The Dog on the Tucker Box

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DAY 416


Well Andy woke me at 6.00 with a cup of tea, I think everyone was waiting with anticipation to see if I would actually get up, now I do get up early if I have to, so Andy just encourages me by telling me he will buy me breakfast once we are on the road which makes it slightly more tempting for me.

I am up and soon ready to go, I don’t even think I finished drinking my tea! Wandering out to the truck on this sunny morning I turn round to see all of the lovely dogs looking at us, well all except Kimba who is already sitting in her TV spot watching the chickens and Ducks. It does not matter what time of day it is you can always feel 12 eyes starting at your every move!

It is a beautiful sunny morning in Nangus, it is great to see the sun come up, it glistens on the mirror like Murrumbidgee as we head towards Gundagai, we can see an early morning fisherman waiting patiently for his catch

We head out of Gundagai and soon onto the Hume Highway towards Sydney. I am not sure if we have mentioned, we need to head over to Sydney to pick up a roof rack that Andy found on Ebay, he won the bid so now we have to pick it up. You may not think it is worth it but for the price we paid and if you include our diesel costs then we still have a good deal, plus a nice day out thrown into the bargain (not like we don’t get many days out though!).

We stop at Yass, there is a Macdonalds there so breakfast is a skinny latte and an Egg and Bacon McMuffin, however I see the police are waiting outside on the opposite side of the road, I know what’s going to happen, we will get pulled over as soon as we leave, and sure enough we did, a random breath test, but In 5 seconds later we are back on the road again, that’s all it took Andy to Count up top 5 whilst the Police officer held the probe near to his mouth to detect any Alcohol fumes but nothing.

We see a wind farm on the hills in the distance, it looks very eerie as the turbine blades are going round they disappear into the low cloud.

The scenery is amazing, they have clearly had a lot more rain here, the creeks are full some are over flowing, the grass and the trees are green, the dams are full and the fields are looking very boggy. I see a farmer ploughing a field, no doubt taking advantage of the soft soil.

It is dry for the best part of the journey however the closer we get to Sydney the more miserable the weather gets, finally it absolutely pours. I navigate Andy around the roads as usual, but we will be taking some of the toll roads, which I have been dutifully informed that we have up to 48 hours to pay and can do this online, the overhead signs confirm that this is correct and even gives you the website address of www.roam.com.au, remembering the hassle of sorting it out last time, I think that this will be easier. I later find out that I have to pay $1.50 account start up fee, plus 75 cents car matching fee, but that means 75 cents is charged for every journey, so as we have been on the M7 and M2 plus the return journey that means I have to pay the toll, plus 3.00 in total for car matching and I have no idea what the toll actually costs.

A while later Andy mentions that we need diesel, a few minutes later we spy a Woolworths Caltex, the bizarre thing is that we have actually stopped here for diesel before when we were here back in January.

Finally we arrive in the suburb where we are due to pick up the roof rack, I tell Andy to pull into the next road so that I can spark up the laptop and look in an online map to check where the road we want is located. Moments later I exclaim, “you are not going to believe this, but the road we want is 50 yards behind us on the right, we just went past the turning.” The only reason why we want past it is because the road sign was missing, of all the roads we had could have turned into we turned into the right one.

We are soon chatting to Clayton, the chap selling the roof rack, he lets us pull up undercover on the driveway and helps Andy put the roof rack on, thankfully because I have no idea.

We arrived at 12.10 and by 12.30 we are back on the road again and navigating our way out of Sydney, this time I have lunch on my mind, but ideally we want to get clear of Sydney before stopping.

Eventually we stop at a roadhouse somewhere South West of Sydney, we have a half hour break and then we hit the road again, I take over the driving for the rest of the journey as Andy drove all the way there.

We drive past the Dog on Tucker Box just outside of Gundagai, thankfully after much controversy this national icon is staying exactly where it is. Some local people wanted to move it into town to encourage visitors to actually stop in Gundagai, but the general feeling was that the Dog on the Tucker Box should stay where it has always been and that is right next to Bullocky Bills restaurant/café.

Whilst driving from Gundagai Caroline spots a snake just crossing the road, its about 4ft long and it shimmered in the sun, we reckon it’s a red bellied black.

We eventually get back to Woodstock at 5.40, both feeling quite exhausted, Helen saw to the chickens and dogs in our absence this morning, she told us that she had brought the one remaining chick back from this one coop, the other two had died and now this one was being attacked and like me she could not bear to see it happening so we wander up to Helens chicken yard and check in on the little chick and it seems to be doing very well.

We have dinner sitting outside on the veranda, it is a beautiful evening, but no sooner than we finish Andy and I head out to take Toby and Tiny for a walk around a couple of the paddocks, these walks are having the desired effect and they are not barking at night, they must be too tired!

We take torches with us as it is getting dark, but the evening is still warm with a nice cool breeze floating past us, Andy and I stop to have a look at a large hole that we found before in the paddock, it looks strangely like a wombat hole and we have found evidence that there could be one around, wombat poo which happens to be square, Helen has said that there have not been wombats around for a long time, but you never know, perhaps one has returned to the area.

So that’s it for today, we wish you all a good night.

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Photos

The Dog On the Tucker Box
Powers wanted the Dog moved,

The Dog On the Tucker Box
Why, it was quite happy were it has always been

The Dog On the Tucker Box
Now it is to stay put

Comments

[Mum and Dad]

Chicks
Hello..We are both wondering why the chicks are left in the coop with the grown-ups. We never did that on the farms here....Grandad Ivin used to hatch our eggs in an incubator and then they were put in the sheds with a heater, food and water. Granny Hocking used to have brood chicks with mother only, until they were able to fend for themselves, removed from mother hen and put into a warm pen with food etc. Speak to you soon..x

[george]

memories
To whom it may concern, Its been about 7 years since i had a feed at the dog on the tuckerbox, i still remember the coffee, as i was with someone at the time, i think its one of the highways icons between gundagai and the murray river in robinvale, between 2002 and 2004 i use it as a stop off point in my trip down to visiting my brothers as i was homeless then and still today, at one stage in 2003 i actually had a good rest in the carpark area for a few hours, i think they should use more signage and at the last fuel up point at around gunning and also lit up signage at night on the highway, maybe they have nowadays as the last time i drove down in 2006 it still wasnt visible at night, that way some can rest till daybreak and have breakfast in the morning as their isnt anything as interesting in wagga wagga.... Homeless Superstar George

[kangaroojack]

Happy Memories
Hi George, thanks for reading, we had to stop at the dog on the tuckerbox, a true aussie icon but of course over the years the stories have obviously changed and no one really seems to know the true story behind the dog on the tuckerbox. I don't think it is any more well signposted than it used to be, we headed back down that way a few times and every time we say we will stop to see it again, but when we see the turn off for Gundagai we realise that once again we drove past it! A great place to have an overnight rest. Happy Travels George. Mrs KJ

[Jennifer Bliar]

Shame of Dog
I parked at the Dog on the tuckerbox to stretch my legs after a long trip. I happened upon a market day. It was 27th August around lunch time. I went to walk across the road to check out the stalls at the Train Stop across the road and I was ushered to my car and told to leave! No hospitality there! There was a ratty cardboard sign saying "No Train Market parking and wheels will be clamped". I won't be back!