Entry 10 – Balranald – Canberra. 4/6/18 – 14/6/18
We continued making our way towards Canberra, travelling
across the “Hay Plain,” normally a dull flat boring stretch of about 130
kilometres between Balranald and Hay.
As other times when we travelled this route we saw emus
scattered about in the paddocks near the road with the occasional kangaroo.
About 40 kilometres shy of Hay the road sides became littered with cotton
fluff. The salt bush covered terrain changed to ploughed paddocks surrounded by
irrigation channels full of water. It wasn’t long before we saw hundreds,
possibly thousands of round bales of harvested cotton lining the edges of many
paddocks. As it turned out this was the same setting for a similar distance on
the eastern side of Hay. The soil was dark brown and as it turned out the water
was sourced from the Murrumbidgee River, close by along this section of our
route.
Our camp for the night at Hay was Sandy Point, near the
banks of the Murrumbidgee River – a beautiful setting. We walked along a well
laid out path along the river bank amongst magnificent redgum trees from the
campground towards the main street of Hay, via Bidgee Riverside Trail viewing
interesting sculptures along the track. We walked the length of the town’s main
street before returning to camp, pleased with what Hay had on offer.
The weather conditions since leaving home had been cold
nights with cool days. The daily maximums barely made it to 15 degrees with
overnight minimums regularly between 1 & 4 degrees. We had become
unaccustomed to these conditions, preferring to seek out warmer climates away
from southern Australian winter since retirement, now into our 6th
year. We were now utilizing our diesel heater each evening and morning to
combat the taxing cold. We had used our diesel heater more over the last 2
weeks, than since having it installed in 2013. Another one of those debated
expenses we are pleased we followed through with. Another bonus travelling this
region at this time of the year with many locations to ourselves.
Continuing on from Hay we viewed a couple of possible camp
locations eventually settling for Murrumbidgee Valley National Park at Middle
Beach, a magnificent setting with a sandy beach on the Murrumbidgee River
surrounded by beautiful redgum trees. When the temperature dropped we sat in
the caravan admiring the views from every window. It was a much appeasing
surround and all to ourselves.
We debated staying another night at Middle Beach with the
final ruling decided by the need for sun shine to power our solar system which
was absent due to a thick tree canopy. We moved on, having a browse around the
township of Narrandera and camping the night in another small town, Grong
Grong. During the evenings browse of tourist information obtained at Narrandera
showed Temora Aviation Museum about 100 kilometres north of us (we were focused
on a SE route towards Canberra) sounded nice. And even better, it was a couple
of days prior a long weekend with many of the Museum’s warbird planes on show
in the air. First, we rang our kids at Canberra to obtain their agreement for
us to travel a bit in the opposite direction and our lovely children ok-ed our
request. That day’s doctor’s assessment showed baby seemed to be content staying
with mum and wasn’t expected for an immediate appearance soon. We travelled
along some quiet country roads stopping to view the country side and townships
along the way, spending some money at Junee’s Licorice and chocolate factory.
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| mural in small town |
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| Junee train station and station café |
Thursday we managed to secure an unpowered spot at the Temora
Aviation Airfield caravan park within walking distance of the weekends
activities and were all set up by mid-afternoon, (all the powered sites are
booked out well in advance for organised activity time lines.) This was another
new experience for us in an interesting environment with a residential area
alongside of the airport where residents taxi their planes from their own
hanger located either to the rear or alongside of their homes to the airfield,
with street addresses like “Spitfire Drive.”
The below pictures show the house and hanger located to the
rear of our caravan and our walking path to the museum across plane runways.
Prior to the weekends activities we spent time walking
around Temora viewing some magnificent buildings. Once the weekend was upon us
we stayed put to view all the activities.
Late Friday afternoon the rain set in, raining all night.
Steve monitored the newly installed caravan window’s through the night,
thankfully all was good. The rain let up about 9.30 am the following morning
with plenty of water lying about on the ground.
10 am all rugged up with brolly in hand we walked to the
museum, paid our entry fee and were on our feet till about 5 pm mesmerised by
the days activities. Very tired, with about 1000 photographs and 40 video’s we
were in bed by 7 pm, both sound asleep by 7.02 pm. Still with another full day
of activities to go.
Day 1 started by familiarising ourselves with what was on
offer at the Temora Aviation Museum. We had no sooner started viewing some of
the impressive information and pictures when we had to terminate for a guided tour
of the main hanger, followed by some up close viewing of the planes on the
runway, Tiger Moth, Lockheed bomber, Spitfires and Kittyhawk just to mention a
few of the aircraft. Then it was onto flying displays for most of the aircraft
bar the Tiger Moth with a motor refusing to start. We were hypnotised by the
days activities which finished an hour later than programmed. Virtually all the
aircraft in the museum were flown, demonstrating their capabilities with a few
additional aircraft flown in by private owners from other locations of
Australia.
Day 2 we woke at first light to the sound of plane engines
and a clear sky. It was a long week end and we suspect many of the homes /
plane hangars normally unoccupied had come alive with people no different to
people with holiday shacks along waterways or near the ocean, whom were out to
enjoy themselves during holiday periods relishing time in this location in
their planes. The crowd in attendance for day 2 was more than double the
previous days attendees. Clear blue skies enhanced the quality of the days
plane photo’s. We enjoyed our time at Temora camping at the Temora Aviation
Airfield caravan park, with no need to drive for viewing all the activities.
There was the constant air craft motor noise, very different to our normal
quiet country bush settings.
Below pictures of the Tiger Moth and its motor did start the
second day, taxied out to the runway but failed to take off due to further
engine issues. The Tiger Moth was to fly in unison with a Ryan of similar
vintage but a very different design.
Next flights were of a Winaway, BT–13 and a Harvard. Look at
the upside-down BT-13 at the retracted undercarriage wheels.
The shiny Lockheed 12 was primarily utilized for transport,
in company with an impressive Lockheed Hudson bomber which for us was one of
the more stirring aircraft. The final fly-by with its bomb doors open. The 2nd
last picture in this group show the Spitfires in the background completing
final checks before take-off down the runway. The last picture with our camera
in the side rear door of the Lockheed Hudson bomber looking towards the
cockpit. It was even more awe-inspiring when we were advised this was the only
flying Lockheed Hudson bomber in the world.
Two Spitfires a P-40 Kittyhawk and an Australian
manufactured Boomerang all of similar vintage but with different wing shapes
and quite obvious which was aptly named the Boomerang from the wing shape. The
Spitfires were the only two flying models in Australia with another two in the
process of being rebuilt.
There were a couple of jets, one late WW11 and one from
Korean / Vietnam war time lines.
The below pictures are some random photos from day 1 showing
the difference in weather conditions and photos.
We spent 4 nights at the Temora Aviation Airfield caravan
park, then relocated to the towns railway station for 1 nights free camp,
keeping off the roads for the last day of the long week-end.
Once we had relocated to the railway station in town we
walked about 2 kilometres to the information centre which was the location of
the Rural Museum. The museum would have been one of the most impressive we have
seen with a broad range of memorabilia on display. Including mining, farming,
industrial, social, domestic, fire and ambulance vehicles.
We had enjoyed the atmosphere of Temora so much, we decided
to spend an extra night at the Railway Station. It was another walk around town
along a different route admiring the architecture and an enjoyable meal out at the
Services Club.
Moving on from Temora it was time to reacquaint with our
love for the bush setting. Our driving route took us along some back-country
farm land mostly on a single vehicle width bitumen surfaced roads. Once again,
we dawdled along enjoying the scenery, paddocks with sheep and cattle, crops
with a touch of greenery sprouting up above the soil and scrub treed areas. There
were many different types of farmers homes and even more of deserted derelict
farm housing along with different varieties of farm shedding with stock yards. A
couple of times for a few kilometres we came across farmers moving stock along
the road where we watched out for straying cattle and zig zagged around fresh
cow paddies on the road surface to avoid the long-lasting smell of #### stuck
to the undercarriage of our vehicles.
About 60 kilometres later we set camp at Bethungra Dam &
Reserve where we spent two nights enjoying the countryside.
The cold weather conditions were taking a toll on us with
this journal recording days maximum temperature predicted to be 13 degrees and
minimum of minus 1 degrees. The icy cold wind chilled any exposed body parts. We
were in this location of Australia to greet the arrival of one granddaughter
and she was already showing signs of intelligence not wanting to depart the
warmth provided by her mother. She was hanging on tight, past that hypothetical
due date. Grrrr.
We continued driving exploring further country location’s
but we were hindered by constant rain and the chilling cold.
We spent a night in the small town of Binalong at the sports
grounds with evening discussions coming to a conclusion we would drive the 120
kilometres to the bigger township of Goulburn, basing ourselves at a caravan
park for a few days with access to power to run our electric heater combating
the cold. It was 6 degrees out side for most of the days drive and even at 1 pm
at Goulburn the BOM site showed Goulburn temperature at 9 degrees feeling like
0.5 degrees assisted by a chilly wind.
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