Day 3 - Narrandera to Narrabri - Tuesday 30th April
From one NAR spelled place to another - must be because I was born in one.... (Nar Nar Goon North). 655km of driving today and not much else.
The weather forecast for Narrandera was for 26C and for Narrabri was 28C so we broke out the shorts but soon regretted it as the weather en route was cool and often rainy, hovering around 16C and dipping to 13C. Tassie weather, as the cheerful manager at the Mid City Motor Inn here in Narrabri told me. He did work in Launnie for 19 months so he knows a little about our weather.
Our morning tea stop was in West Wyalong - a town we have frequented a lot in recent years. For lunch, we pushed through to Dubbo, to our favourite Chinese winemaker at Red Earth Vineyard just south of Dubbo. His wine is OK but the family's dumplings are worth the stop. We stopped there up and back last December because we like them so much. He remembers us every time we come in too! For our new caravanning friends reading this, they take campers out the back too - cheaper than anything else in Dubbo!
We arrived in Narrabri just on dusk and good thing I had booked this morning because as of this evening, there was not one motel room to be had in the town. And it is a decent sized town too! Their accommodation occupancy figures must be high (tourism speak).
Cheap and cheerful soup for dinner in our room because of our big and late lunch and then a rest.
Days 1 & 2 - Bangor to Narrandera (NSW) - Saturday 27th - Monday 29th April 2024
It's a balmy 26C on the shores of Lake Talbot, in Narrandera NSW. A pleasant enough cabin in a caravan park that we have called home for 2 nights because I had to work today.
On Saturday, we left home in the capable hands of Wayne and Heather who we really enjoyed getting to know since ANZAC Day. It was such a late sailing on Saturday night that we were left wondering what to do to fill in our time! We had dinner in Devonport, watched the Spirit come in and eventually headed to the dock at 9:30pm. After check in, we found our friends Trina and David (tasteful people who own the same kind of caravan as us) in the queue and had a chat before they were called to board. We were much later than them, to the point where I was worried we were going to be last on! Once on board, it was straight to bed for us. And what a calm sailing it was - if those beds were comfortable it would have been a delightful night's sleep. Even better, because we weren't woken at sparrow o'clock the next morning! In fact, we even fitted in a coffee catch up with Trina and David before we were called to our respective decks. Due to a problem with one of the loading ramps in Geelong, we actually had to elevate within the ship (ie. do circles around the decks and up ramps) to get to Deck 5 (we were on deck 3) which took at least half an hour longer than normal so we were late meeting Neill and Jude for breakfast.
A delicious breakfast and a good catch up later - and lessened the load in the Landcruiser by 1kg after giving N&J their coffee - we were on the road. We didn't get far before a fuel stop and to put some air in the tyres but then our travels had us heading north as the temperatures increased. By 5pm, we thought we'd better find a supermarket as we needed a few dinner ingredients and at that rate, we wouldn't get to Narrandera until 7pm. We just missed the closing of the IGA in Tocumwal but Google said the IGA in Finley was open until 8pm. Sadly, the internet lies as it too was closed. So it was for Narrandera we were bound, the last hour and a half in the dark seriously avoiding the large roos, arriving at about 7:15pm. Lo and behold, this civilised town has a Coles - which was still open. A quick dash in and we were stocked before heading to our pre-booked cabin where the front light had been left on for us. A quick dinner to fill our tummies before bed for two tired rabbits.
Waking this morning to the pretty sight of Lake Talbot, we had our traditional cuppas in bed before I had to get ready for a day of online meetings. The service is not great here so I hit the park manager up for the boss' WIFI password and if I sat outside close to the office block, it worked OK. And so was my next 6 hours. Followed by a radio interview with the ABC and then I was truly on holidays. A nice dinner at a more respectable hour tonight and we'll hit the road again tomorrow for a few more kilometres.
