Our new 5’ver

Since April/May 2010 when we decided that we’d like Peter Groom of Truelux 5th Wheelers to build our next home, we have been on the waiting list. At the end of October 2010, we eventually received that long awaited phone call, “We’re ready for you to come in and begin / finalise the plans of your 5’ver.” Our appointment was for the 8th November 2010. We still had two weeks to kill, & did they seem to take forever. The 8th came & went; by the end of the day, we looked at each other & wondered if we actually achieved anything as there had been so many interruptions. A couple of days later we attended another meeting just to sort out some of our concerns which we had from the previous meeting. This time we had Peter’s undivided attention with no interruptions. At long last our new home was on the drawing board. We were told that they will start the chassis by the end of November & that the outside walls should be up by Christmas when they will shut for 3 weeks for the Christmas / New Year break.

So by the middle of November, it was time for us to head back home to Napperby & get ready for the Christmas festivities & of course to bake the Christmas cakes & Puddings (a bit late!). In the meantime, phone calls going back & forth to confirm various things & a trip to the local carpet & lino store in town to choose another lino. With all this done, we could relax a while. Straight after Christmas, Colin advertised our current caravan on the internet, a couple of enquiries but nothing serious. Oh well, we’ll try again in the New Year. Christmas Day & New Year came & went as they always seem to do, so it was now time to get serious with selling our current caravan. Yeah, we had quite a few enquiries about the van, but the response was; “You’re on the other side of town”, or “That’s a long way”. No one seemed to want to take a lovely leisurely drive out to the country to see our van. Time was moving on & we were beginning to feel that no one was going to buy our home & we didn’t want to put it on consignment locally.

The week before we were ready to drive back to Melbourne we had a prospective buyer. They came & left after leaving a deposit. We were beginning to feel a weight being lifted. The next week was spent cleaning inside & out so it sparkled, putting together all the bits ‘n pieces that we’ll no longer require for our next home. Thursday 20th January 2011, we watched one stage of our life being driven out the gate & the next stage beginning.

By Christmas Day, after another delay; (composite panel machinery breakdown!), Truelux had received our chassis frame & the outside fibreglass walls. Our next appointment will be a progress meeting on February the 1st, with hopefully, the chassis completed, walls should be up, roof on and well on the way.

Click on the link below to view progression photos of our new home.

http://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/New5VerProgressPhotos?feat=directlink

Lake Keepit to Napperby

This update is a long one with so many places that we stayed or saw along the way. We spent the school holidays at Lake Keepit. It’s been six years since we were last here & not much has changed. It’s still a favourite place for families to come for a day out, bush camp along the dam, or take advantage of powered sites or non-powered sites, but close to all amenities & barbeques. The magpies are nesting here & you’ll quite often see young children with electrical ties tied on their bike helmets for protection; quite a sight.

We were surprised during the long week-end this year; the park didn’t fill up as much as it did last time we were here. Perhaps it was the high cost which we noticed. The weather didn’t disappoint us as it did rain over the week-end. As all over NSW, some of the lakes have been as low as 7%, but with the high rain falls, they had risen as high as 103% full.

For a few days after our arrival, our campsite looked like a Chinese laundry as it had been a while since I had last done the washing. This is a regular sight after we have set up in our new sites especially if it’s been a while in between caravan parks. During our stay it was essential for us to travel into Gunnedah to do our fortnightly shopping. We were so fortunate this day; we went for a walk along the main street in town perusing some of the shops & upon arrival back at our car we noticed that we had left one of the canopy doors wide open (we felt like a couple of nit-wits). Nothing had been taken which we were very relieved to see. One of our favourite past-times was to walk to various places at the lake. To overlook the lake on top of the hill was so relaxing & spectacular whilst watching the sunset. While at the lake we managed to catch up with some good friends who also chose to stay here for several days before moving on. Good to catch up with you Bill & Joy.

On one of the few sunny days, we chose to visit Tamworth. This time I was able to enjoy the visit on both feet (last time we visited Tamworth it was because I had fallen out of the caravan & broke my foot, so all day was spent in the hospital). One of the highlights was a visit to The Golden Guitar Information Centre & Wax Museum where we found a plaque which mentioned the music group that Col’s grandson plays in – they won the ‘Fender Instrumental of the Year’ award at the 38th Country Music Awards for Australia -2010.

Our next town to visit was Mudgee which is a town in eastern NSW, well known for its fine wine; a bit like our Barossa Valley & McLaren Flat areas. As we are partial to a drop of Meadery every now & then, it was a must stop for us. And as usual, I can’t go past the cheese factory for some sheep cheese or local honey... ‘Mmm’. Close by Mudgee are several coal mining areas in operation. Looking at the mess it makes, I couldn’t help but feel that we are regressing instead of progressing with our thinking of fuels. That’s another story!! Walking through the main street of town I couldn’t go past a shop which sold ‘Golliwogs’. I’d been searching for these for a long time & at last a couple to sit on my bed next to Ted. One of the highlights when visiting is the town’s local Farmer’s Markets which are held; lots of local produce to replenish the fridge.

On one of the few sunny days we took a round trip which included Rylstone; a historic town on the banks of the Cudgegong River and is one of the oldest towns west of the Blue Mountains. It features a number of outstanding examples of colonial architecture which gives it a very distinctive character. Kandos, which is not far from Rylstone is quite notable for its cement factory. It’s a small industrial town located in the Capertee Valley. The cement works was developed in the 1913’s when it took advantage of the local supplies of limestone which is conveyed from the quarries about 5km away via an enormous aerial ropeway. It was quite fascinating to watch this in progress. The company today, produces 450,000 tonnes of cement a year. Dunn’s Swamp was a lovely place in the Wollemi NP. The lake was quite full & teaming with wildlife. After lunch a walk along the edge took us to the lake weir; the walk was relatively easy but at times having to use railing to climb cliff faces or walk along the side of rock faces, at times a bit of a challenge. We had a very enjoyable day.
A couple of days prior to leaving Mudgee we received our long awaited phone call from the manufacturer who is going to build our 5th wheeler to say that they will be ready for us in a couple of weeks, hooray! We’ve been waiting a long time & at times seemed like eternity.

Sofala is the oldest surviving gold town in Australia. It’s located in the Turon River Valley. The town itself is very small town which you could easily miss if you didn’t know it was there. Approximately 6kms out of Sofala was a lovely camp area where we spent four enjoyable quiet nights. It was pleasant to wake in the morning to the sound of birds. There was plenty of room for all, along the Turon River which was pristine & flowing. Once again we had plenty of rain which didn’t help with our solar panel which we use to keep our car fridge going.

After the four days at Sofala it was time to move on to Melbourne to finalise our plans for our new 5th wheeler which we have been waiting for since April this year. Our next few days stay was at Carcoar Dam which is a favourite with travellers. Carcoar Dam is situated between Blayney (known for the Blayney Windfarm which we can see from our campsite) & Carcoar. The campsite fills very quickly so it pays to arrive early to get the best spot. The dam had a bit more water in it this time. When we visited here in 2004, the dam was quite low. No doubt the dam will be full of water activities such as skiing, sailing, wind surfing, swimming & of course fishing this summer owing to the rains that we’ve had this year.

After a couple of not so relaxing days at Carcoar Dam we decided to move on back to Werribee South as our appointment was on the 8th November. Boorowa was our first stop for morning tea; a good opportunity for Colin to sample a meat pie from the local bakery. I’d say by now he has quite a palate for meat pies. Boorowa is well known for the Irish Woolfest, known as “The Running of the Sheep” which is held each year during the October long week-end. Harden was our next stop for a stretch; this town looked & felt sad & not so inviting unlike Boorowa.

Jugiong was our final stop for the day. Jugiong is a very small historic town on the Hume Highway. The town comprises of nothing more than a pub, church, cafe/bottle shop/fruit & veg. The town is situated along the Murrumbidgee River which runs behind the showground where we set up camp for the night.

I’m not normally an early riser but, three days in a row for early sunrise photos was a bit much; an all time record. Because we had to kill a few days before we could get into Werribee Caravan Park were only going as far as Nagambie. However upon arrival we were turned away as the park was full & we hadn’t booked so on we plod. Since leaving Jugiong, the highway was a dual concrete roadway, what a pleasure to travel on since all the other roads we’d been travelling had been quite rough & undulating.

On our way to Gundagai we just had to stop in to see the Dog on the Tuckerbox monument. The highway now by-passes this historical site. Whilst in Gundagai we took a walk through the main street which at one end led to the famous Prince Alfred Bridge & Railway Bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. Though the bridge is looking a bit dilapidated, it still displays its once youthful beauty of a gone-by era. The Prince Alfred Bridge is the longest timber bridge in Australia measuring almost 1 km, while the Railway Bridge is another bridge noted for its length also being nearly 1km.
A visit to the information centre proved to be very informative. On display was a piece of work called “Rusconi’s Marble Masterpiece. Rusconi, a local monumental mason carved the miniature marble piece from 20,948 pieces of marble collected from around New South Wales. The masterpiece is absolutely exquisite & can only be appreciated when personally viewed. A must see!

We couldn’t quite make it all the way to Nagambie so our final stop was to be at Chiltern Rest Area located on the Hume Highway. Unfortunately, it was also a truck stop so all night we could hear not only the trucks pulling in for a rest, but also the constant drone of traffic travelling along the highway which we were not used to. Time to go back we’d say. We’ve decided not to book into that hotel again, ha, ha! Glenrowan for breakfast, this is certainly a treat; scones with jam & cream, ‘Mmmm’ & a hot chocolate drink. Even I was able to get some gluten free scones. Glenrowan is known as Ned Kelly country with a tall statue of Ned Kelly watching over the town. Though the town is famous for its famous siege, the townsfolk are quite proud of their town.

Nagambie our next port of call for a couple of days, is situated about 40 mins from Shepparton along the Goulburn Valley Hwy, but unfortunately as the saying goes “All full at the Inn” so we continued on to Heathcote, pronounced as ‘eathcot’. A very busy little town nestled at the foot of the McIvor & McHarg Ranges. Heathcote was once a thriving goldfield town. Though the goldrush days have long gone, the town now relishes in its wineries & produce.

Trentham was a quaint little town situated at the very top of the Great Dividing Range. We found the folk her to be very friendly & informative. It is the home of the Trentham Falls which is the longest single drop waterfall in Victoria, descending some 32 metres over basalt columns. Though it was a bit cool outside, the walk to & from the falls was quite refreshing. A few hours later & we had arrived at our final destination, Werribee. It was good to catch up with some friends whom we had met earlier on the in year. It was good to catch up with you Dave & Liz.

I’m going to take this opportunity to wish all our families & friends a very Merry Christmas & a Happy & Safe New Year. Happy travelling to our friends we have met along the way.

Click on the link below to view some photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/LakeKeepitToNapperby?feat=directlink

Lake Burrendong to Warrumbungle NP

Two weeks at Lake Burrendong have come & gone. In those two weeks at the lake it has rained for most of that time with only the week-ends being dry & sunny. Despite the much needed rain, it has been a good time to just relax & get away from the hustle & bustle of the big towns. A great place to take regular walks, while at the same time watch the water level of the lake rise. We have been keeping an eye on several landmarks in the lake & slowly they have been disappearing, for example when we arrived at the lake, on August 31 the level was 61% & today Sept 12 the level is now 81% full. Unfortunately for us, the rise in water meant that there was more of it between the fish. We didn’t catch any, but then again, the boaties didn’t do much better.
The locals enjoy coming here on the week-ends to ski, fish, have BBQ lunches & generally drive around the park to see how much the lake has risen after 12 years of dry conditions.

Gulgong was an interesting little town. I’m not sure if SA has heard on the news this year about a small country hospital which was to be closing as a result of asbestos. Well, it’s this hospital. The hospital was given 2 weeks in which to close its doors to the community which will mean that they will have to travel to either Wellington or Dubbo for treatment. The town developed a website “Save Gulgong Hospital” so that the community can keep abreast of what’s happening. The hospital will continue to open its doors for general consultations but any hospitalisations will have to be in other neighbouring towns.
Gulgong (click on Tourist Attractions on the top menu bar for each of the links below) is also known as The Ten Dollar Town. It was given this name as the motel was on the first $10 note (original paper note). Gulgong was once an old gold mining town (click on Gulgong History on the top menu bar) where Henry Lawson lived. We called into the Henry Lawson Centre which was very interesting outlining his life & displaying each of his books which he wrote. His mother played a significant part in Henry’s life with his writing & she too was a writer that was involved with the emancipation of women. A walk through town was interesting with a ‘Swaggies / Symbol Trail’ visible on the footpath. Symbols on tiles along the main street illustrated how swaggies used to communicate to one another; gutters were deep to manage the sudden downpours of summer rain that falls in this region of NSW. After meandering through town, a bite of lunch then head off to Dunedoo.

Dunedoo claims to be the southern gateway to Warrumbungle National Park. Dunedoo is derived from the local Wiradjuri Aboriginal name for swans which explains why there is a large black swan on the top of one of the buildings. In the Lions Park down the main street we came across a large board with what looked like a ball on it. At closer inspection it was a model of Neptune which upon reading further was a part of ‘The World’s Largest Virtual Solar System Drive’. Starting at one of the regional towns of Tamworth, Dubbo, Gulgong, Moree & Merriwa driving along different routes towards Siding Spring Observatory at Coonabarabran there are different planets starting with Pluto right through to the Observatory which represents the sun & central point of the solar system model. Each 3D model is scaled in size relative to the huge observatory done & the locations of the billboards are also scaled in distance.

Coolah was to be our next stop for a couple of days. We quite enjoyed our stay once we got onto our site at the local caravan park. This proved to be quite interesting. Owing to the high amount of rain which has fallen recently, the grassed area next to all of the van sites were very wet & slushy. As a consequence, when Colin drove the caravan onto the concrete pad both the van & car got bogged, what a sight... So yours truly had to get out & lock the 4WD hubs so he could pull the van out & onto the pad. He sunk down at least 4 inches; what a mess! Behind us was a small stream, flowing strongly after the showers of rain. By the evening it had turned into a raging river; it had risen at least 1 metre. The camper next to us was quite concerned, questioned the park manager who told her that 10 years ago, the river had risen up to the amenities . She was not amused by this news & was quite nervous about staying there. By 10pm, there was a slight drop in the water level and we were able to sleep soundly. By morning, the river had subsided quite significantly.

A lovely tranquil place hidden in the nearby Warrumbungle Range was Coolah Tops NP. The Norfolk Falls was in great display with a rainbow forming above the water as the sun shone. The view from the Bundella Lookout which overlooks the Liverpool Plains was just stunning. But to get there we had to walk through almost an inch deep of water. Everywhere was wet, wet, wet. Our final point of interest was Bracken’s Hut. The hut was built in 1937 for the purpose of housing Tuwinga herdsmen William Bracken & his family. The home has been lovingly restored back to its original condition including the outside long-drop & is available for hiring. The evidence of how much rain has fallen in the park was a bogged tractor which we had passed on our way into the park.

Binnaway is a lovely tranquil & very friendly town which runs close to the Castlereagh River. The classic Australian film Shiralee was filmed around Binnaway. We stayed at the town’s newly developed Camping Rest Area for the night. During the 24hours we were camped, we had 3 members of the Progress Association visit us on 3 different occasions; just to make sure we were ok. They really made us feel welcome. Binnaway used to be a bustling railway centre where it serviced over 20 steam engines a week. It was an important transport link ferrying timber & grain from rural NSW to coastal markets. It is also on the main line where iron-ore from Broken Hill mines is transported to Newcastle.

With only about 40kms to go for our next destination, Warrumbungle NP, we weren’t in a hurry to head off the next day. As some of our readers are aware, the Warrumbungle NP is just outside Coonabarabran where the mountain top views are just spectacular & is a hikers/walker’s paradise. The park management has recently completed a new section of the original camping area which is now completely sealed with a few drive-through sites. We chose one of these because by this time we had had enough of being wet under our feet. It has been wonderful to go to sleep at night without hearing trucks using their engine brakes as they’re passing through and instead, to wake up with the birds singing. The kangaroos come up quite close to the campers.

Coonabarabran and the Warrumbungle is the Astronomy Capital of Australia. It is the home to Australia’s largest optical astronomy research centre. A visit to the Siding Spring Observatory was in order although we had visited the observatory some time ago, we got to join a tour of the complex. Some of the telescopes are privately owned; others are accessed off-site by Internet technology from as far away as Peru, Japan and the US. Astronomers even from China have access to the telescopes. The astronomer Robert H McNaught, who named the McNaught Comet in 2006, works from here searching for new comets and other Earth-bound rocks from space. The day at Siding Springs was very enjoyable.
While at Warrumbungle NP, we have taken the opportunity to do several of the easier walks. We leave the hard ones for the more experienced hikers like our neighbour ... Ron. Well done!

Our next update will come from Lake Keepit where we are going to bunk down for the next two weeks for the coming school holidays.

Click on the link below to view some photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/LakeBurrendongToWarrumbungleNP?feat=directlink

Condobolin to Lake Burrendong

We left Condobolin to head east-wards to Parkes, again, off of the main highways and to look at the less known attractions. We had read about a unique collection of Holden Utes, (pick-up trucks for UK readers). Down a side road off of the bitumen at Ootha, it appears that a cattle station (Burrawang West Station) family saw a need for attracting tourists off of the beaten track. Different to other attractions, this was free. In a paddock alongside the road, was a display of 16 Holden Utilities, positioned in a variety of poses, paint and accessories “Utes in the Paddock” http://www.utesinthepaddock.com.au.

Well known artists, including Peter Browne from Broken Hill, decorated the utilities in various themes to present a tribute to life in the outback, Dame Edna on the dunny, native fauna and even a bottle of Bundaberg Rum, (essential for most Ute owners at the end of a hard day in the paddock).
I could see from the roadside that they attracted many visitors to this unique piece of Australiana. They should put up a donation box if only to collect for the RFDS.

At Parkes, we headed for the Spicer Caravan Park, having been there when we last visited, it is off of the main Newell Highway and quieter. The Newell Highway is the main route between Victoria and Brisbane, Queensland. It is very busy with all manner of truck-trailer combinations. It is also the major route for southerners going to and from the Queensland winter resorts and nowadays, it is a toss-up as to whether there are more caravans than trucks. Of course, the truckies are being paid to get from a-b and do it flat out at their speed limited best and they don’t like being held up by caravanners. We have heard the chatter on the CB between trucks about their dislike of the “aluminium road blocks” along the way. We will do our best to keep off of the Newell. Not enough passing lanes, few rest areas and just too busy.

From Parkes, we again visited the CSIRO Radio Telescope, made famous by the movie “The Dish”. This was our second visit and just as interesting as the first; they have updated the video shows, and have a diary on display that lists what the “Dish” is doing at any given time. On this visit, it moved around a fair bit, searching for more electrical signals from space. Seeing a 64 metre span of over 1000 tonnes of steel being moved to within minutes of a degree azimuth and inclination is quite impressive. The display in the centre tells the real story of the televised event of the moon landing in 1969.

We used Parkes as a top-up time, shopping, washing and housework. Filled the tanks and charged the batteries ready for more of our discovery tour.

Molong-Yeoval and the “Animals on Bikes”

We left Parkes to head off to Molong (place of many rocks) for lunch, a walk around this Central NSW town and a bit of history of Cobb and Co stage-coach routes. Many of the buildings in Molong are just about as they were built in the 1800s and a history walk around the town tells their story. Near there is “The Wire Paddock”, the first place where barbed wire was used West of the Blue Mountains, 1860, and probably marked the beginning of the settings of boundaries of the massive sheep stations that helped grow Australia.

Just up the road is the turn-off to the Obley Road to Cumnock, Yeoval and eventually to Dubbo. Along the first half of the highway is another of those unique attractions. The Obley Road and the little towns along its way host an annual cycle event: “Mulga Bills Bicycle Ride” This event commemorates the Australian poet, “Banjo” Paterson who wrote an ode of Mulga Bill buying a bicycle to replace his horse. “Banjo” Paterson spent his childhood in Yeoval and apparently many of his writings were inspired by the characters he met along the way.

As an adjunct to the Bicycle Ride, the locals have erected a number of animal characters “on bikes” made from old farm machinery and a great amount of imagination. It is written that the locals were inspired by the “Tin Horse Highway” in WA; the characters are positioned in the paddocks along the road. As we drove along, van in tow, “....there’s one”, shouts Vicki, and with a bit of luck, there was room to pull up and take the photos.

Having made so many photo-stops, by mid afternoon we decided to camp at Yeoval Showgrounds. A lovely quiet spot alongside the river, power supplied for a measly $5 per night. There was only one other camper, so we had plenty of choice of spots. A walk around the town and along the river, we found out a bit more about Banjo Patterson’s early childhood and his home in Buckinbah. Another surprise was the sculpture of Henry Moore, another of the “Big-Things” that can be found around Australia. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/07/26/2964123.htm Bought to Yeoval as a “traffic stopper, it works!

Burrendong State Park

Our next camp off the beaten track was to a New South Wales State Park, Lake Burrendong. The lake is a critical water supply and is formed by the damming of the Macquarie River. When full, the lake is bigger than Sydney Harbour. However, for the last few years, like many others, was almost dry. Just a couple of months before our visit, the lake had been down to 6%. When we arrived the level had risen to over 60% and rising. I am sure that I could see the difference with trees on the shore. As I write this, (Saturday 4th September) wild weather and lot’s more rain is forecast, flood warnings and wind squalls are coming. We had a steady rain overnight but the strong winds are just arriving, we have battened down and are hoping that we stay the right way up. The rain will surely add to the level of the reservoir, it has been known to rise above the spill-way. Work is underway to increase the reservoir capacity, several years of drought, climate change and population growth, the need is there.
The increase in water level is supposed to have bought back the fish, photos in the kiosk of recent catches look good but we haven’t seen any. With the rise in water levels, there is more space between them.

In the Park is the Burrendong Botanic Garden and Arboretum. The Arboretum was established in 1964 and is a grand display of the variety of flora from all around Australia, particularly from the more arid zones. Some of the walks are over a kilometre in length and best driven to in turn. The under-story fernery walk (Fern Gully), is a lovely experience. Under a man-made canopy, with a stream flowing through, birds and frogs among the plants, one could easily think that they were in a real tropical environment. The park has over 164 Hectares to explore, over 180 species of birds and fauna. We disturbed dozens of Kangaroos as we drove and walked around the park. http://www.burrendongarboretum.org/

Wellington is the local township 20 odd km north of the Park, and has its own history in palaeontology; near the town are a series of old caves, around 1830, the caves were discovered to contain the bones of thousands of years of animals. One of the caves had several thousand years of guano from giant bats, extinct for 10,000 years. The guano, as phosphate was mined and the mining uncovered millions of years of bones, extinct mammoth Diprotodon, a giant wombat’s ancestor. The caves are well worth a visit.

We had a fair bit of rain over the weekend and there was a flood warning for Wellington on the Sunday night. There are two rivers that join up alongside the town; the Bell River joins the Macquarie River, the town sits in between the two. As the Bell River catchment area around Orange has had a lot of rain, the river was running a banker. Tree branches, logs and all manner of debris were being washed downstream at a great rate of knots. Where the junction was, a few people were watching (and fishing!) with interest as the floodwater was rising. Another few feet would see it over the bank and into the town. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the river peaked at 3.1m around 2200hrs. Had the Macquarie been in flood too, it surely would have been disastrous for the town and surrounding areas. However, the Macquarie is held back by the Burrendong Dam, and the lake, after this rain, has risen to around 70%, we can see a difference from when we arrived on Tuesday. If the dam does fill and spill downstream, it is to be hoped that the Bell River has subsided and leaves room for the flow. The Macquarie River is one of the wonders of Australia; it doesn’t run into the sea but peters out inland in an area called The Macquarie Marshes.


So if we weather the storms tonight, we will be looking for our next camp in a similar State Park a bit further north, along the way we will be going “Beyond the black stump”. More about this next post.
Click on the link below to view more photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/CondobolinToLakeBurrendong?feat=directlink

White Cliffs, Cobar to Condobolin

The next few weeks of our travels are to be in the area of New South Wales that they call “The Heart of NSW”; we leave the NSW outback to pass through greener pastures of pastoral farming, canola, wheat and barley, part of the NSW food bowl, east of the Great Dividing Range.

The four lovely days we spent in White Cliffs soon came to an end. We found the area to be a good place for some R & R time. This time of the year seemed to be just the perfect time to visit. Noodling for Opal hadn’t made us rich but meeting a distant relative and her family made up for this.

On our way south, I remembered a lonely gravesite which I had seen whilst going into White Cliffs. We stopped I guess, to pay our respects to the deceased. There were no details on the headstone only the name. We think that of a drover in the pioneering years. One can only imagine the harshness of the surrounding landscape that the deceased endured. It makes us appreciate how far we have come as a nation & to really think of what could happen if we are not prepared for any changes in the environment.

By early afternoon we decided to stop for the night. Our camp was at a rest area approx 120km out of Cobar. We were amazed at how much the landscape had changed since we travelled along the Kidman Way in 2006, when it was very dry & the farmers were droving their sheep & cattle along the roadside for feed. Some farmers were even moving their stock about 50km over the hills for greener pastures. Now, wild goats roamed the country-side and we saw many along the way, fat and well fed, the number of young kids testament to good times, (for the goats that is!). The wild goat is captured and sent for live meat export to the Middle-East. They breed quicker than they can be rounded up though.

Cobar is an interesting town with a population of approx 5,500. It has been a busy gold & copper mining town in the past. Gold is still being mined & it was interesting to view the current open cut gold mine. Not as big as the one in Kalgoorlie, nevertheless impressive. Further out of town we drove to another working Gold Mine. A walk around the Golden Walk which the organisation has developed was interesting, they have displayed several large rocks in which we could see some flecks of gold & peacock ore, some of the old equipment used & sketches of the mine & its contents at different depths.

The town has several reservoirs; the Old Reservoir used to be the towns water supply but is now used for recreation & watersports. It is also available for camping. In this area there is a place called ‘Devil’s Rock’ which is an ancient rock formation which according to Aboriginal legend / belief is known as being a place of evil. The Newey Reservoir being the new reservoir is much greener & in town; Newey Reservoir is a good picnic area and a pleasant walk. However, a popular place for the local yobbos to hang out so free camping may not be advisable. There is camping allowed further around the reservoir. A quick detour from the reservoir to the town’s decommissioned railway station ensued and we came across a recently arrived goods-train, the wagons loaded with gas pipes which were being unloaded and transferred to road-train trailers. The following day, there was an article about it in the local paper, the 30-40cm pipes are for a major gas pipeline project, they will carry gas from the major gas-fields to the major cities in the East.
For the next few days after Cobar we decided to keep off-site & look for some freebie camps to stay. Our first stop for a couple of days was Lake Cargelligo. Lake Cargelligo was once a gold mining town. For the last couple of years the natural lake has been dry, but in December last year, water began to be released into it. The water comes from the Lachlan River, currently in good flow after the big rains further to the north-east. We camped within 3 meters of the lakes edge & during the couple of days we could see the lake level still rising. It was lovely to watch the various birds fly in during sunrise & fly out during sunset. There were thousands of water birds and of many species; we could only name a few: Pelican, Coot, Ibis and Spoonbills. The landscape both in & around the area is lush and green, so a substantial amount of rain has fallen this year. The temperature during the day wasn’t too bad, but the nights became quite cold, so when there is no power for our little fan heater, an early night tucked up in our warm bed was called upon. Early morning fog delayed the sunrise photo but the next day provided a blaze of glory as Sol rose above the landscape and across the water. See the pics on the album link.

Our next port of call was Gum Bend Lake, 3kms out of Condobolin; a bit bigger town than the last. Gum Bend is a local family picnic/camping area that has its history in the mining past. Many towns that had mining industries early in the last century had an area away from town where the workers and their families could relax and escape the dust and dirt of their job.
We were looking forward to camping along a lake again but, to our dismay all we saw was a tractor driving around on the lake bed spraying the vegetation. We found out that the weeds were being sprayed because the man-made lake was to be re-filled in the next few days. Alongside the camping area, the Lachlan River is in full flow. It is from here that the lake is to be filled. It is so good to see lots of creeks & rivers with plenty of water in them; it’s been quite some time since we’ve seen water flowing like this. Many road-side ditches were still full and more rain has fallen since.

An obligatory meat pie had to be taken along the main street of Condobolin; several architecturally interesting old buildings to photograph. Among these is the old fire-station with the fire-alarm bell that was to be rung, but NOT for chimney fires!
We couldn’t have been persuaded to stay at the local, very nice caravan park; they were hosting two regional dog shows, imagine the noise! Across the road, preparations for the weekend Condobolin Annual Royal Show, hurdy-gurdies and fair-ground equipment was being erected and tested. More noise! Having enjoyed the quiet of remote area camps, we have been spoiled.

Click on the link below to view some photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/108879761974384702036/WhiteCliffsCobarToCondobolin?feat=directlink