Melbourne to Port Macquarie
June 24 to July 5, 2008
A few days of golf and then we are off ....
We left home on Tuesday 24 June and headed to Echuca/Moama to meet with golfing friends from Huntingdale Golf Club for three days of golf and fun. Twelve golfers hit the greens on two days with handicaps being taken into account. The silver winners trophy was presented to Peggy Sandy who had a brilliant first round score with 43 points. Even after having her handicap adjusted by 4 strokes, she still came in on the last day, winning the championship by one stroke. Well done Peggy. After a trophy presentation, lunch and a birthday cake for three of the golfers, it was goodbye to everyone and the start of our three months East Coast adventure.
Amazing who you see on the road ....
We left Echuca the next day with our caravan and headed
towards Jerilderie and Forbes. Just outside Jerilderie we spotted Keith and
Beth Moxham traveling in the opposite direction in their Paradise Motorhome. We
tried to call them on the CB radio with no luck so we ended up doing a U turn and
catching up with them back in Jerilderie. It was good to see them and hear
their news. They had been up to Griffith and were on their way home.
Mirrool. Population 20 plus a few dogs but a great pub and friendly people .....
We continued on and decided to stop at the Mirrool Pub
where there is an area of free camping with toilets and BBQ right outside the
pub. It was a most interesting night. Naturally, we had to visit the beautiful
old pub built back in 1800’s during the gold rush days. We met the locals
including Bill who had lived there all his life and he was able to tell us about
his relatives who built the pub and were proudly displayed in old photo's on the
walls. By the time we left the pub at 7:30 PM we knew half the locals by
their nicknames and all the other free campers. A great night. There is not much at Mirrool but a big event in
the calendar each year is the ‘silo kick’ in October. Contestants come from around
the district and kick a football over the tall silos. The next morning we experienced our first frost but with a
clear sunny sky, we soon warmed up and headed towards Parkes and a visit to the
observatory.
We are watching you .....
The Parkes Radio Telescope is located 24 km north of Parkes. The observatory, is a 64-metre diameter telescope used for Radio Astronomy. It is located about 20 kilometres North of Parkes along the Newell Highway, which is approximately 380 kilometres West of Sydney. It is operated by the Australia Telescope National Facility, a division of CSIRO. The observatory has an excellent visitors centre and cafe and you can easily spend a couple of hours learning about the telescope.
On to Dubbo and the Western Plains Zoo ....
From Parkes we continued to Dubbo where we were to catch up with the Alison & Luke Goodwin who we had met in Montone, Italy back in 2006. For the next two days, we stayed with Alison and Luke and their three children, Meg, Will and Ned. It was great to catch up with them again. We had never been to the Western Plains Zoo and enjoyed the day riding around the zoo on bicycles. It is set out really well and gives you the feeling of being right up close to the animals as the fences are set below ground levels in deep channels. There are animals from all over the world at the Zoo and active breeding programs with many of the residents.
The Birthday Girl ....
Once again we were travelling on Liz's birthday and we took the opportunity to celebrate with the Goodwins. A few wines, a great meal and of course the customary birthday cake made this another memorable birthday for Liz. All good things must come to an end. We left the next day and headed north again this time to the Warrumbungles National Park.
What's a breadknife doing out here ....
Warrumbungle National Park was our next stop which is 35 km
west of Coonabarabran. There are a great variety of walking tracks ranging from
easy, medium and steep. Of course, we did the tougher ones which included the
Breadknife Grand High Tops Walk. This walk took in rocky spires, deep gorges
and forest areas, uphill steps of over 500 with more being built. The reward at
the top was spectacular views. It was well worth doing the 13 kms hike.
Belougery Split Rock was a shorter walk of 6 kms but seemed more strenuous due
to a rougher track. There were a few aching muscles being felt by Liz the
following day.
Our camp site was at Camp Blackman on a powered site Thank goodness for the power as our heater went all night. The temperatures definitely drop during the night up in this part of the world.
Home of Country Music ....
It was then onto Tamworth for two nights. We arrived not
knowing it was the “Hats Off Festival – the winter country music festival. We
managed to catch up with a few of the very talented musicians at different
venues and we also visited the Australian Country Music Museum. It would be
fantastic if a Hall of Fame could be built and all the history of country music
brought under the same roof. What a great tourist attraction this would be for
Tamworth.
From Tamworth we drove across the Great Dividing Range on the Oxley Highway through Walcha, to Ginger Creek right in the beautiful rain forest area, then onto Wauchope and Port Macquarie. The weather has been around 18 degrees and very cool at night. From now on, we should experience warmer weather.