Chapter 13 - NSW and Home

Day 93 – Thursday 22 August – Bourke (Continued)   Previous Chapter

Thanks to Shirley’s keen eyesight we were able to get a photo of a group of emu – a rarity on this trip.

 

We set up camp at “Kidman’s Camp” just north of Bourke.
 

We found a welder to fix our table leg (our resident welder is going to Hong Kong), and ventured in to Bourke to browse, stock up on diesel and a couple of minor commodities. You may think we buy diesel a lot when you consider that we have a 180 litre tank. However we have a house rule about not leaving it too late.

Dinner was stir fry chicken.

Day 94 – Friday 23 August – Bourke to Hillston

We had a slow start so that we could pick up our mended table foot at the welders shop at 8:30.

That done, we headed south and experienced the best driving conditions and best road for nearly the whole trip. To add to the experience the sights were constantly varying and interesting.

We stopped for coffee along the road then cruised in to Cobar and bought a sausage roll each at one of our favourite outback bakeries.

Soon after Shirley took her first photo with my new camera - me in front of a "wild dog" fence. Many hundreds of km of this type of fence have been erected recently in Queensland, NSW and South Australia. They have netting for the bottom two thirds then 2, 3 or 4 strands of barb wire on top. It is to contain wild dogs, but presumable contains all sorts of other animals.

Chris with hand on top (barb) wire of the "wild dog" fence

 Onward we trekked with more scenic country.

We crossed from the Outback region to the Riverina. Crops like canola and grain started to appear. Almond trees were also in abundance and full of blossom. Cotton is also grown in this region.

We checked in to the Hillston Caravan Park and went for a walk and were amazed to see a crocodile on the bank on the Lachlan river.



Lachlan River Crocodile

Day 95 – Saturday 24 August – Hillston to Tocumwal

The harsh reality of driving 1250 due south in three days hit us this morning as we woke to a 2 degree frost. The last white ground surface we saw was a magnificent beach.

We drove through the Riverina and admired the rich growth that was on view. Km after km of almonds, canola, grain crops, grape vines and citrus trees.

Mature Almond Trees in Blossom

Juvenile Almond Trees

Mandarin Tress full of Fruit

Canola

Our Road Through the Riverina

We stopped at Griffith and walked in to the middle of their Italian festival. The place was really buzzing. I would have liked to see the salami juggling contest or try the salami tasting exercise.  But no, we headed south, through more Riverina food bowls scenes.

We have seen many goats in the last few days so I took a photo of these two. 

Jerilderie was our stop for lunch, so I took a photo of the Post Office that Ned Kelly and his gang robbed on 10th February 1879.

Former Jerilderie Post Office

Tocumwal was our stop for the day, noted (among other things) as a training base for B-24 Liberator Bombers in 1948. That is symbolised by the mural on the back of the IGA store.

B-24 Liberator Bomber

We went for a walk and I took a photo of the Murray River.

Murray River at Tocumwal

The front of the IGA had additional historical murals.

Day 96 – Sunday 25 August – Home

We crossed in to Victoria and were surprised how lush the countryside looked after 16,000 km of drought stricken country.

I took a photo of a view not seen by us for a long time.



North central Victoria

As we reach home we have:

-    Been away for 96 days
-          Driven around 16243 km, at 170 km per day.
-    That figure drops to around 130 km per day if you remove both the busy first and last week.
-          Stayed at 52 different places at an average of $32.25 per night.
-          Purchased 2940 litres of diesel at an average of $1.59 per litre.
-          Cooked 8 batches of damper and 9 batches of scones.
-          Had 13 campfires, nearly all for cooking purposes.
-          Taken over 3000 photos.
-          Written 12 chapters of the blog.
-          Edited three Probus newsletters.
-          Listened to some great Aussie poetry from Darryl.
-          Saw many different bird species and many great beaches.
-          Had many “trials and tribulations” that did not define the holiday.
-    Did not discard the shorts until four hours after getting home.
-          Had a hell of a lot of fun, while seeing some of the great parts of our great country.

Our Approximate Route

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This travel blog is complete. I hope you enjoyed the journey. Please remember that many Australians on the land are doing it tough. You can help by trying to buy Australian as often as possible - even if it costs a little more.

This post was last updated around 8:20 am Monday 26th August 2019