Day 122 Saturday 10/10/20 Griffith to Finley, warm 23

Our vans are looking like they’ve been to the moon and back. Elle is wondering how to stow her roses while travelling and El Prado suggests standing them in the toilet.

We were thinking about going south to the border to maybe sit on the river for a few days before heading home but now we realise that we will have entered the ‘border bubble’. What does that mean for us?

As arranged over dinner last night we meet Bill at his winery. He shows us his impressive cellar dining room complete with handsome table crafted from flattened wine barrels. He gives the boys a bottle each of Durif and a lovely bottle of rose for the birthday girl. He also gives us a member’s discount on our purchases. He’s a top bloke Bill and a bloody good salesman. Once more we struggle out to the vans knees bent laden with cartons of wine.

Woody rings the Mulwala police and the Info Centre and clarifies that we can visit the border bubble as long as we stay in NSW. We may as well get it over with and head home tomorrow leaving the Prado’s to spend a little longer at Barham.

We stop to stretch our legs at Jerilderie a normally busy town but even the popular bakery is closed. I look at the empty Newell Highway and think that I could probably dance a jig on the highway and not see a car. This is a grim sign of what we’re heading into.

We pull into the Finley Overnight Stop at the old sheep loading railway platform. This is a good overnighter with parks, an old station and adjacent gardens. It’s one block back from the Newell Highway, just behind the shops and it is dead, silent, and we count several minutes between each passing car. We won’t be complaining about noise here unless someone has a bloody rooster!

We set out our chairs beside the rusted railway line and have our last happy hour, number one hundred and twenty two. God, we’re going to miss this.

Accom: 0

Travelling Kms : 172kms