Yowie Bay to Lara Wetlands - 28 May to 4 June

Heading off

This year we don't have the boat as we sold it as well as the boat loader. It was just too hard for us to handle; after all it's supposed to be a holiday not a chore. Instead we have a shiny new roof cage with a whizz-bang waterproof bag. Not that we'll need waterproof where we're going, or at least hopefully we won't.

Our first night was at Jaron Park Community Hall, a free camp just south of Mudgee.

This allowed us to go into Mudgee on Monday morning and put the car and caravan over a weighbridge, to make sure we were OK with weights. This is becoming such an issue with caravans now, so I always want to make sure we're legal.

Our whole setup came in 440kgs under weight. Caravan is 100kgs under, a bit close but we did have water onboard. Tow ball weight was 80kgs under our allowed limit. Car weight was 220kgs under. And the one I've not measured previously was our rear-axle load and this was 160kgs under our limit. So we got ticks all round.

Nyngan - Flood Evacuation Memorial Park

Nyngan was the first time we could get to shorts, thongs and tee-shirts during the day. Nights were still bitterly cold due to the cold snap hitting the east coast of Australia. It's really good to wear shorts and thongs again!

So far this trip we're noticed that there are a lot less caravans out here than previous years. Last year in April the caravan park at Bourke was fully booked, and you had to book ahead to secure a spot. This year, the park was about 1/2 full. There are just less vans out here. Seems like the slowing of the economy is working thanks to the Reserve Bank.

Next observation, is just how friendly the truck drivers are. Normally only about 10% will give you the wave as they whizz past. The last two days of driving it's been 100% of the big trucks that are waving and about 70% of the smaller ones. The drivers are also engaging via the CB radio a lot more. I wouldn't say they are chatty to us, but they will definitely start a communication when they are close to us. I actually put this down to the Facebook page "Truck Friendly - caravan road safety program".

We headed off from Bourke to Cunnamulla, this is 260 kms of virtually nothing. There are no shops, nor petrol stations, but there are two hotels on the way, they aren't open in the morning so no joy getting coffee from them. About half way along here I said to my sleeping wife, "I need a coffee", then magically we pass a sign "Coffee Van in 2kms". Yeah right! Who's going to have a coffee van out here?

Sure enough in 2kms there's an oasis of an coffee van setup with a few vans around it getting their morning coffee hit.

It's called "The Bush Brew" and is run by the farmers wife who has cut out part of their their fence and has a Coffee Van complete with a full blown coffee barista machine, running from a generator of course. Their daughter around 6 years old was assisting. Very friendly.

The daughter was actually helping prepare the home made orange and poppy seed muffins. Yum!

Then out of the blue comes this even smaller kid on a motor bike doing the deliveries and topping up supplies. He was only tiny, but he sure was capable on that bike. Farm kids, what a life.

There you can see him speeding off to get more milk or whatever. I wanted a clearer photo, but he was way too fast!

While we were there, every vehicle that went past stopped. She's definitely not going to make her fortune out here, but what a great service.

In Cunnamulla we bumped into the Cunnamulla Fella. Here's Jayne chatting him up.

Then it was off to our camp spot at Dilallah Waterhole. We got the best spot here, and we were all alone until the other mandatory caravan pulled up just behind us. All this room, and they are right on us. People!  We think the only reason people do this ,is for security if they're a bit nervous camping on their own. 

We had a nice fire, first of our trip. Many more to come!

Then it was off to Blackall and their low cost campsite right in the middle of town.

We filled up with water and got our last minute supplies before we headed off to Lara Wetlands.

Lara Wetlands

Lara was our first multiple night stop this trip. We were both suffering from colds and I certainly didn't feel as if I could drive much more without a break. Jayne just slept. Slept all day while I was driving then again all night. I wish I could sleep like that!

This place is very special. Last year we were here with Stormy puppy, and he made our lives a bit tough. He's a beautiful boy, but he was only 6 months old and a lot of work. Outback Queensland was also going through a cold snap, so everywhere we went was freezing.

We left here feeling a bit disappointed, and thought after being here 5 times we felt as if we were over Lara. When Chuck and Sue were here recently we put Lara back into this trip's agenda. And we're very glad we did.

The weather here at Lara Wetlands is amazing. 28°C during the day and mostly no wind. Even the nights are warmer, we didn't run our diesel heater at all last night.

Sunset Aperol Spritz and prosecco complete with a fire

The hot springs are a definite plus

We're here for 3 nights and depart Lara tomorrow.  Our plans are still very fluid, as they have to be these days. With many of our planned campsites closed from either flood damage or Indigenous land claims, our options are being limited. We're heading to Darwin to meet up with Chuck and Sue sometime around the end of June.

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