Big Sky, Blue-faced Birds and Boabs

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It continued to rain steadily all night and stopped about 8.30am. The ground all around the showground was water logged and sodden but, fortunately, our patch of grass wasn’t too bad. We had also not had any leaks in the slide-out so all Barry’s hard work fixing it has paid off.

After checking the up-coming weather on Barry’s phone app, we decided we should be OK to move on. It was clearing up ahead, it seemed.

We left Finley and headed towards Jerilderie. The land was very flat but we were getting a bit of head-wind so the ute had to work harder (and gobble more fuel). We also noticed that most of the paddocks all along the road were lying fallow, with just weed-ridden grass growing on it. We thought it was a waste of all the clearing that had been done. I read later that they are actually rice paddies but it isn’t rice growing season until October, with the harvest in February. So not wasted after all.

The road to Narrandera was even more impressive with what Barry calls “Big Sky”. You could see for kilometres to the horizon across the wide open plains with few trees. At least the land was being used for grazing and some crops. It still kept drizzling periodically but was no problem for our travels, especially as the road was not very busy.

We stopped next to Narrandera Park so I could make lunch in the van. We would have eaten it in the park but all the seats and tables were wet so we admired the view through the window instead. There were two funny Boab trees with fat bottoms and branches growing out so that one looked like a person with a fat belly.

I’d noticed a sign for a Tiger Moth Memorial and we went to investigate. It was to commemorate the Narrandera No 8 Elementary Flying Training School from 1940 – 1945. Unfortunately, the building was closed so we couldn’t learn the story but it had large picture windows so we could see the beautifully restored yellow Tiger Moth in the centre of the room. It looked lovely. All around the outside were red bricks with people’s names carved into them and set into the garden walls or a seat. I think they must be all the people who went through the flying school. Some of the names were women, too, which was good to see.

Barry noticed a bird nearby picking off insects on the wing, and with the help of our trusty bird book, we identified it as a Blue-faced Honeyeater. He had distinctive blue skin around his eyes but otherwise looked much like a large Noisy Miner.

We’d only just left when the rear-view camera put up a message that there was no signal so Barry could only see behind using the wing mirrors. We decided to make Grong Grong Royal Hotel our final destination for the day instead of pressing on further. The Hotel welcomes caravans and allows free parking out the back of the pub in the garden, which looks very pleasant.

We got in and set up then went into the bar for a drink. We felt we should patronise them as they were letting us stay for nothing so we ordered some pizzas for dinner, which they make themselves. They were very peculiar pizzas. I’d ordered Vegetarian with Garlic (to counter Barry’s Garlic Meat Lovers one) and was surprised to find that the predominant ingredient was pineapple chunks with the barest scattering of thin onion and green capsicum strips and all smothered with way too much mozzarella cheese. Barry couldn’t taste the meat, although he could see it peeking out from under all that cheese. At least it was hot and filling and I hadn’t cooked it myself. It was lovely and warm in the bar, too, although the locals weren’t as inclusive as they’d been at the Albion Hotel in Finley. I wonder if that will happen in any other pubs on our travels.



It started drizzling again as we went back to the van to work out what we were doing tomorrow. Hope it settles so Barry can try and work on the camera tomorrow.

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Photos

Finley Showground, NSW
The ground was waterlogged after the heavy rain all night.

Finley
The sky still looked fairly threatening but we decided to travel North and hope we escaped it.

The Newell Highway, NSW
The land was so flat on the way to Narrandera that you could see for miles. Most of it looked like weed infested grass.

Narrandera Park
The Boab tree man and friend.