, taking the push bike option would have been much better. I enjoyed the zoo, but I think Australia Zoo was more engaging and hands on.

One of six feeding times for the meerkats. Live crickets today.

Who want's a kiss? This giraffe just wants its carrot

This is me at the zoo.

I spent 5 hours at the zoo, after which I needed a break and headed out to the Dubbo main street for some coffee. I found somewhere to relax and regain my energy.

It was now late into the afternoon so I headed back to the supermarket and after another stunning sunset I checked back in to the Big4. This time I was aware of the pending bad weather, light shower they say... I don't trust them, I took the advise of an experienced camper I met this morning and set up my swag undercover next to the BBQs. Hopefully no one wanted a might night snack!

Sunset over Dubbo 

Ready for bed under the BBQ shelter

Overnight the weather was even worse than the night before, it rained for almost the whole night! The thunder and lightning was amazing! The thunder was very loud and continuous, however I couldn't see the corresponding flashes. It was nothing like what I had ever heard in Ringwood, Victoria. I woke up at 12:45 am, everyone I spoke to around town also work up, so it wasn't just me, it was a really big storm!

Day 6

I left the caravan park just after 9am and of course it had to rain while I was trying to pack up. I got some coffee in town, then headed to the Old Dubbo Gaol. The Gaol was built in the early 1880's and finally closed in 1966. It was opened in the late 1970's as a tourist attraction. A few of the exhibits on display could do with some maintenance, but there was a sign up saying that work was planned for between 2014-15.

Original hangman's kit.

I moved on to Gilgandra for lunch and looked at their WW1 gallery dedicated to the local hero's. It's a very small town with most things shut after lunch on a Saturday and closed on Sunday's! Just out of town I stopped in at the Orana Cactus World. I've never seen so many Cacti. The owner told me he had collected too many then needed to buy a block of land especially for the Cacti! Some in this front yard are about 40 years old.

I drove through Coonabarabran stopping to change the CD in my stereo. Before stopping for the night I made one last sight seeing visit for the day, to the CSIRO Australian Radio Telescope array for sunset which is just under 20km west of Narrabri.

I stopped in Narrabri for groceries and checked into a camp site. The camp kitchen was already being fully used so I pulled out all my own gear to cook. It was a gourmet dinner with red wine, bikkies and dip, Angus sausages & steamed veg. Followed by choc mint mouse for desert.

Gourmet camp cooking. 

Night 6

The night was fortunately dry with no clouds in the sky, so the air was a little colder. When getting into my swag it was damp and smelt musty. The morning sun has been terrific, I managed to completely dry and clean my swag. Night 7 will hopefully be a good rest.

I've now travelled 1464 km

Day 3

Night 2 was very chilly in Deniliquin, with the same recorded overnight low of 2.5 C. It was much colder at this caravan park when compared to my previous night! Knowing it was going to be very cold I closed up my swag as much as possible, leaving only a small gap for airflow. This meant it was wet inside when I woke up, but I slept straight through for about 10 hours and was very warm. I moved my swag onto the road and it was dry by the time I finished eating and packing the car.  The heated shower block at the Big4 is certainly a big win!

My frozen swag

I spent a little time in Deniliquin, stopping by the river and the mosaic ute. On my way out of town I quickly stopped at the Pioneer Steam Museum.

Deni - Ute capital of the world

Don't let this fire truck get too close!

I followed the Long Paddock up to Hay where I stopped for lunch and fuel. The Yaris has averaged 6.3L/100km. The Long Paddock gets it's name due to the history in this area of droving live stock to market. I saw wild Emus and had to stop for Cattle which was leisurely crossing the road!

Moo..ve out of the way! 

Hay had a bridge built over the river in 1874 to allow for easier crossing. The bridge was required to open for the passing paddle steamer river trade boats. The type of bridge built was a fairly unique design to Australia, it pivoted on a turntable. This turntable was operated by a manual crank, it must have had some good gear ratio to move all that weight!

The turntable mechanism was kept for historical reasons

From Hay I expressed over to West Wyalong for the night. I was originally considering stopping in Goolgowi, however this is a tiny town without much to see. The town originally formed due to rail freight passing through and when road freight took over the town started to shrink. The road between Hay and Goolgowi is pretty rough ride with a 110 km/h speed limit.

Night 3 was another good night's sleep with an overnight low of 5.4 C. I actually had to take off some clothing in my swag before getting to sleep! With plenty of airflow there was little condensation, making it very easy to dry the swag.

I'm currently in Forbes using 4G internet, on my way to Parkes to see the Radio Telescope. Total distance travelled so far is 892km, about 11% of the trip.

Day 2

Day 2 started when I awoke in Bendigo. There was a chilly overnight low of -2.5°C at 5am. After warming up and defrosting my swag, I had some breaky and left the camp ground.

The sun was out shining by 9am, so I stopped in a side street of town to dry my swag. It took about 30 mins, but meant that I didn't have to worry about sleeping in a wet swag tonight. I had tried to dry the swag at the caravan park, but everything there was wet and frosty making the task impossible.

I stopped at Bendigo's Central Deborah Gold Mine and went on an underground tour. This mine is now only open for tourism and to preserve some history. A lot has changed in mining techniques over the years!

Late 1930's mining techniques 

I continued my drive north, stopping briefly at the old port town of Echuca. From there I said goodbye to Victoria and continued on into NSW.

360 degree view of the sun set near the CFA shed on approach to Deiniliquin

I'm staying at the Big4 park in Deniliquin, where the overnight low is estimated at 0°C. I cooked on the BBQ and stayed near until it ran out of heat. With the fog thick and the temperature cold, it's time for bed.

Goodnight.

The camping trip begins

The day has finally come! I quit my job, bought a swag and had my car serviced. The sun is shining and my car is packed, I am off on a 5 week camping adventure. I have a rough route in mind, see the map below, but other than that it will be a trip of discovery and personal challenge. I am trading my 50²m Southbank city apartment for a one man Bourke and Wills swag.

I will be heading north toward NSW first. To see my current location, have a look at my Google Plus profile. I've discovered that because of a Google restriction, you do have to be signed in to view this.

I plan to share pictures and notes from the journey on this blog.