Day 9 Friday 4/6/21 Darlington Point to Lake Cargelligo, grey cold wet 11

Cotton, rice, citrus, wine, the farms become more abundant as we approach Griffith. Handily, both Bunnings (hardware) and Aldi are on the Kidman and it’s easy to find parking. Veewee finds a caravan step and we stock up on groceries. As we’re keen to buy wine we skirt the CBD and head straight to De Bortoli Wines where we are quickly relieved of $200 or so by the super saleswoman, the one who attended to our needs last November when we came through here with The Prado’s. Once more we stock up on their $6 a bottle carton lots the ones that can’t be exported because of Covid and trade issues. Sorry Sweden, but we’ve got a couple of cases labelled for you.

There’s quality farmland after we leave the MIA, mainly acres of grain crops. As we reach Lake Cargelligo we see a large grain handling operation with an assortment of different silos. The town looks a little tired and tatty but that maybe because of the miserable, grey and cold weather that forces us to go straight to the caravan park. As we skirt the local sports oval the school sports are on. An elderly woman sits on her porch with a cuppa in hand watching the sports and wearing nothing but her pyjamas, I’ll bet the tough old bugger doesn’t even feel the cold.

The caravan park receptionist warns us about using the showers and to turn on the shower then wait 10 minutes. “Don’t worry about the waste, the council knows. It’ll be a hot shower” she tells us. Sadly, it’s one of those caravan parks that separates dog owners and we find ourselves on second rate sites with patchy red mud and tufts of grass rather than lawn. The poor old dog owners really get a raw deal. In the amenities blocks with the dodgy showers, towels have been flung at random on the floor to soak up the mud. Not a good look.

The weather is so miserable that only Woody is brave enough to walk into town and that’s to buy ice for his Friday night bourbon. We hunker indoors for happy hour and sample the De Bortoli Tempranillo, yep, it’s good and worth more than the 6 bucks we paid for it. God, were longing for warm weather. Dinner? A warming laksa knocked together with two prepackaged ones and with the addition of prawns, noodles and a few bits and bobs. Most surprisingly it actually works.

Towing Kms: 167kms

Accom: $30.00