Blogs from Forbes, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania
July 10th 2011
Saturday 9th July Left Hay planning on stopping at West Wyalong but the weather was cold so we decided that the car was the best place to be so we carried on to Forbes and found the most delightful caravan park right on the Lachalan River, paid an extra $3 per night for a riverfront position right in front of the water fall. ($30 pn less TT disc $3 - $27pn) Just beautiful, it was a pity that that is was too cold to sit outside to watch the water fall. Sunday we went for a drive to Parkes to see the Telescope which featured in the movie "The Dish" which was about the people involved in tracking the Apollo 11 Mission to the moon in 1969. The telescope was built in Parkes because it was ... read more
May 13th 2011
As we drove from Griffith, the huge paddocks continued as far as the eye could see - under cultivation and ready for wheat planting. Each town had the inevitable big silo and the spilt grain on the road brings all manner of birds - flocks of galahs, corellas, and rosellas that take to the air in a colourful cloud as we drive towards them. Small hills appeared, changing the flat landscape we’d had for a few days. We had lunch at Narrandera by the river, then decided to turn off the highway to have a look at Ariah Park - the sign ‘town of Bowsers, Wowsers and Pepper Trees’ had us intrigued. The main street was indeed lined with pepper trees and there were quite a few old petrol bowsers dotted along the footpaths. I suppose ... read more
December 14th 2010
We were all up bright and early on Monday morning and David helped load the remaining stuff into Sweetie – why do I always take too many clothes that remain unworn?? (not to mention all the other bits of junk I cart around). In spite of all that we managed to be ready to go at 9am so waved a fond farewell to David for the third time. We really do treasure our time with him and he is always so hospitable – thanks very much David, we appreciate you letting us share your house whenever we feel like it!! We’ll see David again very soon as he is spending Christmas in Melbourne with our sister, Daphne. We were slightly apprehensive about what sort of road conditions we might encounter as we set off towards Goondiwindi ... read more
July 4th 2010
This weekend we took off west over the mountains, to Forbes. The purpose of our journey was to attend a friends birthday celebrations. We have not driven out that west for sometime and it was good to get away and see how the countryside is looking. Our last visit to the town of Forbes was 10 years ago for the same person’s 40th birthday celebrations. From our place Forbes is about 310kms, from Sydney you have to add about another 80kms. The temperature on the way gradually dropped from about 12 at our place down to about 4 degrees at Orange. The clouds on the horizon looked suspiciously like snow clouds. At the party we caught up with some folks from our motorcycle riding days with an organisation called the MRA (the Motorcycle Riders Association). All ... read more
April 20th 2010
When we started our Oz odyssey the country was in the grip of a 10-year drought; dry rivers, water restrictions, empty dams. But the drought has broken in many of the worst hit areas. On our way north through Victoria at the same time as last year, we could be in a different country. Fields, trees, hills and hedges flash past in various shades of green where last year all was a lifeless, listless dusty grey-brown. Animals drink from farm dams and there is water under bridges that last year crossed dry ditches. I’m writing this in the Rutherglen Caravan Park looking out over Lake King, which when we worked here last year we apologetically called Lake Jo-King as we checked in guests - it was completely dry. Now the sunsets, made even more stunning by ... read more
January 26th 2009
DAY 80 Today is Australia day and whilst most Australians spend time with family and friends we again pack the trailer away and depart from Forbes. It takes us ages to actually leave these camp sites as we have usually have made the acquaintance of a few people and when we pull out the windows always have to go down to say farewell and good luck to people. I have absolutely loved Forbes, another jewel, in our box of memories, the buildings are just so pretty and the pace of life seems nice. There also seems to be a lot of beautiful park lands for the 10,000 residents. We spoke to Jenny and Russell who own this Big 4 camp site, I honestly think it was the best one we have stayed on, either this ... read more
January 25th 2009
DAY 79 It was a much cooler night, a huge difference from the warm winds the night before. In fact we actually found ourselves getting inside the sleeping bag in the wee hours of the morning to keep warm. We also slept better, but so well that we slept in until 8.00, but as it is Sunday and today we are in no rush as we decided to stay an extra day as we set up an am Skype session and also we wanted to stay around Forbes because we are basing today on our evening activity. We managed to Skype our friends Gary and Karen as we had not seen/spoken to them properly for weeks. The Skype session was quite poor, we could not hear or see them, although that was not entirely a ... read more
January 24th 2009
Day 78 Not so up and at’em this morning, we had trouble getting our lazy ars*s out of bed as last night was a terrific storm, lightening, no rain but what I could only describe as a mini Cyclone. It was so humid I lay on the bed all night, at around 1.30am the wind was blowing right through the camper trailer and strangely enough the wind was really warm. The tent poles are rattling and the awning was blowing, I was sure Caroline was going to suggest I go out side and have a check around, she likes to do that to me in the middle of the night you know. We are staying on this fairly tiny Camp site in Forbes, a Big 4 at Lachlan view, by the river. We were asked to ... read more
September 24th 2008
Hi guys! once again a short entry due to lack of time, Things going awesome here, have really learnt loads and have spent alot of time having a laugh with new mates, getting to know the locals, mucking in on the farm. And drinking a shedload of red wine and beer. happy days! Should be back in sydney wednesdayish! Ill try again with a few photos!... read more
Auf Tour mit Lukas - Teil 1
Published: February 15th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Forbes
February 15th 2008
Normalerweise ist es in Australien im Sommer extrem trocken und so heiß, dass beim Fahren oftmals die Reifen am Asphalt kleben bleiben und die gesamte Landschaft braun und ausgetrocknet ist. Nicht so dieses Jahr. Als ich in Sydney ankam, schüttete es wie aus Kübeln. Und wenn ich schütten schreibe, meine ich das auch genau so. Lukas holte mich am Bahnhof ab. In Sydney startete eine dreiwöchige, von ihm organisierte und geführte Fliegerreise. Insgesamt nahmen außer mir vier andere Flieger an der Reise teil: Gerda aus Luzern, die Gleitschirm fliegt, Uwe aus Saarlouis, ebenfalls Gleitschirmflieger, Frank aus dem Sauerland, Drachenflieger, und Stefan aus Berlin, ebenfalls Drachenflieger. Gerda und Uwe waren bereits angekommen, die anderen Beiden sollten am Montag Früh ankommen. Vom Bahnhof aus fuhren wir an den Bronte Beach. Nach und nach wurde der Himmel klarer, und ... read more
