'No Worries Mate!'

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Sunday morning came and we had decided it was time to get on the road although it would be easy to stay longer in such a wonderful spot. We took our time getting everything ready, there’s quite a lot of preparation to be done - everything has to be found a secure home so it won’t escape when we’re travelling along. The roof has to go down, the electric cable disconnected and put away and the car hitched up correctly including the electrics for the lights, indicators etc. Graham has a pretty good sense of how he should reverse the car up to the caravan but I needed to guide him a bit which I just about managed OK(!). Come 11.30 and we were all ready. We said our goodbyes to the fantastic Reeves family and Spotty the dog and set off. We had changed our minds a few times about where our first destination would be but we finally decided to go to Albury for a few reasons: it wasn’t too far, about 200 kms, it is a biggish town and it was in the right direction for our on-going plans. Because we were able to travel on the motorway it didn’t take too long to get to Albury but finding the caravan park was a different matter. We knew the park was in an area of Albury called Lavington but Sat Nav didn’t recognize Wagga Road and it’s not too pleasant feeling lost when towing a caravan for the first time. We had to ring the park to get directions and discovered that Wagga Road is better known as the Hume Highway so why not put that on the directions for the park?? We got there eventually and got a bit of a discount because it is a Top Tourist park and we are RACV members. It wasn’t the sort of park we would normally go for because it was mostly cabins and it was very urban. Still, Graham did a fantastic job reversing Sweetie into the pitch. We were right next to the camp kitchen and loos which seemed a bit of a bonus.

Monday 4th October was a bank holiday in NSW (Labour Day) so we feared the shops might not be open. Some weren’t but most of the big stores were of course. We headed into Albury and found a K-mart where we bought some of the essentials (to us anyway!) for our trip: an electric kettle, a toaster, a washing up bowl, small drinking glasses etc etc. Conveniently, we had parked the car next to a camping shop so we went in to see what they had and came out with a light-weight table for outside use. While we were in Albury we visited the information centre which is located by the railway station - a truly splendid old building. As usual, the lady in there was very helpful and we came out thinking we would need to spend a few weeks in this area to do it justice! But we spent the rest of the day sorting through boxes and re-organising the caravan so that the things we needed most were close to hand. That evening, for the first time on this trip, Graham used an Aussie BBQ and cooked some chicken in the camp kitchen. I was able to cook the veggies on the camp kitchen hobs and it all worked very well - we had a delicious meal with no cooking costs.

We thought we should explore the area a little so on Tuesday morning we drove to Hume Dam which holds the main water supply for the area. The reservoir is pretty full at the moment but no water was being released through the dam gates. The lady in the Visitor Centre said it was a pretty spectacular sight when this happens - maybe next time. Back in 1952 when the dam was built the decision was made to relocate a small town - Tallangata. Then there were about 400 inhabitants. We visited “The Town That Had To Move” in it’s new location, which was about 7kms away from the original place and it was very pleasant. Many of the wooden houses were transported complete but all brick built buildings were demolished and new ones erected. We had lunch in the new town which has grown considerably and read all about the re-location in the visitor centre. We drove up to the local lookout that had fantastic views of the town and reservoir. We then drove back via Wodonga, couldn’t find their advertised lookout but managed to find the one in Albury which was also a War Memorial Park and a lovely, tranquil place. We had intended to go on to a wetlands area but a little problem with the left indicator arose and we felt that needed sorting. The hazard lights had also stopped working a few days earlier so we popped into a garage near the caravan park and within a few minutes a helpful mechanic had checked the fuses, changed a faulty one and sent us on our way with everything working again. ‘No worries mate’ was the cheery response when we asked how much the cost was but we gave him some beer money anyway. Since we had come back to the park earlier than planned, Graham had a swim in the pool (cold but very refreshing) while I did yet more re-organising. We had been toying with the idea of staying another night but decided against it for various reasons and so, the following morning we got on the road to Narrandera.

Narrandera was the scene of our first breakdown but as it is a very pleasant town we thought it was worth another look. We headed for the caravan park which we had walked through on our previous visit. It’s right on Lake Talbot and close to the area where we had seen the Koala. We had booked ahead for two nights. It was another ‘Top Tourist’ park but, unlike Albury, the lady in reception wasn’t happy about giving us a discount simply because we are RACV members. It only costs $30 to join the ‘Top Tourist’ club so we thought we might as well as we would soon get our money’s worth in discounts. Also, as it is a two year membership, who knows, Sarah and Darryl might be able to make use of it. The pitches were ‘drive through’ which makes life much easier for Graham and we had a good choice so we settled on one overlooking the lake. A very chatty couple set up next door and we thought everything was right for the night. At about 4.30 that afternoon ‘Col’ next door said he thought it was going to rain and reckoned it would be in the next half hour - a bold prediction since there was bright sunshine and endless blue skies. Graham went off to have a shower at 5 o’clock and he hadn’t been gone long when Col came over and pointed to a large black cloud which had suddenly appeared and suggested we put our awning away. All of a sudden a pleasant afternoon changed to quite a frightening one - the heavens opened and a gale force wind was swirling around and some of the things we had left outside were blowing away. I wasn’t too sure how to get the awning down but it was in danger of taking off. Very fortunately, Pat, Col’s wife, was there to help. We got it down in the nick of time and I managed to get some stuff in the back of the car with the help of another camper. By the time Graham wandered back to the caravan, although it was raining a bit, the wind had dropped and he wondered what all the fuss was about. Pat and Col probably saved our awning so we are very grateful to them. We had just got inside the van when Graham spotted, on the inside of the door, the biggest spider we have ever seen. Graham reacted very quickly thankfully and got it outside although it did seem to like the idea of coming back inside. Eventually he got it to go in another direction and it disappeared. Col said it was a ‘Huntsman’ spider and not harmful. It was as big as my hand with great long crab-like legs and I don’t especially want to see another one!! Where did it come from? - we shall never know! We didn’t sleep too well that night what with thinking about spiders and awnings but no harm seemed to have been done.

Thursday morning came and we got the bikes out! Having carted them around for six weeks and hardly used them, we knew today would be a good opportunity to test them out. We wanted to go back to where we had seen the Koala but the gate to the track we had walked along on our previous visit had a ‘Road Closed’ sign across it. We wondered why and cycled on only to discover that the track was badly flooded. The river Murrumbidgee had burst its banks a few weeks earlier and there was still a lot of lying water. That was disappointing but it didn’t matter too much as along the riverbank was another track so we cycled along there for a good few kilometers. We saw quite a few birds but no koalas. There are plenty of wild flowers out at the moment and this area has lots of Darling Peas which are pretty purple flowers. After that we cycled into town, went to the information centre and also had a look at the “Tiger Moth” memorial to the wartime flying school which used to be in the town. We had lunch and then cycled to the wetlands which was just outside town and had a pleasant wander round, spying a harrier, herons, egrets and lots of small birds. The wetland is only a couple of years old so will develop and grow as the years go by. We had made good use of our bikes today with no problems so maybe they will be useful after all. There was no storm tonight thank goodness so we got a good night’s sleep.

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Comments

[Darryl and Sarah]

Flash!
G'day! Just been watching the news and Qld has hit the headlines over here because of the flash flooding. Hopefully it's no where near you and you are no where near it! Great to see you out and about on the bikes :-) We've had new windows fitted today, very exciting! Oh, and David got the HUGE telescope out so the boys could see Jupiter. It was like it was 'just over there'!! x x x

[Pootling Possums]

Floods!
We have been lucky probably in central NSW. We had better check the forecast before we move too far into Queensland! Mum xxx