Sandra and I left our Christmas base at Walu C - van/Park on the 1st of Feb and drove down to Ourimbah to meet up with Friends, Joan & Stan, Maureen & Les who are going to travel with us down through Southern N.S.W, Murray River, over the border into Victoria then out to Eucha, Bendigo, Ballarat, Great Ocean Road then over to Adelaide and up to Darwin if things go to plan ?.
back row. Sandra Les Maureen
front row. Joan Stan John
Our first stop for the night was Moss Vale, driving down Maureen had an harrowing experience her van started to sway and crossed to the other side of the road then back before she could gain control, she is an excellent driver but the madly swaying van left her a little shaken so Les took over and drove there rig into Moss vale. This rest stop (Kingsbury V.C. is to close to the Hume Highway and trucks all night long did not make for a restful over night's sleep. (Stan had a flat tyre)
Next day we were off to Gunning to camp beside the Meadow Creek and public swimming pool. What a Great place to stay, with the temperature in the high thirties the pool was a fantastic cooling off time, and only $2.00 a day, !great!. except the amenities were not cleaned each day.
back row. Sandra Les Maureen
front row. Joan Stan John
Our first stop for the night was Moss Vale, driving down Maureen had an harrowing experience her van started to sway and crossed to the other side of the road then back before she could gain control, she is an excellent driver but the madly swaying van left her a little shaken so Les took over and drove there rig into Moss vale. This rest stop (Kingsbury V.C. is to close to the Hume Highway and trucks all night long did not make for a restful over night's sleep. (Stan had a flat tyre)
Next day we were off to Gunning to camp beside the Meadow Creek and public swimming pool. What a Great place to stay, with the temperature in the high thirties the pool was a fantastic cooling off time, and only $2.00 a day, !great!. except the amenities were not cleaned each day.
Our rig at Meadow Creek Gunning.
We had bad news from our Friend Lorry Mills, Ken had been attacked by there Bull and was gored very badly, he was flown by helicopter to John Hunter Hospital and is in a Critical condition, a friend of theirs shot the bull in the head 5 times before it went down, next morning the darn thing was up feeding on hay, the Police were called and they fired 2 bullets into the head and finally killed it.
After 2 days we are on the road again by 8.30, and going to Jugiong.
Not much to tell about Jugiong, a quiet little place, good for another overnight rest. The Temperature for the last couple of days has been over 40c, and to make matters worse the town pool opens at 3pm when the kids get out of school, the charge for a swim is $3.00.
6/02/09. Up early this morning and drove to Tumut to get my drivers licence renewed for another 5 years, Walking into the R.T.A. a sign said !watch out snakes about! Sandra said that's just bloody great, that's all she needs to start the day, got my licence but only just, next time I think I will have to get some driving glasses.
We then drove out to Talbingo in the Snowy Mountains, and are camped beside Jounama Creek.
There are a few bushfire's in the distant mountains and the fire brigade has been out to check that we all are OK.
Talbingo Dam is huge the Hydro scheme can let out water at such a force it can fill an Olympic pool in 9.5 seconds !wow!. The Snowy Mountains scheme is one of the Greatest engineering feats in Australia's History. There are 16 dams, 7 power and pumping stations, 145 kms of inter connecting trans mountain tunnels that are wide enough to drive a bus through and took 25 years to build.
After 2 days we are on the road again by 8.30, and going to Jugiong.
Not much to tell about Jugiong, a quiet little place, good for another overnight rest. The Temperature for the last couple of days has been over 40c, and to make matters worse the town pool opens at 3pm when the kids get out of school, the charge for a swim is $3.00.
6/02/09. Up early this morning and drove to Tumut to get my drivers licence renewed for another 5 years, Walking into the R.T.A. a sign said !watch out snakes about! Sandra said that's just bloody great, that's all she needs to start the day, got my licence but only just, next time I think I will have to get some driving glasses.
We then drove out to Talbingo in the Snowy Mountains, and are camped beside Jounama Creek.
There are a few bushfire's in the distant mountains and the fire brigade has been out to check that we all are OK.
Talbingo Dam is huge the Hydro scheme can let out water at such a force it can fill an Olympic pool in 9.5 seconds !wow!. The Snowy Mountains scheme is one of the Greatest engineering feats in Australia's History. There are 16 dams, 7 power and pumping stations, 145 kms of inter connecting trans mountain tunnels that are wide enough to drive a bus through and took 25 years to build.
The Snowy Mountains are famous for the Rainbow and Brown trout that can be caught here, in fact so easy that that my Old Mate Stan caught a brown Trout in a Bucket, fair Dinkum the lucky Bugger, he trapped it in a small pool, the stupid thing swam straight into said bucket.
The Mountains and Valleys are now filling with smoke from the bush fires that we will have to think about getting out soon.
9/02. We moved out of Talbingo today the heat and smoke was just to much for us. We were thinking about heading down to Bega and then onto the coast, luckily enough the weather report for Victoria looks promising as rain is starting to fall. we drove into a lovely little town of Jingelic, which is on the Murray River and right behind a Pub "kool".
10/02. A clearer day today, no smoke and the temperature is down to 18c. No noise around just the river churning over. We woke to White Cockatoos screeching above our van, no chance of a sleep in so up for brekky and a walk up to top of town only 1 shop, plenty of Apple, Pear and Peach trees on the side of the road. Later in the day San and I had a beer and squash in the pub at a cost of 8 bucks we only had 1 each.
Tomorow we are going for a drive out to Khancoban and Corryong at the foot hills of the mountains, these 2 towns are only small, Corryong is a great place to stop and look around there is a lot of history here. The famed "Man from Snowy River" jack Riley is buried here in the local cemetry.
12/02. Time to move on again and following the Murray river towards Woodonga, on the way through the mountains we passed Wild Dog Valley, on a fence hung the carcase of 5 wild dogs that had been shot, a little further on we came accros 2 large Wedge Tail Eagles feeding at the side of the road on a dead rabbit.
Drove into Woodonga fueled up with Auto Gas at .629 a litre. We did not look around this town instead drove across the border back into N.S.W. and the city of Albury, then a short drive to Howlong and and we will camp again beside the River.
This camp site is one of the best that we have stayed at, only a few metres from the Mighty Murray, only 1 problem there is no grass only dirt & dust.
Les & Stan have tried there luck at fishing and have caught nothing, but on the other hand I have been catching plenty of Freshwater Prawns but not enough to eat and use for bait.
This morning we had a visit from the local Cop and we were packing it I can tell you, he only drove out to look at his favourite place on the river. He was so freindly and spoke with us for about half an hour, he had worked in Redfern and Kings Cross and was posted to Howlong to clean up the area, he has done an exceptonial job we are told by the towns folk who said that it was like Dodge City before he arrived here, a real nice guy.
A friendly chat from the local Policeman.
There are Blue Wrens all over camp and across the River we can see Wild Brumbys, but no bloody fish.
This morning we awoke to noisy White Corela's, Blue Wrens & Kookaburras all squarking there darn heads off.
We will have to keep our boots and sox on and eyes well open as our neighbours about 50 metres away saw a huge Snake swim across the river and come out between our and there camp, said it was a Taipan or King Brown at least 7 foot long.
San asked what we were looking at I told her it was only a big Goanna just to ease here mind, later Joan told her it was a snake as she was about to go and take a photo of the Goanna, I can tell you she was not impressed at all.
15/02. Today we left Howlong the dirt & dust was to much for us all. We stopped further down the highway for a Smoko break at the very nice town of Mulwala, it is on a hugh lake with paddle Steamers an all sorts of watercraft.
Weather is realy hotting up know and we will drive to Cobram then into Nathalia before nightfall.
Had a good night's sleep and feel refreshed. The owner of the caravan park told us, last week that the temp was 45deg.
15/02. Leaving today for Wakiti Creek Resort for a bit of spoiling.
The bush road into the Resort.This is Heaven. Green Grass covers most of the the 90 acres with only a few bare spots here and there. The only noise that we here are the birds.
The pool is a good size and we are making the most of it as the temp is once again over 40c.
Stan and crew have gone on ahead into Echuca but we are staying put here.
We will see them there tomorow as our Waeco fridge is playing up in the heat.
We will see them there tomorow as our Waeco fridge is playing up in the heat.
San at the resort Pool.
18/02. Today is overcast and there is a lot of smoke haze about.
We are going into Echuca and will do the tourist thing, a bit of a look around, wine tasting soft serve at Maccas, a beer or 2 in the Echuca Pub and a cruise on the Paddle Steamer Emmy Lou down the Murray River.
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