12th November - Deniliquin

Traveled from Gum Bend Lake to Deniliquin today, will stay here 4 nights before heading to Joy & Wayne's for Friday & Saturday nights. Hope to do a little Garage Sale shopping with Joy and maybe cook a roast for dinner.
Sunday 18th is the Morris Family Reunion at Tylden and then it is home on Monday 19th November.

This Blog is now finished.............................Has been a fantastic 6 weeks holiday

11th November - Gum Bend Lake (Condobolin)

Lovely, interesting day at the lake  today.  Started the morning listening to some strange noises coming from outside the van.  When I checked it out, it was a very strange old man from the old caravan next to ours trying to coax his "cat" out of the tree!!!!!!.  Later in the day I saw him walking the cat on a lead - it takes all sorts......
We sat beside the lake for the day watching the speed boats and skiers as well as jet skis on the lake for the day.  There was a Mother with her 4 kids in a Malibu Speed Boat out for the day skiing and wake boarding.  They had the music on the boat blarrrrring the kids were obviously loving it.

10th November - Keepit State Park (camp 328) - (Camp 1099) Gum Bend lake

Big day today......Trying to escape rain, cloudy skies and a very muddy camp spot at Lake Keepit.  traveled 540 kms today which I think is the biggest day we have done so far on this trip. We are now at Gum Bend Lake which is at Condobolin approx 100kms west of Parkes and supposedly "The Heart of NSW".  Traveled for a while on the Solar System Drive.  I love all these different "Drives".  It makes it very interesting to travel during the day trying to pick out all the different Billboards with maps of the solar system on them.  Fabulous spot at Gum Bend Lake.  A man made lake which has all the facilities you could possibly want and costs nothing, that's what I like......Will probably stay tonight and tomorrow night to have a good look around as well as a swim in the lake.

9th November –Camp 240 (Bonshaw Weir) –Keepit State Park (Camp 328)

Took some pictures of the really unusual gum tree where our caravan was parked for the night.  Looks like it fell over at some stage and started growing in quite a distorted way.  Looks very strange...

Overcast but not cold today as we leave camp 240 and head towards Uralla and another camp for tonight.  Once again we are on the back roads through Ashford, Inverell & Bundarra onto Uralla.  The road looks a little wet in patches but last night we could have counted the drops of rain that fell on the caravan roof. So it looks like we have just missed the rain for now. Spoke too soon, 9.30am and the rain has just started near Ashford and now have the wipers on for the first time on this trip!!!!!!  We are heading down a group of roads named “Thunderbolt’sWay” which is a nice quiet trip. Called into Tamworth for petrol and gas for the van and it is HOT.  Decided to travel on towards a camp just before Gunnedah when the skies opened up and it was unsafe to travel any further, so we pulled into a park at Keepit Weir for the night.  Very nice and well organised right beside the weir. Rain has now stopped and I think it will be quite pleasant for the evening.  Here’s hoping......

8th November – Camp 622 (Cecil Plains) – Camp 240 (Bonshaw Weir)

 Have spotted 2 rather large goannas crossing the road at different places today.  The second one looked as if it was about a metre long from tail to tip…Barry thinks a little shorter but he is wrong!!! What ever, it was huge…. We are heading down through Millmerran, Inglewood (where we stopped for a pie for MT), Limevale, Texas and then Bonshaw Weir for the night.  The road is very quiet and we have only passed 2 cars as well as a truck in 50 kms. (as well as the goannas) Lovely sunny day once again with a temp of about 30deg give or take.  Pulled into the camp early, we thought, but we are now just over the QLD border so have put our clocks forward an hour.  Barry has been down exploring the Weir wall and we have both then headed off up towards the bridge exploring.  The bridge is approx. 500mtrs downstream.  So we have put on our river shoes and walked back up the river towards the wall, cooling off in the fast flowing water on the down side of the weir wall.  Beautiful & Cool.  Only 3 other caravans in this camp and nowhere near a road so tonight will be very quiet.

7th November – Eidsvold Caravan Park – (Camp 622) Cecil Plains Apex Park

Car is due to be picked up around 9.30am and then we will head towards camp spot 622 which is on the Toowoomba –Cecil Plains Rd beside the Condamine River.  The trip should take us through Mundubbera, Brovinia (on hwy 75) down through Boondooma, Durong Sth, Jandowae, Dalby and then Cecil Plains.  Going the back roads again and bypassing Gayndah & Kingaroy as well as Toowoomba.  Looking forward to hitting the road again.  I am a little bored as there are absolutely no shops to look through and there is only so much walking you can do…….  The day is lovely and sunny and I don’t think it should get too hot.  Predicted to be 28 deg. YIPPPEEEE Barry has just arrived back with the car and we are packing….Barry is washing the car first, off course….!!!!! Then it is continuing our trip. 

The road between Dalby & Cecil Plains has crops of cotton on both sides of the road as well as wheat and hay.  As you drive along there are lots of cotton scraps along the side of the road that makes it look like snow, goes on for miles & miles.  We are camped just outside the fence of the Cecil Plains Homestead with a couple of other vans also pulled up for the night.  Tomorrow is down towards Texas at this stage.

6th November - HAYLEY'S 10th BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYLEY

Today is Hayley's 10th birthday, wish we were there to give her lots of hugs & kisses.

My beautiful "Dancing Queen"

4th November - Eidsvold Caravan park

Had a fairly heavy drop of rain last night.  It is still quite warm and judging by the ground you wouldn’t even know it had rained.  Barry will probably wash the caravan today although it appears to be a waste of time as we are under a huge big tree which is dropping quite a lot of seeds.  The birds love the seeds so there is also a bit of bird mess……..!!!!

Nice quiet day, went for a walk and then sat around the van playing computer games and having a sleep.  How sad.  It wasn't hot enough to go for a swim today although the pool was open, maybe tomorrow as it is predicted to get to 30 degrees. Also tomorrow will be when we find out how much damage has been done to the car and how much it will cost.  Fingers crossed we don't need to take out a second mortgage to pay for the repairs....

Have a close look at the photo - Barry has done a "modification"

3rd November - Eidsvold Caravan Park

Max & Carol were up bright and early this morning and have now headed for home.  We are now all by ourselves and decided to go for a wander around Eidsvold. (Mainly because Barry wanted to walk up to the RACQ Depot and look at the Patrol still on the back of the tray truck……!! ).  So far I have found an “Op Shop”…yippppee, but closed today and not open until Tuesday…so sad. We walked along a walking track and came upon a park with a heap of “Exercise Equipment” will try it out on alternate days…maybe!!! There is also a public pool on the next corner and it looks very nice and inviting.  (That maybe our Sunday time fill in). Happy Hour was over in the BBQ area with a couple from Switzerland (Heinz & Edith) as well as a couple from Bundaberg (Rosslyn & Peter).  Rosslyn is doing relief nursing at the local hospital.  There was also a lady traveling by herself, Norma, in a small motorhome.  All lovely people, it is quite amazing who you meet and what you see when you actually STOP and take a breath. We thought the Circus was coming to town but it turns out that there is a young couple here to teach kids acrobatics. They pulled their caravan into Max & Carol's site during the day and had a bit of trouble with the awning, so of course Barry is straight over there helping out.