7 - July 2025 - Pilliga Hot Artesian Waters, N.S.W.

 

Entry 7 – July – 2025 Pilliga Hot Artesian Waters

We had spent a week in chilly Canberra. The cold temperatures had felt quite brutal on our bodies. We were dreaming of a warmer environment, thinking of the wonderful hot artesian pool waters at Pilliga, located about 600 kilometres north. During our time in Canberra, we had been monitoring the daily temperatures at Pilliga, with day time temperatures about 6 – 8 C degrees warmer.

It was a “no brainer,” we planned to leave Canberra and drive directly to the Pilliga hot artesian pool.

Our departure morning provided plenty of incentive to get out of Canberra. We woke to a country side shrouded by heavy fog, frozen puddles of water with everything biting cold to touch.

 

It was amazing how the positive anticipation of the tantalizing hot artesian waters, just up the road a bit, diminished the tiring effects of driving while towing a caravan over a long distance. We spent one night camped at around the half way mark, at the small town of Geurie. Geurie’s old racecourse provided a nice quiet setting, away from the busy highway.

The following day we arrived at our planned destination of Pilliga in late afternoon. We selected a location to set camp and headed to the pool. Entering the 38 C degree artesian waters we felt our skin tingling from the effects of our cold bodies coming into contact with what initially felt like rather hot water.

It took about 10 minutes for our bodies to adjusted to the beautiful water temperature. Several days later, our faces were still smiling with pleasure.

The campground at Pilliga hot artesian pool was busy. It is a large open clay surfaced paddock. We had placed ourselves in a position providing nearby campers with plenty of space.

The scenery looking out beyond the campground was pleasurable viewing.

There are always the people that park up unnecessarily close, blocking our view and blocking the warming effects of the rising sun.  Grrr.

There were many beautiful sunrises and just as many beautiful sunsets.

We were in the vicinity of the New South Wales central inland regions. A few months prior the region had experienced record rainfalls. The Pilliga landscape was a lush green setting. There was still lots of water lying about. The normal dusty wetlands walking trail was difficult to follow due to being covered by the flourishing green growth. The normal concentration of bird life along the wetlands, which is created by the flow of the artesian waters were noticeably absent. Most likely the birds had moved to other current nearby fertile locations.

The missing birds had been replaced by large volumes of cattle on agistment from other drought affected regions of Australia. A conversation with one of the local farmers who was also enjoying their daily dip in the hot artesian pool, showed they were getting an income boost of $10.50 per week for each cow on agistment and $7 per sheep.

Another day when we were on a walkabout, we spotted a field of cotton growing. It provided an opportunity for some interesting up-close viewing. We studied the nearby landscape with a bit more attentiveness, spotting the camping ground in the distance. It showed how fertile the Pilliga region could be when the seasons arrived on time and with the required amount of rainfall and sunshine.

After a few days of immersing our bodies in the beautiful temperature of the hot artesian waters we could feel the positive health benefits upon our bodies. Some of our aches and pains had evaporated. We could feel a comforting calmness settling our persona. For us it provided many positive qualities.

Sadly, we received notification, Steve’s Dad had suffered a major medical episode requiring our attendance.

With the help of relaxed bodies and adrenaline, we managed to drive about 600 kilometres on our first day of driving home and about 800 kilometres the second day. These were seriously big driving days for us, unbelievable that we could achieve that.

We drove directly to the location of Dad and talked to him for a while, disregarding his unconscious state.

Twenty minutes after our arrival Steve’s 93-year-old Dad passed away with all of his immediate family around him. It felt so good for everyone to be together at that point in time. It was a sad occasion as Dad was the first person to pass away, breaking that chain link of their expanding family.

Rest in Peace, Dad.

6 - June 2025 - Adelaide to Canberra drive

 

Entry 6 – June – 2025 Adelaide to Canberra

From the end of entry 5 till the beginning of entry 6, we spent two weeks at home attending to medical stuff and maintenance on our caravan.

It was reiterated to us it was winter time in the southern regions of Australia. We departed Adelaide, heading to Canberra. Most of the day the temperature had hovered around a chilly 11-13 degrees C and we were expecting a cold night.

Our first night’s stop was at the unstaffed Walpeup caravan park. It was a donation of $10 for a powered site. We set up our small electric heater to a timer switch with the heater coming on for 45 minutes every 1 ½ hours. It was a beautiful comfortable temperature overnight within the confines of our caravan.

The Bureau of Meteorology was predicting maximum daytime temperatures of around 13 – 14 degrees over the next 7 days. Stepping outside from the comfortable environments of our tow tug and caravan virtually took your breath away. It was very cold.

When travelling the most direct route to Canberra from Adelaide we would normally turn left at the town of Tooleybuc and head east across the Hay Plains.

On this occasion, we turned right at Tooleybuc, heading further inland in the state of Victoria to some friend’s home.

The deviation provided a pleasant change of scenery, from the dry barren Hay Plains. We followed the River Murray with a constant view of grand river red gum trees. There were many lakes and many small towns along this section of fertile landscape.

There was a stop to view the Lake Boga silo art.

There was an overnight stop at Reedy Lake. Access to the campground was a few kilometres along a sign posted, dry weather road only. We inspected the track before proceeding. It was soft under foot with water lying to its sides. We decided not to tempt fate and set camp for the night at the day use area on a paved surface. We might not have had the beautiful lakeside views. We did enjoy a nearby bird hide providing some nice viewing of wetlands.

We were nearby the town of Kerang and of interest there were about 57 lakes within this region. Reedy Lake was one of a few allocated as a refuge for bird life.

It was another special area, worth some time exploring during more pleasant weather conditions.

Moving away from the Murray River regions, the country side viewing was still quite pleasant.

Our next stop over was at friend’s home in Violet Town. Anne and Brian, we first met in 2015 whilst travelling near the New South Wales and Queensland borders. We had caught up several times since and it was time for another reacquaintance.

We spent 5 nights at the small country side town of Violet Town. The surrounding country side was quite picturesque, with a grand gum tree covered countryside.  There were visits to various café’s, one in town, another at nearby Strathbogie and another at the nearby township of Benalla. Each one containing other customers of fellow retirees known to Anne and Brian.

Of interest the street they lived on of about 20 homes had one working resident with the rest consisting of retirees.

There was Mary’s community garden located on Mary Street.

There was some sharing of expertise, helping one another. Steve helped Brian solve some caravan door issues he was experiencing and Brian provided some electrical expertise solving issues we were having with our caravan electric awning.

We immensely enjoyed their company and Violet Town’s hospitality.

Continuing towards Canberra we travelled along the Hume Highway. It is a double laned highway in both directions from Melbourne to Sydney, providing easy driving conditions. There are many service centres with food and fuel. There are even more roadside rest areas with toilets. It is a great comfortable route for travelling long distances over a short time line.

We had an overnight stop at Jugiong with a large camping area alongside the Murrumbidgee River. The river level was at the lowest level we had seen. Most likely due to visiting at the beginning of winter. Previously visited by us during spring times with a higher water flow from the winter rains.

The overnight temperature hovered around a chilly -4 degrees. Without the option for access to 240-volt power we utilized our diesel heater. Leaving it on all night. A first-time experience for us, with a very cold overnight temperature. It was great to have an off-grid heater working nicely. Come morning the daylight was struggling to pierce through a heavy shrouding of fog.

The fog didn’t start to clear till around 11a.m. It was cold, wet and muddy. We decided to push on, arriving a couple of days earlier than originally planned at Canberra. Arriving at Canberra we appreciated being connected to mains 240-volt power, looking after our batteries and enjoying the benefits of ample power to keep us nice and warm. Canberra even put on a nice sunset on our arrival day.

There are lots of good shopping opportunities at Canberra. We were both in need of a new pair of walking shoes. $500 for shoes. You do get what you pay for. Mary spotted lamb shanks in the supermarket. One of her favourite foods and a much-appreciated meal.

Canberra can be a tough environment in winter. During our weeks stay, most mornings the ambient temperature dropped to between -4 to -7 C degrees. There were frozen water puddles to watch out for. Our caravan’s black shiny solar panels located about half a metre from our night time pillows were feeling the duress.

We were in Canberra for our granddaughter’s birthday. The kids enjoyed time with their grandparent’s. And those grandparents slept well during the nights. 

Mary and Penny enjoyed time together, preparing some special food.

We spent a busy week in Canberra. The grandchildren’s main focus was to experience lots of birthday celebrations. Our son’s wish list of jobs around their home for Steve’s attention were completed. It was time for everyone to return to their normal life. Especially for us. It was time to head north, leaving the cold winter weather behind and find warmer environments.