Entry 23 – Travelling SW from Queensland Sunshine Coast to
Adelaide South Australia. – 11/11/18 – 28/11/18.
It felt good to be back in our
caravan travelling again. Though it did feel somewhat cramped in the confines
of the caravan with Steve struggling to anticipate which way Mary was going to
swing her arms about, taking a few days to re-adjust.
The evening prior to departure
from Coolum Beach we looked at a few travelling route alternatives, available
scenery along each route and the 7 day weather forecast for those different
locations. Predictions were for coolish temperatures along the coastal regions
with the quieter inland route feeling more appealing with warmer predicted
temperatures.
Our second day of travel a large
truck travelling towards us dropped or flicked up a large flat object as it was
passing us. The object was spinning rapidly in the air windscreen height,
across the road directly in front of us. Our hearts were in our mouths,
noooooooo, luckily it passed down the left side of us.
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| Offending truck |
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| Scary seeing an object spinning very fast through the air towards you |
Somehow, we ended up at Pilliga
Hot Artesian Bore Bath. It was our fourth visit over a four month period during
our 2018 travels.
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| Pool all to ourselves with our quiet camp site close by in the back ground |
The crowds were no longer present
at Pilliga with the increase of the daily ambient air temperatures approaching
the low 30’s C mark. There were still other travellers passing through, up to five
other caravans one night, one other, on our last night. We managed to have the
pool to ourselves regularly during our 3 – 5 daily dips over a period occupying
a four night stay. It was a peaceful setting sitting under our awning watching
the birds move about in the wetlands created by the artesian waters. When it
was time for us to move on, our bodies were feeling very relaxed and content.
A couple of days along, down the
road a bit, the weekend was upon us and we were going to be travelling through
a number of populated country towns over the next couple of hundred kilometres.
We decided to camp away from these locations to avoid the weekend shenanigans (people
behaving badly) before proceeding. We set camp in a beautiful bush setting at
Goobang National Park.
We had previously camped at
Goobang N.P. 5 years prior and remembered the deafening mornings created by the
abundant bird life. There were still some birds about, but the intensity of
their noise was missing along with the mobs of afternoon kangaroos grazing around
the camp site. We thought the ongoing drought conditions may have contributed
to the decline of the wild life.
One of the reasons for choosing
our travelling route was due to it being more populated than most other Australian
inland routes with the many communities scattered along the route competing for
the tourist dollar, providing a variety of options to entice tourists to their
area. We prefer to travel at a slow relaxed rate, enjoying the scenery along
the way and thought this route could provide some of those distractions from
the task of travelling long distances to our destination. Also, it was a route
we hadn’t previously explored, last travelling along this road in
pre-retirement days where we didn’t have time to stop.
About 40 kilometres on from
Goobang NP we stopped at Peak Hill, spending a good hour walking around the Peak
Hill Gold Mine.
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| Great statues, panning for gold, made of small pieces of steel welded together. |
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| Hole was very large, fully grown trees around perimeter help to indicate size. |
About another 40 kilometres
further down the road we stopped to view the “Dish,” the CSIRO Astronomy and
Space Science, Parkes radio telescope, where we enjoyed time looking and
reading some of the provided information.
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| Mary looking a bit out of sorts |
Our next stop was at Parkes
information centre where we viewed the Elvis Presley museum. Another
interesting, different activity for us.
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| Enjoyed viewing some vintage vehicles seeing the rear and front from the same standing spot |
It had been a relaxing sort of
day whilst still clocking up some kilometres towards home. Initially we thought
of staying the night at Parkes with our only available choice, a caravan park.
Reviewing our options, we decided to continue about 30 kilometres down the road
to Forbes where there was a free camp in preference to paying for a caravan
park. This turned out to be a good decision as the camping area was in a very
picturesque setting, overlooking Forbes Lake, far nicer than a cramped caravan
park.
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| Looking at our camp from the other side of the lake |
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| Some of our view from our camp |
Forbes had a great walking /
cycling path travelling past our door, which we explored for a couple of hours.
Forbes enticed us to stay a couple of nights with plenty to do.
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| First time we have seen signage advising pedestrians to keep left. |
An hour and a half drive, down
the road, we stopped at the town of Weethalle where we stayed the night in the
showgrounds. It was $10 with power to stay the night and we could easily have
travelled all the way home free camping along the way but after viewing the
towns silo art we were inspired to stay for the day, walking around, viewing
the township.
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| We
liked the country town signage |
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| This picture included the natural streaky
cloud formations |
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| Mary standing
at bottom middle helping to show the significance of this large art works |
The bureau of meteorology were
forecasting a severe weather front affecting a large area covering the lower half
of Australia with a prediction of strong winds for the next two days with some
additional warnings for the area we were currently travelling through. It was a
Thursday and we had planned a hypothetical destination of Yanga Homestead near Balranald about 330 kilometres down
the road for some time on Friday. We assessed the detailed weather forecast
where it showed the winds would be mostly side on along our route during the
morning, changing to head on winds in the afternoon. We decided to travel to
the town of Hay in the morning about 200 kilometres down the road where we
would reassess our options.
Whilst
travelling we were listening to the radio, monitoring any further weather
updates. At one stage they were reporting on a 500 kilometre wide dust storm
starting to engulf Sydney with visibility down to a couple of hundred metres.
Just as they were reporting the dust storm our visibility was about to drop to
less than 50 metres.
A
while later the rain came, or should we say it appeared to rain mud for a
while. The rain was effective clearing the dust but not all the hazards.
As
it transpired the weather forecast turned out to be quite accurate. We were buffeted
by side winds most of the trip, changing to a head wind during the last 30
kilometres or so to Hay. We set camp in Hay’s free camp at Sandy Point on a
hard gravel surface away from the river clay areas in case it came in wet,
deciding to reassess the weather forecast the following day.
We woke at first light coinciding
with a drop in the ferocity of the wind. It was about 120 kilometres to our
next targeted destination and we were mobile within 15 minutes of waking, taking
advantage of the moderating wind, deciding to have breakfast at our planned
stop. Our route was to travel west across the Hay plan, a route across a flat
plateau devoid of trees, mostly covered by low salt bush. With no tree limbs
about to help provide a visual assessment for the strength of the predicted
head winds that we were driving into, we relied on the tow tugs visual dash
display, indicating our average fuel consumption. At about the half way mark, our
fuel consumption rate started heading north.
Yanga Homestead, circa 1850’s (our
targeted destination for this Friday) was available for public viewing Monday –
Friday having been purchased by the NSW Government 2005, for its natural,
cultural and historic values, as is - presented by our photo’s. Back in May we
arrived at Yanga Homestead on a Saturday, liked what we saw and had placed it
on our wish list for viewing.
At $9 per person you are provided
with a hand held audio recording and a key to access various internal areas of
the buildings. With a gale force wind buffeting us, it was almost impossible to
hear the audio recorder outside and not much better inside with the buildings
creaking and groaning.
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| Interesting construction - hand cut chunks of timber |
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| Air-conditioning was via an extra wide passage front to rear door drawing in cool air |
A bit over an hour later we
returned to the caravan for breakfast and replayed the audio recording in the
quieter environment of our caravan. We then returned to explore the buildings
again with the added knowledge provided by the audio for around another hour.
Another enjoyable experience and we could have spent more time exploring the
grounds area if the weather had been a bit more comfortable.
About 10 kilometres down the road
we set camp in Yanga NP, Mamanga camp ground
on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in a magnificent river red gum setting.
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| Our camp location |
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| Beautiful river red gums |
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| Our view from our camp site |
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| Sunrise |
We were woken early each morning by
a chorus, provided by the kookaburras notifying all about, the pending arrival
of the days sun. The air was awash with the sounds of bird chatter continuing
throughout the day.
We camped in Yanga NP on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, which was
a fantastic setting where we could stay for an indefinite period.
Unfortunately, we had a self-imposed time line with less than a month before
Christmas and things to address, before the Christmas shut down period was upon
us.
After 3 nights at Yanga NP we
travelled about 200 kilometres to Murray-Sunset NP with several lake beds of
dry white salt pans, where we set camp at the Pink Lakes camp ground. The lakes
contain a red species of algae and after rain with nutrients washing into the
lake, this triggers increased growth of the algae, changing the colour of the
lakes to pink.
The day of our arrival at the
Pink Lakes coincided with our 35th wedding anniversary. We had been
concentrating on utilizing all our existing fresh food and had neglected to
consider a special meal for our anniversary. About a 100 kilometres down the
road we were entering into South Australia where all vehicles are stopped and
searched by quarantine officials whom remove any fresh food located. This is
due to strict quarantine regulations preventing the carriage of fresh food into
S.A. So, we decided to have a special dinner once we are home.
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| Celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary with a bit of fruit cake and a beer between us. |
One of the reasons for visiting
the Pink Lakes was a predicted weather forecast of rain in this locality for the
following day of our arrival. The B.O.M. were predicting up to 15 millimetres
of rain, but we were unable to find any reference to the time line for the
algae reaction. The rain arrived late afternoon with a light steady fall for a
couple of hours. The below first picture shows our view prior to the arrival of
rain. Note the dry Salt Lake surface with no reflection on the lakes surface.
The second picture shows the change after rain with a surface covered in water
reflecting the nearby land.
Pre-rain, Steve easily walked out
onto the lake surface taking the first photo. At about the two hour mark of
rain with a lull in the rain he gingerly walked out to the edge of the lake and
could see the outer perimeter at the water’s edge was already changing to pink.
We witnessed a wonderful sunset
enhanced by cloudy damp conditions. A lovely finale setting for the completion
of our 2018 travels. We were less than 300 kilometres from home.
As it transpired only 2
millimetres of rain had been recorded by the B.O.M. By morning the water was
already receding on the lake surface. Standing at the edge of the lake you
could clearly see the outer perimeter had changed to a vibrant light pink
colouring from the white salt surface prior the arrival of the rain.
Leaving the Pink Lakes, we
travelled to Lameroo visiting Marys family on the farm then it was onto our
sons place catching up with his family. We finally arrived at our home about 7
pm, travelling around 300 kilometres for the day. No more extended vacation
time for us for 2018. It was back to reality, a rear yard buried under waist
high grass, two trees no longer standing, and a couple of fence panels damaged/missing,
possibly from a recent storm that had created plenty of damage in our area. Can’t
wait to get out of here.
