Blogs from Forbes, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

Du vendredi 22 au mardi 26 janvier 2016: Nous partons pour la ferme des grands-parents à 3h du route de Canberra. Nous arrivons assez tard et la nuit m'empêche de profiter pleinement du paysage. Le lendemain, je suis subjuguée par l’immensité des terres... Il nous faut prendre les quads pour parcourir la propriété, ce qui est plutôt cool. Tous les jours nous allons nourrir le cochon "Fruit Loop" et sortir les chien. Nous nous amusons aussi au bord de la piscine. C'est à la ferme que je prend les premières photos de Gillou, ma mascotte, en Australie. Dans un des abris à mouton, des italiens ont peint des fresque lors de la seconde guerre mondiale.... read more

After breakfast we went to the McFeeters Motor Museum just up the road, where we were greeted at the entrance by a little Czechoslovakian 3 wheel 1962 Velorex, with a canvas body! Most unusual. Mr McFeeter had been a sheep farmer, now retired, whose hobby was collecting old cars. He had quite a few that were on loan and 40, which were his own cars. They included vintage and veteran cars, some Rolls Royces, a Kia Elan prototype with a plastic body and even a brightly painted car called “Barbie” with $5,000 worth of 24 carat gold plate on its fittings! The cars were displayed in a large carpeted purpose-designed building with windows and a strong inside balcony but, smart man for thinking ahead, he told us it was actually the fully insulated shell for a ... read more

“Camps Australia Wide” (the caravaner’s bible) promised us lots of potential free camping sites along the Murrumbidgee river after Hay. With this in mind we departed Trentham Cliffs caravan park heading across the Hay plain. Our caravan pace meant that we stopped for our morning coffee somewhere out in the middle of the Hay plain. The land was flat as far as the eye could see and the sun shone brightly; travelling was good. Soon after Hay we started to look for the spot we had selected – Burrabogie Reserve. The distance passed with no sighting but then we saw a big sign for Burrabogie, but it did not look right. With the van parked by the gate Greg walked in to investigate. This turned out to be the station homestead. In one of the workshops ... read more

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

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