Page 7 of MargAndRob Travel Blog Posts


Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Moama September 29th 2014

The Murray River played an enormous role in the European settlement of the huge plains of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Water is a basic requirement for life and agriculture. In the early days, transport of supplies and export of produce was probably the co-driver of development in this region. We have stayed for a couple of nights at the NSW town of Moana, and walked across the Murray (via bridge) to Victoria, and to be sure , the town on that side of the bridge had to be different, Echuca. This area is very popular with Melbournians for weekends and school holidays with plenty to do for the kids, and much wine to be sampled by the parents, not to mention the very good quality citrus fruit grown in this area.. We watched ... read more
Ramdom Traffic Stop
The Port, Echuca
Non-irrigated region

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Cowra September 27th 2014

If there is a long way to go from A to B, we will try and use it. That was the case over the past two days. We had stayed at a free camp a little out of Gilgandra and having crossed town, we headed for a little town called Gooloogong. We had heard from David and Mary that this was a good little camp with power and water available for a gold coin donation. Having set up our van we walked the streets of Gooloogong, and 3 minutes later we had seen the sights. Having said that, the park adjacent to the caravan park had quite a bit of history from a settlement perspective. This town like many was a railway come rural service town, but with rail uneconomic, the town, pub and rural supply ... read more
Canola field
Mrs Cow poses
Gooloogong pub

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Gilgandra September 25th 2014

Some one has suggested that the planning is half the fun. Maybe, but getting out there and discovering fascinating places beats the planning bit. However, without the planning, we wouldn't know where to poke our noses. We generally make the first day driving short so that the morning of departure is easy getting the house mothballed for the period we will be away. As it happened, that was all done, washing dry and stowed, and we were ready to leave a couple of hours earlier, so we travelled to the border town of Wallangarra for our first night out. It is a couple of years since we drove out towards NSW via this rout. Last time, Cunningham's Gap where we drive from the plains up through The Great Dividing Range to the plateau, the road was ... read more
Dark Day after lunch
Typical Outback NSW
What road rules

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane September 23rd 2014

Getting Ready! Sounds simple like put your stuff in the motorhome and head off into the sunset. I wish! Our departure has been delayed with a melanoma scare, now removed and appearing to be clear of mutant Ninga-Melanoma warriors running riot around my body. Marg had a visit to the Dentist today after a tooth became very heat sensitive. A close inspection and Xray showed no issue requiring excavation and repair, so the traffic light has finally turned Green for a departure tomorrow. Food on board? Yes Clothes on board? - Yes Fuel and Water? - Yes Medication? Not yet but new scripts issued and we are all stocked up ready to go. GPS? - ready with latest maps. I wonder if they are any better than the last ones? Cameras? ready to go! Dash Cam? ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Ballarat » Sovereign Hill April 4th 2014

After a farewell from Tasmania, we sailed from Devonport on March 31, and again experienced a smooth sailing as we headed north. At 5:45am, we were awoken as the Captain brought us up to date with our arrival time and disembarkation instructions for Adelaide. A mistake, slip of the tongue maybe? Well, Adelaide was mentioned several times in the instructions leaving passengers scratching their heads and forcing open their bleary eyes. At the end of the announcement he gave the current time and date, 5:45 on 1 April 2014. So we disembarked at Melbourne despite the earlier announcement and found our way back across the city (in the dark) to our camp ground. We had 3 nights in Melbourne, but with the weather pretty average, we had a quiet time visiting the Botanical Gardens, Harbour Town ... read more
A face from the gold rush
Fun in a miner's trolley
Melbourne Fountain

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Devonport » Don River Railway March 30th 2014

Around the world there are many great Railway Preservation Projects, and rightly so. The very fabric of development of many places including Tasmania was the thread of iron rails and hissing steam monsters that carried produce and people where no other transport of the time could, and at speeds that were unimaginable before the rail was introduced. For me personally, maintaining that railway history at a small working level is really important. Just as we have recognised the painful but enduring work of Tasmania's convicts, so we need to acknowledge the truth of the benefit of rail to this little island state. I would think that the rail road too was built in many places with the blood sweat and tears of the convicts. There are a number of working steam railways in Tasmania, but I ... read more
Important piece of history
Don River Railway 01
Royal Carrriage 02

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Oatlands March 28th 2014

Next stage of our Tasmanian Tour was retracing interesting things and places associated with the convicts of the 1830s through the interior of the island. We headed from Sheffield across country to join the Launceston Hobart highway, with our first stop the Elizabeth River Red Bridge at Campbell Town. There are 1 million red bricks in this structure, opened in 1837. Each of these bricks was made by the convicts and assembled into the bridge still in use today with traffic many times heavier than the bullock carts with logs of the 1830's. We cannot begin to imagine the contribution to Tasmania that the convicts have made under arduous and depraved circumstances of a cruel justice system. In the main street of Campbell Town there is a strip of red bricks embedded into the foot path ... read more
Red Brick Bridge
Ross Stone Bridge 2
Mist over Mountain

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Cradle Mountain March 25th 2014

It doesn't matter who you ask about travel in Tasmania, Cradle Mountain is one of the first things listed. Funny, it has ended up being one of the last things visited on our tour of Tasmania. That has been dictated by weather as it was originally our plan to do the west cost and Cradle Mountain first, but severe storms and wind sent us the other way around the Island. I guess when planning the tour we were always aware that the weather is changeable down here, but hoped for generally good weather for February and March. So if you are planning a visit, plan to be flexible! We had purchased the National Parks Pass for our holiday duration which includes not only access to Cradle Mountain, but free use of the shuttle bus for the ... read more
Never judge a book by the cover
Cradle Mountain 11
Our bush camp spot


We have talked about our dear navigator Tom Tom previously, but on this leg of our journey he did a superb job of taking us towards Mole Creek. He chose unusual and interesting roads, but unbeknown to our little friend, we followed a heard of cattle for quite some distance before they were mustered to the side of the road to let a small queue of other Tommy navigators past. Once through, all was well and we made good progress once more. That was until we arrived at Chudleigh. You have probably never heard of this town other than its namesake in England. This town does contain an interesting surprise - The Silk Fudge Shop. Now the fudge isn't made of silk, and the silk items sold are not fudge coated either. This is a thriving ... read more
Fudge Fudge Fudge
Chubby little devils 1
Chudleigh General Store

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Stanley March 23rd 2014

We often comment on how time flies, and in an odd way the journey from Strahan to Stanley was rather like that. Not time based, but rather we were uncertain if we were flying through cloud with turbulence or driving through road works on an ultra wet and windy day. The showers slowed from time to time and we got the occasional glimpse of what would be a pilot's worst nightmare; rugged craggy mountains just visible through the clouds. Our intention was to go to Cradle Mountain, but we thought better of that and drove on to Burnie. It was still wet there off and on, and as the afternoon progressed, more on than off. Rather than stay there, we did a weather check (Elders Weather) and saw that Stanley was coming out of the fug ... read more
The Nut
Rocky Cape
Alpaca




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