2014 Townsville Adventure

Shorty’s 2014 Townsville Adventure – Recap

Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2014 by shorty

We thoroughly enjoyed our 2014 Townsville Adventure and are really pleased that we could add our memories and photos to our Shorty’s RV Adventures blog. Having our adventures recorded in this way does make it so easy to track back and relive the great times we have had on our RV adventures.

On all our adventures we have been to some wonderful new places, revisited some places we have been to before, made some great new friends, have seen some magical scenery, have endured good and bad weather, and have generally had a great time.

Our 2014 Townsville Adventure was special in part because we were joined by our daughter Katie and her partner Mick, and our son Phil and his wife Tracey and daughters Alex and Emily, who were all able to spend some precious family time with us in Townsville. We also unexpectedly caught up with Ann’s brother Kevin and his wife Lynn (again in Townsville). We also unexpectedly caught up with fellow Trailblazer adventurer Frosty in Sapphire; our friends Neville and Mary at Maloolooba; and friends Joe and Denise in Euroa. Plus we were again able to spend time with long time travelling friends David and Faye in Maroochydore.

Here are a few statistics about our 2014 Townsville Adventure:

Total distance covered was 9,269 kilometres
Total diesel used was 1,368.60 litres at a total cost of $2,206.59
Average price of diesel was 160.82 cents per litre
Highest price paid for diesel was 205.90 cents per litre – at Belyando Crossing, Qld
Average fuel consumption for the entire trip was 14.77 litres/100 km
Longest distance travelled between refills was 831 km (average 421.32 km)
Number of blown tyres was One (one too many at that)

We’re not finished travelling yet …. stay tuned for more of Shorty’s RV Adventures.

Shorty

Here’s a very low technology map of where we went on our 2014 Townsville Adventure.

Shorty’s 2014 Townsville Adventure

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure

Day 89 – Bendigo to Home

Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2014 by shorty

It was freezing cold this morning! The heater warmed the van up quite quickly but outside it was a different matter with frost on the ground and ice on the Ute’s windows and tourneau.

Ice on the Ute in Bendigo

Our plan had been to make a very early start today so that we would miss the traffic in both Bendigo and Melbourne, but the ice changed our minds about that. The sun soon came out and made quick work of the frost and ice and it was looking as though we were going to have a good day for driving.

Looks like a nice day now the sun is up

Barb had given us directions to get to the Calder Highway without having to go through the middle of Bendigo, which we greatly appreciated as we had left later than planned and would have encountered school drop off traffic otherwise. We were soon onto the Calder and enjoying the scenery and dappled sunlight through the gum trees along the road. As we neared Harcourt we transitioned to the new section of the Calder which is a lot more modern and a lot more efficient. Ann and I had been regulars up and down the Calder some 25 to 30 years ago and it is amazing how things have changed. We remember the highway going through small towns like Gisborne, Macedon, Woodend, stopping for fuel at the big servo at Carlsruhe, and other places like Malmsbury, and Harcourt. Now all those towns are bypassed and the trip is a lot quicker. In fact from the traffic lights at Lansell Plaza in Kangaroo Flat, Bendigo, we didn’t hit another set of lights until Springvale Road! Unlike the Hume Highway though, there are no pull offs or rest areas on the new section of the Calder and if you do need to stop for any reason you need to divert off the highway into one of the towns along the way. There are numerous bridges over the highway that provide access to these towns.

Views from the Calder Highway leaving Bendigo

We chose to stop for our morning coffee at Kyneton, which is about 85 kms from Melbourne. This is a beautiful little town full of old timber and bluestone buildings – bakeries, antique shops and so on. It has always been a great place to stop and explore, and the Botanic Gardens are especially worth a visit. We suspect that Kyneton may be suffering a bit from the highway now bypassing town but this is perhaps a bit hard to tell from driving through on a Wednesday morning. Presumably it is busier on weekends.

Welcome to Kyneton

Daffodils along Kyneton’s Golden Mile

Kyneton is a Beautiful Old Town

We stopped at the Kyneton Mineral Springs Reserve, and I can remember stopping here at weekends many moons ago and watching people fill up all sorts of bottles direct from the mineral spring here. This was way before bottled mineral water was so freely available. The springs are still there, and this is now a designated 48 hour stop for travellers, with several large sites, toilets, dump point, and access to potable water. Kyneton has recently been granted “RV Friendly Town” status by the CMCA (Caravan & Motorhome Club of Australia) and having this stop and this accreditation makes perfect sense for the local council. There is no caravan park in Kyneton so this way some travellers will be attracted to stay in the area – at no charge – and hopefully make a financial contribution to the local economy by purchasing food, fuel, etc.

Kyneton Mineral Springs Reserve

From Kyneton we continued down the Calder enjoying the scenery.

Views along the Calder Highway

After a stop for a hot snack and a leg stretch at the servo near Calder Park we braced ourselves for City traffic. Things were going fine until we neared the Bolte Bridge and traffic came to a standstill. We turned on the CB radio and a lot of truckies were very obviously upset not only by the delay but also at the fact that overhead signs gave no warning or information about whatever the problem was. I won’t repeat any of the language they used! To cap things off we had to pay tolls for the privilege of enjoying the views. At least the wheel seemed to be working!

Traffic Jam heading into Melbourne

Useless information sign, and toll cameras.

We finally made it home only to find a car parked outside our next door neighbours’ house that was going to make it extremely difficult to manoeuvre the van into our backyard. Ann went in to see Barbara and Len next door to politely ask if their visitor could move their car, but they didn’t know whose it was other than it had been there for about a week. After a bit of door-knocking the owner was identified as someone further down the street, and they eventually came and towed the car away! They had effectively dumped it in the street several doors away from where they live.

Barbara and Len invited us in for lunch to give us a chance to recover after our drive and before parking the van. Lunch was delicious hot soup and crusty bread and certainly did the trick. Once the car was gone we actually got into the backyard very quickly and were soon unhitched and getting unpacked.

Home at Last – Unhitching the Caravan

Our next job will to clean the bugs off the front of the van and give it a thorough clean from top to tail, carry out a little maintenance, and prepare it for our next RV Adventure!

The van needs a good clean!

Still living the dream!

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: bendigo, kyneton

Day 88 – Holbrook to Bendigo

Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2014 by shorty

After a warmer and more comfortable night and a refreshing sleep, we were up reasonably early and prepared the van for departure. We decided, however, that we were too far from home to comfortably do it in one day, so we decided to add an extra night to our itinerary and go home via Bendigo. Although perhaps not an immediately obvious detour, that would leave us with a very easy final leg for our 2014 adventure of around 180 kms. We would also hopefully be able to catch up with our friend Barb, who lives in Bendigo.

On the Hume Freeway just outside Wodonga we were suddenly surrounded by a bunch of very large trucks. As we tend not to travel at the speed limit with the van, the trucks just seemed to suddenly appear all together and one by one overtake us. There was a large truck carrying pigs, another carrying cattle, a Coles truck, another truck loaded with cars and SUVs, and several other general cargo trucks. It was quite a strange sensation being surrounded like that and then having them all move off out of sight up the highway.

Scene along the Hume Freeway

View to Hume Weir from the Hume Freeway

Large trucks on the Hume Freeway

Our first coffee stop was at a new rest area just past the Wangaratta turn-off – it isn’t in the Camps 7 book. We hadn’t been to this stop before and we were very impressed. Vic Roads has been doing a great job down the Hume by adding new rest stops and upgrading existing ones. This stop is large and well organised with about 20 long drive-through sites so that caravans and trucks can stop for a break and park comfortably. The facilities themselves were quite good. Vic Roads should be congratulated for the quality of these rest stops as it really is vital that travellers of all kinds can stop and have a break in safety and comfort. The quality of rest areas in Victoria is so far ahead of what we have been experiencing in Queensland and NSW for the past several weeks.

New rest area near Wangaratta

As the pantry is just about empty, we decided to stop for lunch at the Euroa Service Centre where we both enjoyed a reasonably healthy meal – neither of us succumbed to Maccas! Just as we were finishing our coffees we recognised a couple of faces in the crowd. Our friends Joe and Denise had moved to the Euroa area about 4 years ago and it was great to see them again and to catch up on the latest news. Eventually we all had to go in our respective directions but we promised to come back to visit them in Euroa soon.

From Euroa we continued down the Hume before turning off onto the Seymour-Tooborac Road somewhere about Seymour. The quality of this road is not quite up to that of the Hume and in many places it was surprising that the speed limit remained at 100 kph! We eventually turned onto the Northern Highway and drove through a number of small towns including Heathcote and Axedale. At some point the Northern Highway changed its name to the McIvor Highway.

Scene along the Seymour-Tooborac Road

Old buildings in Heathcote

At Junorton we turned off the McIvor Highway into the Bendigo Park Lane Holiday Park. This is an interesting place with many brightly coloured cabins, quite a large number of powered caravan sites, and very good amenities. The internal roads could do with some work though. Just right for an overnight stop!

Bendigo Park Lane Holiday Park, Junorton

Ann had been in touch with Barb who, as soon as she heard that we had arrived, came around for a chat. We all then went out to the One Tree Hill Hotel in Spring Gully for a delicious pub dinner and more chat before calling it a night.

What a busy day we have had! The weather has been great and we got to see more of this beautiful country of ours. Not only did we catch up with our friend Barb in Bendigo, we also caught up with Joe and Denise in Euroa.

Who knows what surprises tomorrow will bring?

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: bendigo, euroa, holbrook

Day 87 – Canberra to Holbrook

Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2014 by shorty

It rained heavily most of the night; a continuation of the miserable Canberra weather we experienced yesterday. At times there were also strong winds. When we turned on the TV this morning they started talking about storm weather warnings from Sydney and further South. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Do we stay or do we go? In the end we decided that the sky seemed to be clearing and that the forecasts further south looked better than Canberra, so we would head off slowly but not attempt to travel too far today. The weather was OK while we packed up and got ready to leave, but as soon as I started the Ute’s engine the drizzle started.

The drizzle and wind continued until we got to the Hume Highway, then the day started to look quite nice. Pity about the wind though. We travel up and down the Hume to visit our daughter Katie in Canberra several times each year, and the Ute pretty well travels the Hume on auto-pilot, so sometimes we tend to take the scenery for granted. It really is varied and interesting when you take the time to actually look at it.

Scenes along the Hume Highway

Morning coffee was at Bookham, which is a rest stop just off the Hume. There is a rest area here with decent facilities and space for off street caravan parking. There is also a very nice café, a very nice looking old church and a worm factory!

Continuing down the Hume from Bookham, we decided to investigate the small village of Jugiong, which is a couple of kilometres off the highway. This is a great looking little place, with a servo, a pub, a B&B, a very nice looking café, a wine merchant and more. A local artist has some interesting equine sculptures on display by the roadside. There is also a freedom camp at the Jugiong Showgrounds which looked quite reasonable on a drive past and which we will add to our list of optional overnight stays for a future trip.

Jugiong

Interesting Equine Sculptures at Jugiong

Scenes of Jugiong

Scenes from the lookout at Jugiong

From Jugiong we made our way back to the Hume Highway and eventually stopped at the Gundagai Tuckerbox stop for lunch. We ate at Bullocky Bill’s which offers a good range of freshly cooked roadhouse style food as well as clean facilities and a wide range of tourist merchandise and gourmet food products. We much prefer to eat here than at the nearby Shell Express food court where we could have Maccas, Subway, KFC, etc. There are various other shops and outlets here, including a place that sells the most amazing fresh Batlow apples.

Dog on the Tuckerbox monument in Gundagai, unveiled in 1932

After lunch we continued down the Hume to Holbrook Motor Village, where we have stayed several times before on our visits to Katie in Canberra. Travellers will probably best remember Holbrook for its full size submarine in the main street, although the highway now bypasses the town. It’s a nice place to stop with a couple of motels, a couple of pubs, a selection of cafes and restaurants and a good variety of other shops and services. Holbrook Motor Village is a smallish caravan park that does a good job catering for the overnight visitor with many long drive through sites so that big rigs can stay hitched up for an overnight stay and walk a short distance into town for a meal at a pub, or whatever. Good amenities including a large camp kitchen/lounge area.

Holbrook Motor Village

Today was a comfortable drive in reasonable weather. We hope that the weather improves even more tomorrow!

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: canberra, gundagai, holbrook, jugiong

Day 83 – Cowra to Canberra

Posted on Monday, August 18, 2014 by shorty

This morning was probably the coldest day of this adventure to date. The thermometer was showing 4 degrees when I first got up, but the van soon warmed up with the heater on. We took our time packing up and preparing to leave, by which time the sun was out, the sky was clear and blue, and it was starting to warm up.

The drive from Cowra to Yass along the Lachlan Valley Way is a tremendous driver’s drive. It is basically a series of sweeping curves through rolling countryside on a well maintained road with a few straight stretches thrown in for fun. This drive is interesting for the driver and offers the occasional challenge at whatever speed suits. Importantly the countryside is also interesting, with green fields incorporating slashes of yellow, plenty of cattle and sheep grazing with a few alpacas and goats for good measure. There are a few smaller villages and some very interesting buildings and properties along the highway.

Scenery along the Lachlan Valley Way

Morning coffee was at Boorowa. We’ve stopped here several times before for coffee or lunch and visited several cafes and pubs. Today we had coffee at “The Pantry on Pudman”. The coffee was superb and the muffins were fresh from the oven, tasty and not horrendously oversized! Décor was “quirky” with antique furniture, books and magazines, light fittings, paintings, etc everywhere. I’m sure that if I had mentioned to the waitress that I liked the cup and saucer my coffee was served in then it would be immediately for sale! Our friend Diana would love to see this place.

Arriving at Boorowa and Pantry on Pudman cafe

From Boorowa we continued down the Lachlan Valley Way to near Yass, where we turned onto the Hume for a little while and then onto the Barton Highway to Canberra. This stretch is not nearly as enjoyable as our morning drive, although the countryside is still quite interesting.

From the Barton Highway we changed to the Federal Highway and we soon arrived at our favourite place to stay in Canberra, Capital Country Holiday Park, which is actually just over the border in NSW at Sutton. This is a clean and tidy caravan park with plenty of large drive through, level sites and good amenities. There is also a range of cabins and facilities for school groups. Although most of the occupants of caravans and RVs we have ever seen here are in the grey nomad’s age group, there is a jumping pillow, tennis court, outdoor swimming pool and mini-golf, so the younger patrons are catered for as well. Although actually in NSW, it is still only 15 minutes into the centre of Canberra. At this time of year the park is almost deserted, and we have the place pretty much to ourselves.

Capital Country Holiday Park is almost deserted apart from us!

Jumping pillow, tennis court, swimming pool and cabins at Capital Country Holiday Park

We will be spending several days in Canberra with our daughter Katie who has been living here for a few years, and we won’t be posting daily blog posts during that time.

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: boorowa, canberra, Cowra

Day 82 – Chilling in Cowra

Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2014 by shorty

Today was a designated rest day after several days of solid driving so we allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep in and a lazy day in general. It wasn’t quite as cold this morning but we were very glad of our new heater to warm up the van. Outside it was another crispy, clear sunny day with blue skies. It might be cold but at least it isn’t raining!

Early Morning at Cowra Van Park

After fiddling around in the van for a while we went for a walk into town to stretch our legs and enjoy the sunshine. We stopped for lunch in a small coffee shop and then continued on our walk. Eventually we went our separate ways and Ann went to a fabric shop and I went to a second hand bookshop. We were both very pleased with our purchases!

We then walked back to the van for a short rest before heading off in the Ute to the Cowra Japanese Garden. This is an amazing place and we come here every time we visit Cowra. Many travellers will remember that Cowra was the site for internment camps for the Japanese and Italians in WW2 – there was even a film about the Cowra Breakout. Ann’s father had been stationed in Cowra at some stage in his military service. The Japanese Garden is a beautiful commemoration of the now friendly relations between Japan and Australia.

Cowra Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden is a very peaceful place to visit with a weight seeming to be lifted off your shoulders almost as soon as you enter. It has all the traditional Japanese features including ponds and waterfalls, raked pebble gardens, curved paths, rock formations, clipped hedges, traditional buildings and so much more. All this is in a typical Australian environment where the eucalyptus trees combine wonderfully with the Japanese elements of the garden. There are several small buildings and plenty of benches and seats so you can just sit and contemplate in the peace and quiet.

Cowra Japanese Garden

In addition there is a cultural centre with displays including Japanese traditional culture, warriors and samurais, architecture and buildings, bonsai plants, pottery and sculpture, and so on. There is an audio tour device that will help guide you around the various exhibits. There is also a café and a gift shop.

Interesting Facts about the Cowra Japanese Garden:

The Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre was opened in October 1979, with Stage 2 opening in November 1986
The garden covers 5 hectares and is designed to represent the entire landscape of Japan
It is the largest Japanese garden in the Southern Hemisphere

On the way back to the caravan park we stopped off for some supplies. I then made various preparations for our departure tomorrow before we both settled into the van for the evening, by the heater.

Still living the dream – but perhaps wishing that it was a bit warmer here!

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: Cowra

Day 81 – Gilgandra to Cowra

Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2014 by shorty

This morning the thermometer inside the van displayed 6 degrees – you might say that things were a bit chilly! However the heater soon warmed the van, and hot showers and a hot cup of tea warmed us as well. Outside, it was another bright sunny day with a wonderful clear blue sky. The wind, unfortunately, was cutting, and very, very cold.

Early morning at Gilgandra Caravan Park

Packing up didn’t take long and we were soon back on the Newell Highway. Well sort of. There were major roadworks right outside the caravan park entrance which extended over the bridge across the Castlereagh River and pretty well to the junction of the Newell and Oxley Highways. We had to wait a little while at the caravan park exit but then the man with the stop sign signalled us to go and we actually got exclusive access to the road, across the bridge, and onto the Newell Highway while all other traffic had to wait. We felt very privileged!

Our stop for morning coffee was at the side of the highway in Dubbo, near the Zoo. We were sure that we could hear some of the animals!

Dubbo

The Newell is a busy highway with a constant stream of big trucks and oversize loads travelling in both directions. The condition of the sides of the highway and the various rest stops and truck pull-overs indicate that inadequate funds are being provided for road maintenance works. The safety implications of this lack of maintenance are very obvious to travellers.

Plenty of Big Trucks on the Highway

We then continued down the Newell and at about Peak Hill we both started feeling hungry. The original plan was to have a light lunch in the van at a roadside stop somewhere along the way but we both decided that a pie and chips would be a much better option. After-all, it was cold! Fortunately we knew just the place to go.

Several kms North of Parkes we turned down Telescope Road and made our way to the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope – better known as the setting for the Australian movie “The Dish”. We knew from previous visits here that the Dish Café serves up fabulous pies and excellent coffees. The chef certainly didn’t disappoint this visit either! Our lunch left us in great form to continue our journey today.

The Dish, Parkes

Pies and Chips for lunch at the Dish Cafe

From Parkes we continued down the Newell to Forbes where we intended to stop for a quick cup of coffee but I got distracted by the sign to McFeeters Motor Museum. We saw this place last time but had to keep driving – this year we seemed to be making good time so we stopped to have a look inside.

McFeeters Motor Museum, Forbes

We arrived just in time to be taken on a guided tour by Bill McFeeter himself. Bill McFeeter is 75 years old and has been collecting cars for a very long time. His collection grew to the size where he decided that he needed to build a shed to store all his cars and the idea of making the shed a museum came to the fore. His wife Jan convinced him that his shed should be something different and it certainly is! This motor museum is a purpose built building which also houses a café, wine and local honey shops, and a tourist information area. Jan also convinced Bill that there should be carpet on the floor and that the cars should displayed with suitably dressed mannequins. Jan even changes their clothes to suit the seasons! Jan’s whole idea was to make this motor museum interesting to women as well as men and judging by comments we heard, she has succeeded!

Bill McFeeter at McFeeters Motor Museum, Forbes

There are 60 cars on display, most of them owned by the McFeeters and the rest on loan from various friends, neighbours, etc. There is a similar number of motorcycles, although these are all on loan. Many of the cars are still road registered and Bill takes them out for a spin regularly. The collection is incredibly diverse and he has several “only one in Australia” vehicles.

Bill is one of life’s characters who loves a chat and is clearly both passionate and knowledgeable about his car collection. After the tour we took a few photos of some of the collection.

View of McFeeters Motor Museum, Forbes

Early caravan at McFeeters Motor Museum, Forbes

Some of McFeeters’ Collection

Time got a little bit away from us and we still had to complete the last leg of our trip, this time along the Lachlan Valley Highway. Fortunately the condition of the road was very good and there wasn’t much traffic so we made very good time to our destination, Cowra Van Park. We have stayed here a couple of times before and we enjoy both the park and the town. Ann had booked ahead so even though we were a little later than we would normally be, it wasn’t a problem. Keith helped us into our site, which has a concrete slab for both the van and the awning. We did a quick set-up and unhitched the Ute as we had to make a quick dash into town to buy a new heater as the other one gave up this morning.

Then it was back to the van to settle in for the evening by the heater.

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: Cowra, forbes, Gilgandra, Parkes, The Dish

Day 80 – Moree to Gilgandra

Posted on Monday, August 11, 2014 by shorty

This morning we woke to beautiful clear blue skies, but it was still very chilly.

Leaving Moree on the Newell Highway we immediately struck roadworks, and bridgeworks, and more roadworks. We almost thought that we were back on the Bruce Highway in Queensland! A lot of work was being done on widening roads and also clearing trees and scrub away from the roadside, presumably in preparation for further road widening. The roads were in a really bad way, so much so that the council had signs up advising motorists to slow down due to bad road conditions. This section of road was largely flat, with crops like canola growing.

Scenes along the Newell Highway

Our first stop was at Narrabri where we stopped at Cameron Park – N771 – for morning coffee. This is a nice area next to the river with amenities and a dump point, plus an undercover seating area, a kids’ playground and plenty of parking. The road actually continues around under the bridge to access sporting facilities on the other side of the Highway.

Cameron Park, Narrabri

Back on the Newell Highway, driving conditions changed with a better quality road, a straighter road, and plenty of National Forest areas. At one stage we passed another Trailblazer 5^th wheeler – we don’t see very many on the road and selective perception means that each one we do see seems to be special!

Lunch was in Coonabarabran. We stopped there on our 2013 Adventure and again parked in Nelson Park – N786 – before walking around town to find somewhere for lunch. This park is another great facility for travellers, with parking, BBQs, undercover seating, a large, clean amenities block, playground equipment, and more. There were plenty of people stopped there for lunch. Visitors do need to be a little careful though – the park is guarded by several large and cantankerous geese!

Lunch was at Coonabarabran

Road conditions changed again as we left Coonabarabran with picturesque rolling hills and more grazing country. We saw sheep in large numbers for the first time in quite a while.

Different scenery along the Newell Highway

Then disaster struck! While we were stopped at a servo just outside Gilgandra a truckie indicated that we had a bit of a problem with one of the tyres on the caravan! He wasn’t joking – it was absolutely shredded!! What was worse was that it was OK at Coonabarabran and that neither Ann or I had heard or felt anything go bang, and I hadn’t felt any difference in handling. I have to put it down to a solid chassis in the van and dual axle configuration. We pulled over at the servo and changed the tyre before heading on to our overnight destination.

Shredded Tyre on our 5th wheeler

Changing the tyre on the 5th wheeler

Off to the tyre store

Gilgandra Caravan Park is a favourite of ours and we have stayed here several times. They again put us on a good site and as soon as we were set up I headed off into Gilgandra to find a new spare tyre. There is only one tyre store in town and they fixed us up with a good second hand tyre with the right specifications – they didn’t have any new tyres in our size in stock. This will do as a spare until we get home when we can review the tyre situation overall.

Set up at Gilgandra Caravan Park

Then it was back to the van to store the spare in its allocated position before heading inside to put on some warmer clothes and relax with a beer.

Not quite the way we had planned today – but it could have been a lot worse!

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: Coonabarabran, Gilgandra, moree, Narrabri

Day 79 – Warwick, Qld to Moree, NSW

Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2014 by shorty

When I first poked my head out the van door this morning it was a crisp and chilly with a heavy fog as far as I could see. There were ducks and kangaroos searching for food amongst the caravans. I did exactly what any sensible person would do – I came back inside the van, turned on the heater, and got back into bed!

Eventually things warmed up a bit and the fog disappeared, so we thought that we should get up and get things happening. As a result we made a bit of a late start. We hadn’t unhitched so getting ready didn’t take too much time, and we were able to stop at a tap on the way out to top up the water tanks.

We drove along the Cunningham Highway to Goondiwindi where we turned onto the Newell Highway. Some 40 kms past Goondiwindi we stopped at the North Star Road Rest Area – N761 – for lunch. This is quite a large area with what appear to be very new amenities and quite a few good, sheltered spots where you could stop for the night.

Driving today has been a real mixed bag, and has been quite difficult and tiring. The road has been uphill and downhill, straight or with sweeping bends, good quality roads and shocking quality roads, roadworks, extra wide loads coming towards us, and practically anything you can imagine. At times the amount of road-kill on the road tested my slalom driving skills!

Police escort for extra wide load approaching

Extra wide load approaching

Wow ! That’s big!

Wow ! That’s big too!

Interesting roadside stop

Scenery wise, again it was a mixed bag ranging from dry grazing land, to lush irrigated pastures, to dead dry waterholes and dams, to groves of healthy looking olive trees, to crop stubble, to recently tilled soils, to just plain ugly scrub.

Olive groves

Our final destination for tonight was the Moree Showgrounds – N765. Ann and I are both a bit over caravan parks and when we can’t find a suitable free camp – ideally a lake or dam – stopping at sale yards and similar is a good compromise. There is usually power and water, often a dump point, almost always plenty of space, and usually basic or better amenities. Moree Showgrounds fits the bill perfectly with only a few vans here; we have power and water and a nice big level site. The amenities are very basic – but our van is self-sufficient so that’s not really a problem.

Plenty of room at Moree Showgrounds

We did a proper set-up and unhitched and drove into town to top up with diesel and to shout ourselves a decent cup of coffee. Then it was back to the van for dinner and update the blog.

Still living the dream !

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: Lake Leslie, moree, warwick

Day 78 – Forest Glen to Warwick, Qld

Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2014 by shorty

For a combination of reasons we have decided that we need to make our way home more quickly that we had originally planned. In our short time here, we caught up with our friends Downunda and Faye, who are staying at Cotton Tree in Maroochydore where we stayed last year. Afternoon tea at Cotton Tree with Downunda and Faye stretched into Happy Hour when Carole and Robin joined us. Happy hour is always fun at Cotton Tree.

Our first challenge today was to get out of our site without damaging anything. It was a bit of a tight fit but after moving some concrete edging and under the watchful eye of the owner of the van in front of us – he actually put his awning up to be on the safe side – and having the Ute in low range, we slowly and carefully made our way to the main driveway. What a relief! Big 4 Forest Glen is not our favourite caravan park and we won’t be coming back again.

Next challenge was to make some sense of the Queensland motorway/freeway system. There are lots of freeways and motorways and exchanges and it’s quite confusing to the uninitiated. There is also a surprising volume of traffic at all times! We had been advised to ignore the Garmin GPS to get through to Ipswich and to go down the M1 and then the M2 and this added a little bit of extra excitement. Motorways are great at moving traffic quickly, when there aren’t roadworks that is, but if you are moving from one motorway to another there aren’t too many opportunities for coffee or other stops.

Gateway Bridge in Brisbane

We successfully made our way over the Gateway Bridge, which is an amazing structure and after sneaking into a servo along the way for a quick stop, we eventually stopped for a more relaxed coffee break somewhere along the Cunningham Highway some 170 kms from Forest Glen. Our next stop was to top up the diesel at Warwick and we then made our way to the famous Warwick Pie Shop for a couple of their delicious pies for lunch.

Warwick Pie Shop

Driving today has had its challenges. There were roadworks of course, but we’ve come to expect that. The most spectacular part of the drive was crossing the Great Dividing Range, mostly in 3^rd gear. It’s quite amazing countryside with huge cuttings into the mountains for the road, and it’s quite steep in places. This type of driving really chews through the fuel in the Ute. Ann got to see the scenery a lot better than I did, and hopefully some of the photos will do it justice.

Scenes along the way

After lunch it wasn’t too far from Warwick to Lake Leslie, where we stopped at the Washpool Camping Ground. Ann had rung the caretaker in advance and he had explained the process. Basically, there are 60 acres on the banks of Lake Leslie and you can camp pretty well anywhere you wish for a modest fee per head per night. We were told that there are a number of powered sites, at an extra $3.50 per night, which actually turned out to mean that there were a few power poles spaced irregularly around one area, with a few randomly placed water taps as well. There are no marked sites so you just find the best place you can amongst the trees and as near as you can get to power or water or both, without blocking any of the unmarked roadways. There is a brand new amenities block, including showers, which is in better condition that those at many caravan parks we have been to. There is also a dump point.

We found a great flat site and connected to power. Lake Leslie is a beautiful spot. The lake is stocked with fingerlings each year and attracts many fisherpersons. There were several boats out on the lake and others fishing from the shore. There are plenty of ducks and other birds and kangaroos feed by the water’s edge. We went for a long walk around the camping area before settling down outside to catch up on some reading. As it got a bit cooler many of the other campers started up camp fires; some for warmth and other for cooking as well. There were some delicious aromas coming from some of the camping sites.

Our first look at Lake Leslie – the angling club

View of Washpool Camping Reserve at Lake Leslie

Settled at Lake Leslie

Kangaroos feeding at sunset by Lake Leslie

Sunset at Lake Leslie

Campfires at Sundown at Lake Leslie

After watching a beautiful sunset we packed up the chairs and went inside for the night.

It’s places like this that make caravanning so enjoyable!

Categories: 2014 Townsville Adventure | Tags: forest glen, Lake Leslie, warwick