We’re in a tiny speck of a town in the middle of NSW, just a few houses and a pub. Making conversation we ask the barmaid how far it is to Sydney. “Ten hours darl” she replies. Doesn’t anyone count kilometres out here? Continue reading An odd way to measure distance
A bunch of us drive over to Fisherman’s Landing cafe at Balgal Beach for lunch. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, the cafe is a few hundred metres from our caravan but it is a 14km drive away owing … Continue reading Fisherman’s Landing, Balgal Beach
A few kilometres off the Grafton road and hidden in the forest is a little dot of a town called Rappville. There are a hundred or so residents and of course being in the forest it all began with timber … Continue reading Rappville Hotel, you’ve gotta love it
The Hebel general store is famous for its pies but we are a little early. The old girl was built in 1897 and the wooden floors are worse than the road, where the floor has given way altogether there are large metal patches. Just to get to the counter in the rear to place your order one must walk up hill, then down and up again, one wonders if they’ve ever contemplated re stumping. We’re concerned about the shortcut road across to Nindigully but the waitress assures us that it is a bit rough and skinny but ok. Oh Good. Morning … Continue reading Hebel
We camp beside the Barwon River near Walgett around lunch time. We have a nice view of the river. Views are not for our mate though she parks back down the track with the van in a clearing and facing north. That’s north to pick up the satellite signal and clear of overhanging gum trees. After much grumbling and cursing the signal is finally located and she retreats to her van. We spend the afternoon sitting beside our van catching up on the Saturday papers, reading quietly in the sun entertained by the distant sounds of a footy tragic shouting … Continue reading To View or Not to View
At Jondaryan Woolshed on the Darling Downs of Queensland we don our winter woollies and gum boots and join a bunch of Japanese school kids, teenagers, for a sheep shearing demonstration using hand shears. The poor old sheep is being shorn for the first time and doesn’t utter a single baa. Interesting to us is that all discussion by the teachers is in English and there is a bit of English instruction bandied about “one lamb, two lambs, one sheep, two sheep, no S.” Then we learn that if a sheep is shorn with wet wool the wool will self … Continue reading A Lesson in Ovine Plurals
The Jondaryan Woolshed was built between 1859 and 1861 and was once part of the Jondaryan Estates pastoral empire which in the 1890’s encompassed 300,000 acres and was the largest freehold station in Queensland. Nowadays it’s a working museum run … Continue reading Not Your Average Caravan Park
The red soil of the outback is known as bull dust. It’s red, it’s very fine and once it gets into your car, caravan or even a suitcase it’s almost impossible to clean out. ‘Caravanner’ drives the inland road through WA in the brand new van. He complains to the missus that it’s not dust proof like the old one before realising that he left the roof hatch open causing the dust to be sucked in through the vent at the bottom of the door and out through the roof. They’re still getting the dust out a year later. Continue reading A Load of Bull Dust
There is a stand of bushland at the back of the caravan park at Mulambin near Yeppoon in Queensland and an emu strolls in for breakfast. We later learn that his mate was killed on the road some time ago … Continue reading The Emu at Mulambin
