Sunday, June 26, 2011

My Maiden Voyage

I finally got up the nerves to tow the caravan myself. I haven’t had much experience towing and was very nervous about pulling along our home and all of our belongings along the road.



I decided that the trip from Mendooran to Premer was along fairly quiet roads, with no big mountains to climb and no steep winding roads.



I’m still not sure who was more nervous, me or Dan. Dan is never a good passenger, he’s the sort of passenger that has his foot pressed into the floor of the car trying to brake and he holds on to the dash so tight his knuckles turn white! Come to think of it, I think Dan is the sole reason I was so nervous towing the van!!



Other than nearly getting pushed off the road by a HUGE truck, I did really well. Dan even admits that it wasn’t the worst experience in his life. However, I do think I will leave the driving to Dan, but at least I know I can tow the caravan in an emergency.



Premer was a great little campground. Run by the local Lions Club, it only cost $10 per night and you get a powered site, water, and use of their hot showers and BBQs. The campground backs on to the local primary school and the boys thought it was a bit weird sitting doing their school work while watching the local kids going to school. They started missing their old school until they realised they had finished their schoolwork for the day before the schoolkids had even had morning recess!



I was doing our washing one day and was talking to Dan about my fear of mice. I kid you not – I was just discussing with Dan whether I would scream or simply hold my breath in panic if I saw a mouse. I picked up the washing I was sorting and a mouse ran onto my hand. I now officially know – much to the amusement of my Dad and Dan, I’m a screamer!





We left Premer a day earlier than Mum and Dad and headed to Tamworth. Sam is in Grade 3 this year and is taking part in the NAPLAN testing, so we had to get to Tamworth Post Office to collect his test.



After a quick trip through the centre of town (in peak hour traffic – which is never fun with a huge caravan on the back) to the Post Office, we headed to a little campground on the banks of the Cockburn River. It was dark by the time we arrived there and we soon realised that we had no telephone service. One of our requirements when choosing a place to stay, is that there must be phone and internet service. Dan needs to be in contact with the office and his clients for work.



We decided to stop there for the night and get up early to find somewhere else to stay. However when we woke up we realised that the campground was just beautiful. A big sheltered area with tables and chairs, fire pits and lots of wood, and the river was simply gorgeous. So after a quick discussion we decided that Dan would drive into town every hour to check his messages, retrieve emails and return phone calls. As it was nearly the weekend, we decided to stay at Cockburn River and move on Sunday afternoon to find somewhere else with better reception.





While Dan was out making phone calls, I set up the NAPLAN test for Sam. Will sat on the picnic blanket and did his schoolwork while Zac played cars next to him. We had a lovely morning, and had all finished by the time Mum and Dad arrived after lunch... just in time for Dad and the boys to go exploring the river.





While we were at Cockburn River we ate all our meals at the outside table next to a roaring campfire. It got very cold at night, and with no power to run the heaters, I sat snuggled up by the fire in the evenings.



On the weekend we went for a drive back to Tamworth to find the Golden Guitar. I was inspired by all of the cowboys in Tamworth and bought myself a new hat. We went shopping then drove up to the Oxley Lookout.





Whilst at the lookout we got talking to another family that is also travelling around Australia. As we were talking we soon discovered that we had a lot in common. We both live in Eastern Melbourne, both decided to travel for similar reasons, both bought the same caravan from the same caravan dealer, and both have travelled almost identical paths from Melbourne to Tamworth. The big difference was that they have been on the road for almost a year and are on their second trip around Oz.



After chatting for a while (“sooo long” – according to the boys) we exchanged numbers and arranged to try to meet up soon (we were also heading in the exact same direction!).



One of the many great things about this trip so far, is the wonderful people we continue to meet. We have a lot in common with most of the people we have met so far. We all have an obvious love of travelling the country, seeing and meeting new people, and living the simple life.



“Getting back to basics” is a bit of a theme that Dan and I have chosen to live by. Over the past few months we have learnt a lot about ourselves. While living in Kilsyth we were by no means making the most of our lives. It is very easy to get carried away with complications that are really not as important as you think. It felt like we never had time to ourselves, let alone time to spend with our family and friends. We spent most of our weekends running around looking after the house, and doing jobs.  This trip has taught us that the less you have to look after, the less time is taken up with looking after it! Quite simple really, but we seemed to have forgotten that lesson somewhere along our lives. I’m grateful that we have remembered it now, before grow up any more!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Space Stations, Radio Telescopes and Spaceships!


After leaving Gooloogong we headed to Parkes. Sam’s dream career is to become an Astrophysicist, so as you can imagine, he was one very excited eight year old, as we headed to the Parkes Radio Telescope.

The CSIRO Parkes Observatory is a 64-metre Telescope used for Radio Astronomy. After a great 3D movie, we had a look around the information centre. Sam managed to make us all proud by hacking into the CSIRO computer system to play pinball. Needless to say we quickly left the info centre and enjoyed a cup of tea and scones, while watching the huge telescope move around.

 
After our visit to the Radio telescope we set up camp at a little campground in the Goobang National Park called The Wanda Wandong Campground.  We arrived just as the sun was setting and realised we were the only ones there. The campground is very well laid out with lots of sites big enough for us. We chose a site towards the end of the park near a campfire pit. Mum and Dad pulled up next to us. Dad and the boys went on a hunt for firewood and we soon had a roaring campfire.

After a day learning about our Solar System, space travel and life on Mars, we had a really nice surprise. As we were sitting talking about the day, Dad spotted a bright light in the sky. We all assumed it was a satellite until we realised it was moving really quickly and was too bright to be a satellite. We soon discovered it was a Space Station. Sam was so excited and rushed over to the computer with Dad. They confirmed that it was in fact the International Space Station and it had a Space Shuttle docked to it. It was a wonderful way to end the day and I am sure Sam and Will went to bed dreaming about Space Adventures.

While we were sitting around the campfire toasting marshmallows, Dan stuck his head out of the caravan and asked my Dad if he could give him a hand. Now it’s not unusual for Dad to give Dan a hand but I thought it was a bit weird that Dan would pull Dad away from the campfire at night. I soon realised that Dan had discovered a mouse under our bed and was trying to catch it without me knowing. I was grateful for his secrecy and I wish I wasn’t quite so nosey!! They managed to catch the little critter (who had eaten his way through all our chips and cereal under our bed) and released him in the bush. Of course, I am now convinced that we have more rodents who have take residence in our home!!!!

We got up early the following morning, left mum and dad to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, and headed in to Dubbo. We were hoping to catch up with friends who were also staying in Dubbo but unfortunately they moved on before they got our message. After a quick visit to the information centre, it was off to Dubbo Western Plain Zoo.

 We had a wonderful day at the Zoo. You have the choice to either walk, ride you bike, or drive around the huge 300 hectares of parkland.

We chose to ride our bikes, so put Zaccy in the baby seat and set off. It was wonderful being able to ride our bikes right up to each exhibit and spend as much time as needed. The Zoo is laid out really well and the roads and path run along the exhibits and you can see the animals from many directions as you travel around.

Unfortunately, I was having trouble with my new bike. The chain kept coming off and we didn’t have the tools with us needed to tighten it. At one point the chain got wedged between the cogs and the wheel. It was so stuck that I ended up going back to get the car while Dan and the kids had a bite to eat. Even with the tools from the car we still couldn’t fix my bike so we attached all the bikes to the bike rack and spent the rest of the afternoon driving ‘safari style’ the rest of the way.


We returned back to our campground to find Mum and Dad a bit worried. Earlier that afternoon an old man had come past and told them he was heading into the bush to check on his beehives. “If I’m not back by 5 o’clock, phone the police” he said jokingly. It was now nearly five, would be getting dark soon, and he still hadn’t come back. Dad and the boys went for a walk into the bush to have a look for him, and then they decided to continue the search on bikes. Mum and I stayed back in case he came back.

We were just discussing whether we should call the Park Ranger or the Police when the old man wandered out of the bush. This was the first time I had seen him and was a bit surprised that a man of his age would be out wandering around. After we called Dad and the boys on the CB to let them know he had returned, I got chatting to the man.

He was very happily telling me all about his beehives and how he cares for them. The queen bees were having trouble surviving the cold nights and he didn’t like their chances of lasting through this winter. By this time, Dad, Sam and Will had returned and the conversation moved on to safety in the bush.

He was telling us “oh, you couldn’t survive a night out in this bush without supplies, and if you did the morning frost would do ya in.” He told the kids “now you boys make sure you stay close to camp. It’s easy to get completely lost out there. I’ve been coming here for over 45 years and I still reckon it all looks the same. You get some wild animals out here too. There are those feral pigs you gotta be careful of.” He went on to describe the pigs and what they look like.

We were all politely listening to him tell us all about the bush, when out of nowhere came... “ and ya really gotta watch out for them Junganong People. They are a worry. Some of them fellas can be real big, some even over 750 kilos!”

He must be playing a joke on the kids, I thought.  “Yeah, they came to me once. They communicate through the mind ya see. Came right to my house one night and woke me up.” I looked over at Dad and could see he was trying really hard to keep a straight face. The man, very seriously continued “They are harmless fellas really. They are just after one thing. They want the honey! Their spaceships look just like great big walnuts, they’re brown too. There were two great big piles out the front of them. They looked like big piles of sawdust” He looks right at me and asks “do you know what they were?” I was too shocked by the bizarre turn in the conversation to answer, so Dad says “No, we don’t know. What were they?”  He shakes his head like we should have known the answer and says “piles of powdered honey. Do you know that out of God’s three Universes, Earth is the only one that has the honey they need.”

We were all standing there gobsmacked! I had no idea what to think when the man continued, “Yeah, I nearly lost all my bees to the Africana Beetle. The little bug lives in the pollen and kills all the bees.....” He went on telling us more about bees and his hives then said, “well, I’ve got a long drive ahead of me, so I had better be off.”

We all said our goodbyes and he left. As soon as he had driven off, Dad and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. “I love these old country blokes!” said Dad through tears of laughter.

The following day we packed up the van and went back to the zoo. This time Mum and I took the boys on foot around the Zoo.  Dan had work to do and Dad says he’s been to enough Zoos to last his lifetime. So they parked up in the Big Rig car park and Dad spent the morning in his motorhome surfing The Net and Dan stayed in our van and earned some money.

Once we had seen all the animals at the Zoo we all went into Dubbo Park for some lunch. The kids had a fabulous time playing in the water park part of the playground and got soaking wet. While we were sitting watching the kids play, we were enjoying watching the skydivers parachute their way to a nearby park. While watching one particular skydiver, I said to dad “is he deliberately spinning around like that?” dad said “yeah, he’s probably trying out some stunts.” Then before our eyes, the skydiver started spinning completely out of control then became separated from his parachute.  We all held our breath and it felt like a lifetime before he released his emergency back-up chute. My heart was racing while we watched him recover and make a safe landing and his tangled up parachute came slowly to rest in a nearby tree. I cannot imagine what the skydiver was feeling but I am so grateful for their quick thinking. It was a scary thing to witness.

Once it was all over Dad turned to the boys and said “see boys, that’s why you never jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane.” They nodded their agreement with their mouths still open in shock.

After our eventful lunch we made our way to our next campsite. Mendooran is about 70ks North East of Dubbo. The small town is known for its beautifully painted murals on the walls of many of its buildings. It is a sleepy little town with many empty shops.

We pulled up alongside the Castlereagh River and found a great spot to set up camp.


We spent the next few days cycling around town, fishing in the river and going to the local pub for dinner.  I spent a lot of time taking photos of the beautiful scenery and enjoying the peace and tranquillity of the river.


We have stayed in Mendooran for 3 nights and it is time to move on. I am itching to try towing the caravan, so I think I will give it a go this week. Wish me luck!!


Saturday, June 04, 2011

Goolie Pub Rocks!




After a great drive from Canberra with the old girl (the Patrol) running like a dream – finally – we arrived at a little town called Gooloogong. The village is located mid way between the towns of Cowra and Forbes on the Lachlan Valley Way. It is close to the historic township of Canowindra and the Lachlan River flows nearby.

Our home for this week


Gooloogong offers travellers a wonderful little rest stop, free of charge!! Now, there are a lot of free rest areas that are fantastic, but the awesome thing about Gooloogong, is they very generously let you hook up to their power and water for free, and they even have hot showers in the amenities block. We haven’t found anywhere else quite so generous. There is a donation box, which of course we threw some money into. We love the little country towns that try to encourage people to camp there. We have developed a little policy – whenever a town lets us stay with them for little or no cost, we will try to put as much of our money back into the town. We go to their pubs, buy groceries in their supermarkets, and buy fuel from their service stations. It’s our little way of saying thanks.



As it turns out, Gooloogong made lots of money from us. There was a notice board at the campground advertising a local mobile welder. Perfect timing, we needed to get our new bike rack welded on to the draw bar of the caravan. So we called Simon up and not only did he weld the bike rack (and did a fantastic job) but also fixed our taps and made us up two really cool signs for the back of the caravan, and two bike rack number plates.



The campground is a huge grassed area, fully fenced off and attached to a big playground and BBQ shelter. Perfect for us! The boys spent the mornings at the shelter doing their schoolwork and the afternoons playing on the playground. Of course, little Zaccy was happy to spend ALL day at the playground!



The day after we arrived we were joined by my mum and dad. We haven’t seen them since March and have missed them so much. We were all very excited to each other and they couldn’t believe how much the boys had grown in such a short time (especially Zaccy!!)



We went on a ‘field trip’ to Canowindra to visit the Age Of Fishes Museum. Canowindra is the site of one of the world's great fossil discoveries from the late Devonian period. The fossils were discovered when a road worker in 1956 uncovered a slab of rock filled with 360 million year old fish fossils. The fish had been buried when trapped in a pool of water that dried up, stranding species that had never been discovered before.



On our last night we went to the “Goolie” pub for dinner. A great old pub, about to celebrate it’s 100th birthday this year. Friendly people, great food, excellent value for money and a roaring fireplace. Sam and Will added their mark on the famous ‘wall’. One wall of the pub is covered in messages and names of all the locals and visitors to the town. The pub’s motto is “the Goolie pub rocks” and we all agree whole heartedly!


The only negative thing about Gooloogong (and all of its surrounding towns – in fact the whole of central NSW) was the mouse plague! For those of you who don’t know, I have a huge fear of mice. You can put a huge spider on the wall, a snake in the grass, bugs on me and I wont care, but one little mouse can send me screaming. Before this trip I decided I had to get over my fear. I had been working really hard at it and getting much better until our stay at Gooly. There were dead mice everywhere (yes, even dead ones make my skin crawl!) and live ones scampering all through the bushes all day long. Every time I walked out the caravan door I would hear them scurrying out of my way. Over the few days we were at Gooloogong, my fear of mice came back with a vengeance! I was like a nervous wreck! I have a really bad feeling a couple of the little buggers have hitched a ride in the caravan and I am not happy about it at all!!!