Lap Around Australia: Maleny (home at last)

Home again Home again jiggety jog

Our journey home from Broken Hill only took three days. We had the bit between our teeth and our sights set on home. The road through the back of New South Wales to Cobar is littered with the carcasses of kangaroos who've lost their battle with passing traffic. We had to navigate our way through these as well as being careful not to add to the tally. They would actually jump out into the middle of the road and stand there looking at you. It was unnerving as you're never sure which direction they will decide to jump. The other animal to beware of were the numerous feral goats grazing by the roadside. They're a bit smarter than the roos. They barely look up from their grazing, and if they do happen to walk onto the road a quick beep of the horn will send them running off road to safety. Tellingly, their were NO goat carcasses on the road.

We reached Cobar and decided to stay the night as it was a further 127 Kilometres to the next town, Nyngen. The Cobar caravan park again offered us a drive through site. We've managed to get them all the way from Geraldton. WooHoo! We were a bit surprised by the awful state of the amenities block. The toilets and shower cubicles were all stainless steel and filthy. There was no soap , paper towels or even toilet paper. It was horrendous. John went to the loo over at the other amenities block and found it to be spotless! Turns out that the one Barb had gone to was meant to be padlocked shut and was not supposed to be in use. Phew!

Next morning saw us on the road at the crack of dawn. We'd made it all the way to Gilgandra in time for second breakfast. We chose to take the road up through Coonabarabran, Gunnedah and Tamworth. This probably wasn't the best choice when towing a van. It starts to get very mountainous and we had to go into first gear a couple of times to climb the hills. We wanted to stop at Tamworth but the traffic going through the city at school finishing time was so bad that Barb ( who was taking a turn driving at this time) didn't want to stop. John took over the driving and thank goodness that he did. The road out of Tamworth gets even steeper. We made it to Bendemeer, which is about halfway to Armidale and called it quits for the day. Bendemeer had a lovely little caravan park set on a gently sloping hill. The drive through sites were level however and this place was very cheap as well as offered a  fresh made pizza dinner which they delivered right to your van. It was wonderful! The $18 meatlovers pizza was so large and full of meat we couldn't finish it. One half the size would've been adequate in fact. It was a really nice place to stay and the husband and wife proprietors absolutely lovely people.

 

 

We left Bendemeer very early in the morning and made it to a small town called Deepwater on the other side of Glen Innes in time for morning tea. We found a very cute bakery offering barista coffee. The young man behind the counter took great care preparing the coffee and it was indeed good. Not only that, the sausage roll and lamington made onsite were superb. We have tried lots around the country for comparison, so we know our stuff by now.



The hilly climbs continued all the way home. We went up through Toowoomba and somehow managed to veer off the New England Highway and had to then find our way through the city to re-join it. Because we'd gained an hour when we crossed the New South Wales border it was still early afternoon by then so we headed for home via Ravensbourne and Esk. A tip for those towing caravans...DON"T go this route! It's very steep twisty and not fun at all. It certainly gave our reconditioned gearbox a workout on the last leg. We made it safely home to Maleny by late afternoon, exhausted but very happy to be home. It was great to sleep in our own bed. It was even better to find that our beautiful tenant Emma had cleaned our front porch and wiped down the table and chairs for us, and had the exterior of the house and garden looking immaculate. Yay!

Lap Around Australia: Broken Hill

Broken Hill

From Ceduna, we had to decide whether to detour to Streaky Bay or just keep on track for home. The windy weather really decided things for us. The beach is no fun in the wind and so we went instead to Poochera for the night. Where the heck is Poochera? Well it's about 138 Km east of Ceduna on the Eyre Highway. It's a teeny town and we pulled in to a campground at the back of the pub. We were again blessed with a drive-through site and better yet, we were told the pub offered a decent and cheap counter meal at night. We went over to the bar after a nice hot shower and found another couple who were parked just opposite us also about to order a meal. We all ended up sitting at a table together and had a very pleasant evening chatting about our travels.

 

 

The following morning everyone in the campground were packing up to leave. The forecast was for more windy weather. That forecast was not kidding! It was pretty hard going battling gusts of wind especially towing the van. There were large clumps of spinifex, some the size of hay bales being blown across the road in front of us, some striking the car and van. It was like a scene from a wild west movie with tumbleweed blowing down a dusty street. The dust was incredible. Literally every surface in the van and car are covered in dust and it is playing havoc with Barb's asthma. We reached Port Augusta and literally lost the will to go on. Even though we'd been warned by friends back in Maleny that Port Augusta was not a pleasant place to stop, we did anyway. Just for one night. It was not too inspiring when on check-in at the campground we were warned we must keep everything under lock and key at all times as there'd been a spate of thefts by young local teens. Forewarned is forearmed. We left nothing outside the van and literally battened down the hatches for the night.

We ran fast outta there the next morning. The Jackaroo handled the climb up the pass in the hills to Wilmington and then on to Peterborough. We stopped here for a bite to eat and a quick look around. It's a rather nice small town, very proud of its railway heritage. While we were having our cuppa it began to lightly rain and got quite cold. Time to be on our way.

It's a long stretch of lonely road between Peterborough and Broken Hill. We stopped regularly to stretch our legs. We were particularly interested to see if our old friend was still at the Olary Hotel. Last time we came through this way (five years ago) this rather potty-mouthed lady had chatted to us over coffee which we'd had to make ourselves because "you know how you like it". (yep, that's really what she said). Sadly the pub was closed and possibly shut down permanently. That leaves the population of Olary down from three to maybe one. So sad.

We arrived quite late in the afternoon at Broken Hill, feeling quite shattered by the long drive. Barb was also feeling very poorly with her asthma getting worse from all the dust. A chance phone call from her sister Janice in Tasmania led Barb to finally seek medical help. Jan was very alarmed by Barb's breathlessness and cough. We tried to find a GP, but were turned away and sent to the Emergency Department at Broken Hill Hospital. After the usual lengthy wait to be seen, Barb finally got called in and the nice young doctor quickly ordered some Prednisone orally and some cortisone puffers. We were able to find a pharmacy open and also purchased a spacer for the puffers. At least Barb had a better night's sleep after getting some appropriate treatment.






The doctor also insisted that we take a day off from travelling so Barb could have a chance to recover. The rest did us good. We did drive into town for lunch and while we were in town had a look through the Jack Absolom Art Gallery and the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery which we'd enjoyed so much last visit here. Both were great. We really like Broken Hill. It's got a nice feel to the place and the old buildings in the main street are gorgeous. We didn't go and see the Sculptures in the Desert this time, as the best time to view them is at sunset and we wanted to be settled inside in the warm for the night, but if you're ever in Broken Hill it's a "must see" attraction.