On the road again

30^th March 2013

We are finally back on the road after several delays through various reasons including the inclement weather we experienced in Queensland since Christmas. We actually got away mid morning on Tuesday the 26^th March, I had planned for a Monday departure but by lunchtime the little lady was still busy talking to the neighbours so I gave up on Monday (bloody lucky to get away on Tuesday actually). I don’t know if I ever mentioned it in the past but when we sold our last house and shifted, everything was packed in cartons and labelled except Nancy’s clothes. When the removalists arrived Nancy hurriedly threw her clothes into a couple of large garbage bags (and I ended up throwing one away at the dump thinking it was rubbish), nothing has changed so you can see how difficult it can be to get underway as planned.

Heading south I contemplated how nice it was how our daughter doubled back home after saying goodbye, having left early for work Tuesday morning she rushed in crying and needing another hug before she left again, just at that stage I had an attack of hay fever or some allergy and was all runny nosed and watery eyed, whatever it was it passed.

We trundled down the Pacific Highway for two days absolutely amazed at the amount of roadworks being carried out on the highway in NSW. The first night we pulled up at a rest area south of Ballina called New Italy where we met up with a nice couple from Bundaberg doing a similar thing to us. Just as well I had some medicinal red wine to help me sleep as forty thousand semi trailers roared through during the night (apparently).

Wednesday before Easter was the last day I was prepared to travel on the Pacific highway anywhere south of Port Macquarie with the usual mad house rush on the Thursday prior to Easter. Just short of Port Macquarie we turned inland to drive up the delightful Oxley Highway heading for Tamworth 270kls or so inland in the New England area we drove with the windows down listening to a constant chorus of Bell Birds and admiring the scenery. We camped for the night at Ellenborough reserve a beautiful quiet spot approximately 60kls on the way. Quite a few caravans and motor homes were spread about this large peaceful reserve adjacent to a picturesque river setting, it certainly wasn’t crowded. It was one of those quiet places where you could hear your own heart beating the noisiest thing was probably our 12 volt water pump which is mounted outside the van and sounds like a Harley Davidson. Thursday we continued along the Oxley Highway another 140kls to Walcha where we caught up with a relative. The Oxley Highway through to Tamworth is over the Great Dividing Range so it can be steep in parts with fertile valleys, picturesque farming country it was an enjoyable drive on a good surface and very little traffic.

At Tamworth the country music capital of Australia we spent the night at a caravan park on the outskirts of town called City Lights only because we needed to top up with water and use our washing machine. The new owners informed us they had only been in the place three days and all I could think of was “they have one hell of a job ahead of them”, what a dump and we may as well have been back at New Italy with the trucks belting past.          

Good Friday, on down through New England area following scenic country roads through a number of quaint old towns such as Werris Creek and Premer, past the site of the famous black stump near Coolah and through Dunedoo. Once again we turned off the highway onto a dirt road taking us through the lovely old town of Wellington and avoiding going through Dubbo. Unfortunately when we hit the dirt road our power connection to the caravan came adrift and disintegrated as it dragged on the gravel road, sensing something was wrong I stopped to check and after some temporary repairs with tape and string we were underway again. That night we camped at the Burrendong Dam reserve, of course being Easter there was a huge number of people camping, hundreds were attending a fishing comp and there was a large contingent of expensive looking ski and wake board boats, because of the crowd the rangers were using an adjacent rough golf course for camping so being self contained we were able to find a spot well away from the crowd and we set up in the middle of the course. Once established we went for a long walk to have a look at the lake and surrounding scenery and on our return discovered our nearest neighbours 30m away had returned with their ski boat, half a dozen young fellas and a few girls and the loudest doof doof music you have ever heard, vibrations from the base were even shaking the caravan. We both figured it would be a long night if we stayed there so we shifted to the other end of the golf course and set up on one of the Tees our nearest neighbour was probably 150m away and we had a nice relaxing quiet night, clear starry sky and camp fires dotted all around in the distance like something out of Hannibals Army.

Easter Saturday 30^th March

From Burrendong we continued in a southerly direction through Orange and what a beautiful place with it’s tree lined avenues and old buildings. The town looks clean and prosperous. We tried in vain to contact someone we know living in Orange but at least we were able to pick up some electrical bits to repair the caravan connection. Apple picking has just started around Orange, the autumn colours are just creeping in, another few weeks and the place will be a blaze of colour. Just outside of Orange is the Cadia goldmine that to all accounts is very successful.

From Orange we took the country back roads to avoid Easter traffic and for an hour or so had absolutely no idea where we were or where we were headed but eventually ended up at the right place, down through Cowra site of a POW camp during the second world war. See following historical extract:  

 During World War II Cowra was the site of a prisoner of war (POW) camp. Most of the detainees were captured Japanese and Italian military personnel, On 5th August 1944, at least 545 Japanese POWs attempted a mass breakout from the camp. Simultaneously, other Japanese prisoners committed suicide, or were killed by their countrymen, inside the camp.

The actions of the POWs in storming machine gun posts, armed only with improvised weapons, showed what Prime Minister John Curtin described as a "suicidal disregard of life", and had no chance of success.

During the breakout and subsequent recapture of POWs, four Australian guards and 231 Japanese died, and 108 prisoners were wounded. The dead Japanese were buried in Cowra in the specially created Japanese War Cemetery. This is the only such cemetery in Australia, and also holds some of the dead from the WWII air raids on Darwin.

Through Young the cherry capital of Australia and just a shame they are out of season.

Camped off the road at a rest stop at a little place called Wallendbeen 20kls short of Cootamundra. A couple Nancy was talking to suggested it would be too noisy where we were parked and they were going to set up at the local show ground ½ a kilometer away. Neither of us were woken in the night by traffic but I did hear a couple of times during the night a freight train rumbling past about ½ a kilometer away alongside the show ground, glad we didn’t shift.

On the last day of March, Easter Sunday and no Easter bunny we trundled on through Cootamundra, birthplace of that famous willow wielding gentleman, Sir Donald Bradman and the equally famous Cootamundra Wattle. Then on through Junee with its wonderful old buildings like the magnificent looking railway station and several old banks, also home of the best eating lamb in the country and birthplace of Graham Rosengreen an old friend of ours and husband of a sister of the wife of Nancy’s cousin (for those that like detail).

On through Wagga Wagga and down to Albury where we checked out the Hume Dam. Note the following extract from Wikipedia.

Constructed over a 17-year period from 28 November 1919 to 1936[1] with a workforce of thousands, a branch siding from the Wodonga - Cudgewa railway was built to supply materials. It was extended during the 1950s, and completed in 1961, necessitating the wholesale removal of Tallangatta township and its re-establishment at a new site eight kilometres west of the original, as well as railway and road diversions.

As it is the furthest downstream of the major reservoirs on the Murray River system, and has the capacity to release water at the fastest rate, Lake Hume is used by the irrigation authorities as the storage of first resort. The reservoir typically falls to less than one-third capacity by March each year, but in normal years refills to at least two-thirds capacity before November, though Australia's highly unpredictable climatic conditions cause these figures to vary quite significantly from year to year. In 2007 Lake Hume fell to a scant 1% capacity, barely more than the water in the two rivers (Murray and Mitta) flowing through on their original paths. As of November 2010, however, Lake Hume is now at full capacity.[2]

Monitoring of the dam in the early 1990s revealed that the water pressure and leakage had caused the dam to move on its foundations slightly, leading to concerns that the dam was heading for collapse, threatening Albury-Wodonga and the entire Murray basin with it.[3] Authorities denied any short-term threat.^[citation needed^] Traffic was banned from the spillway, and a large repair job commenced involving, in part, the construction of a secondary earth wall behind the original to take the strain.

So there you have it.

We crossed the border into Victoria without incident and headed for “Alpine” country once again driving through beautiful countryside and admiring the variety of trees and colours emerging. We camped at Nug Nug camping reserve on the Buffalo River (creek), obviously a very popular spot and being Easter very well patronized. We picked a spot between two massive Elm trees and had a comfortable quiet night. This attractive treed reserve is run by volunteers, it has two toilet blocks one old and another that is obviously new, only cold showers (we used the van shower), we were on power and it only cost us $15.00 for the night. It turned cool overnight after a warm sunny day and Nancy wouldn’t get out of bed until I put the heater on for half an hour. The whole area was shrouded in light fog and mixed with the woodsmoke of numerous campfires it presented a magical scene as early sunshine filtered through the numerous elm trees. Amusingly I noticed how the previous evening a group of people had sat around a large camp fire enjoying a few drinks and noisily yarning and in the morning the same group were standing around in their flannelette shirts with hunched shoulders to fend off the cold while trying to warm themselves with steaming cups of tea or coffee, and distinctly quieter.

1^st April

Eventually we got away about ten o’clock and once again drove through lovely farmland and scenic countryside along the Great Alpine Road to the township of Bright where we topped up with fuel to get us over the next mountain range, where we wanted to stay. What a grind, we wound our way up the range for what seemed like hours on an excellent surface with very little traffic going in our direction but knowing we had to eventually descend the other side which is just as testing to keep the speed right down and not burn out brakes. It was one time I was glad to get off a road, as we pulled out onto the flat at the road junction I was relieved that no one was coming as I honestly don’t think we could have stopped in a hurry, as we slowly pulled up a cloud of smoke rose from the front brakes and the smell of burning went right through the car. We found a lovely caravan park at the little Alpine township of Tawonga alongside the Kiewa River and booked in for a couple of nights. Nancy had the washing machine running half the night and I carried out some running repairs.

Tuesday 2^nd April we drove solo up through the Alpine National Park to Falls Creek Alpine village and ski resort and from there did some exploring and sight seeing on dirt roads further up the mountain where at one point we had driven up the highest drivable road in Australia albeit a rough gravel track, Mt Mackay at 1842m. Using mountain air as an excuse for hunger we ducked back to Falls Creek for lunch and coffee and then took on some bush walking by trekking short distances to a couple of old mountain huts. One called Wallace Hut was built by cattlemen when the area was grazed in the summer months back in 1889. Built of Snow Gum slabs and Woollybutt shingles it is thought to be one of the oldest surviving huts in the region.

In another location was Cope Hut a timber construction built by the Ski Club of Victoria in 1929, old rugged and solid this hut has a stone fireplace with cast iron stove and provision for 8 bunks, these mountain huts are still useable as shelters in times of need and only as a refuge not for general camping.

Wednesday the 3^rd a local mechanic in the small town of Mt Beauty checked our van brakes and wheel bearings while we killed time looking around the place eating fudge and the best cream doughnuts. We got away from Mt Beauty just after lunch and headed in the direction of Wangaratta on our way to South Australia but passing through the historical town of Beechworth we just couldn’t drive straight through. This is Kelly country and so we stopped and spent a couple of very interesting hours doing a self guided historical town walk and the old court house where Kelly was held for a while before being sent to Melbourne. Well worth the stop, tonight we are camped alongside a river just off the road it seems to be a quiet spot, there is another camper nearby and three more a few hundred metres away. Earlier a group of police arrived and told us they thought the owner of a tent nearby was owned by someone they wanted to pick up for burglary and stealing and he was driving a stolen blue Falcon, so if he should turn up we should ring 000. Wonder how much sleep we will all get tonight. It’s bloody Kelly Country all right.