Issue 1 March 2018
Brodie’s next 15,000 klm
On th e road again
All our Blogs at issuu.com/janandkeithtravels
After weeks of anticipation and a few days of frantic packing we have finally arrived at start day. A quick early bike ride before leaving to get the blood flowing found us back home and locked out of the house,!! we had already locked up the house, the keys were in the motorhome and yep! that was locked too. Fortunately the bathroom window wasn’t properly locked and with Jan adopting some very unladylike positions she managed to get into the house.... the day was saved. It was a fairly routine drive along the Gwydir Hwy to Moree and then down to Bellata. There were already about 10 motorhomes there with more arriving after we arrived. Being 36 degrees happy hour had adjourned to the golf clubhouse, until we were coaxed outside with the promise of a sausage sandwich. We were introduced to about 20 people, fortunately they didn’t hold a quiz to see how many I remembered, could have been embarrassing. The idea of this tagalong is a gathering of motorhomes travelling to the “Golden Triangle” (Ballarat, Bendigo area, which had the richest finds of gold nuggets in Aust history) Each night we meet at predetermined camp sites but do our own thing during the day, The Tag along will last for about 10 days with the last 5 in the golden triangle area where Jan feels her new detector will find a huge nugget. LOL
Camp o the 10th h
View at lunch Gibralter Range
on hole
Bellata
Sa 36klm
Although we were almost first up we arrived back from our bike ride to find most of the group had already left. We had a few things to look at on the trip to Eumungerie, Sawn Rocks just outside Narrabri was one and Sandstone caves before Coonabarabran was the other. Sawn Rocks was a 36k from the highway with a 750metre stroll ... well worth it! The sand stone caves car park was only 1k from the highway but a 2k round trip walk, Jan had torn a leg muscle and it being 39 degrees we thought the car park was far enough. We arrived at Eumungerie Recreational Grounds and paid $10 for a powered site..bargain!. Happy hour lasted a couple of hours before we retreated to our air conditioned home.
This formation was formed by the cooling and crystallisation of a b a s a l t l a v a fl o w, Depending on the length of cooling and moisture these 5 side columns are formed. Erosion, weathering and plant roots cause the face to break off.
awn Rocks m from Narrabri
Off to Mirrool Waking early again, the problem is everyone else is already up and getting ready to leave. On to the bikes for a ride around town (all 5 streets) we consider it is our sacred duty to have every dog in town barking at us .... once again we succeeded and we only have to ride quietly down the streets ........................ .......the dogs really don’t like strangers! That duty done we went back to camp to pack up and leave ... everyone had already left! .... 20 minutes later we were on our way. Heading south down the Newell Hwy the first thing of interest I saw was a Macca”s .. that’s breakfast sorted. That done we visited the Open cut Gold mine experience in Peak Hill and caught up with a few fellow travellers. Once back in the motorhome Jan found the toilet wouldn’t flush so it was off to the nearest dump point so we could check the fuses etc. Fortunately it turned out to be a simple switch Straight thru Parkes (we had been there 3 months ago) we decided I would visit the Motor Museum in Forbes while Jan checked out their coffee. It was a small collection, about 40 cars and bikes, all well looked after but not a good representation of my era, I stilled enjoyed it but would have preferred more 50's to 70's models. After this we headed for Mirrool our stop for the night
We had about 150ks to go to Mirrool, this was fairly uneventful, probably because I was asleep. We had the GPS set for Mirrool and sure enough it ďŹ nally said to turn left and down what appeared to be a farm lane, as some of the overnight stops have been out of the way we didn’t twig it was wrong until we arrived at a farmhouse .. oops! a quick u turn and we could see the pub on the other side of the highway so a few minutes later we were safely set up for the night. It was then time to meet more new people at the bigger and bigger happy hour .................. more names to remember ...lucky we are wearing name tags. The happy hour was at the local pub and we had a very nice cheap dinner chatting with new friends.
Mirrool Township with fr
ree camp in foreground
Mirrool to It seems 7am is going to be our regular wake up but still later than most of the group, there weren’t enough streets to warrant taking the bikes o at Mirrool so we walked the town ... only managed to disturb one dog! ..must be the bikes. We had done most of packing up the night before but still almost the last to leave. Being a short journey we diverted o the highway to a little bypassed town called Grong Grong. It is trying hard to attract visitors with a very modern toilet/shower block, free bike hire and an unusual earth garden that grew thongs and things. Well worth the side trip. We stopped at Jerilderie for lunch and checked out the Ned Kelly trail and lunched by the pretty Luke lake. Arriving at Finley Showground early afternoon we took the bikes for a spin.The result being a very pleasant ride and an expensive bag of wool which Jan is going to turn into a jumper.
o Finley
Finley Lake
Grong Grong Thong tree
The Might Echuc
Usual time waking up, filled up with water and started off to our next stopover , finally a chance to find gold!!. We called in to Tocumwal, a pretty little town on the Murrumbidgee River before heading for Shepparton for Maccas, with the morning almost gone we made our way to Echuca, a major paddle steamer port on the Murray River, arriving just in time to catch a two hour lunch cruise on the Emmy Lou. The Emmy Lou was purpose built in 1973 as a replica of early paddle steamers. We enjoyed a very nice lunch while cruising on the river with the Captain throwing in the occasional commentary. Heavy in the belly and quite a bit lighter in the wallet the rest of the journey was completed with some trepidation as google directed us down little country lanes for miles on end with no sign of civilisation. A signpost for Tarnargulla finally appeared, we were almost the last to arrive with happy hour just breaking up as we arrived .. or maybe because we arrived lol. Settled in, a few of us broke out the metal detectors for a bit of practise on the oval and the birdsong was quickly drowned out by the beeping of metal detectors .................. no gold! but a few ring pulls and blts and nails.
ty Murray ca Vic
Tarnagulla Recreat The Tag-along
tion Ground g group
Jan trying out her metal director
Happy Ho
Jan about to ďŹ nd a cylinder head gasket
our at Tarangulla
Tarnargulla m
Bike ride views
Our first attempt at finding gold in a gold area, surprise! surprise! we didn’t find any. After we exceeded our attention span we decide a bike ride could be interesting. The town is virtually a commercial ghost town, all the shops had closed down except the post office, which supplied most of the town’s needs from mail to bread and most things in between. During its good years it must being thriving with at least 5 churches and several mines in the town area. The bike ride took us through old and new diggings, the area is
main street
popular for gold hunters and metal detectors, and some very basic shanty type dwellings. After the bike ride we had the traditional grey nomad rest before attending “happy hour�.With nearly 40 vehicle participating it is quite a big circle of chairs and people at the happy hour, but we were treated to a talk on cameras and some of the taggers related their theirs days travel.
Hadd Here for th
We left Tarnargulla fairly early, there was a dump point in Maryborough, following Wikicamp’s directions we ended up at McDonalds with no dump point in sight .... someone trying to tell me something??Lol. Just as the rain started we found it and while Jan supervised from the cab I emptied the cassette while trying to hold an umbrella, hose, chemicals and cap. The rain continued as we made our way to Ballarat where we found a laundromat with a Maccas right next to it......... someone is trying to tell me something!
don Vic. he weekend
The rain had ďŹ nally stopped by the time we arrived at Haddon, but the ground looked a little soft on the at so we parked on the slope and used the ramps ... better than getting bogged! With the weather not looking the best the afternoon consisted of general chit chat followed by a loverly meal provided by the local Lions Club
A few views from the Historic Tram
Sadly we have left the tag along a day early, we ran the batteries at charging the bikes thus needing a caravan park. Last night we sat in the dark using our tablets for entertainment there not being enough power for much else. After a walk round the pretty town of Maldon (in the freezing cold) we had alook around Bendigo and decided we would spend the night and recharge. We are presently in the very nice A line park with an ensuite for $32 .. bargain.
in Bendigo.
The trip so far
Our other blogs
issuu.com/janandkeithtravels