Day 3 – Gunnedah to Miles (Qld)

With a tinge of sadness we left Gunnedah, so many memories, so little time to reminisce! I showed Ness a few of the important bits. But will definitely have to come back and show her the rest of my home town. I’ll bring the boys back & we will have a Gunnedah holiday.

 We are starting to get back into our caravan routine, it’s funny how you can adapt to different environments very quickly. When we arrive at our destination for the day, Ness has her tasks & I have mine. We can go from arriving at a site to having the van hooked up to power, water.... Having the digital TV tuned in & the air conditioner on & then setting up Ness’s outdoor chair & grabbing the obligatory Beer & relaxing for a few minutes at a totally different location! It is an awesome way of life, such a pity people usually leave it until they are “Old” before they do it. I reckon it would be great for a family to do this.

 Boring!... that is the only way I can describe today’s drive, there is not much between Gunnedah & Miles, the drive out of Gunnedah is mainly paddocks full of crops, cows or nothing! But it is soooooo GREEN! Those of you from Melbourne will struggle to remember what the colour green looks like, but up in northern NSW & QLD they have had heaps of rain & it is lush as! If only my grass at home was this green.

 No wildlife escapades today, saw a blue tongue lizard but that was it apart from a couple of emu’s & heaps of cows (or Coo’s as us Scottish people say) managed to avoid the blue tongue though.

 Went through Boggabri, Narrabri, saw the turn off to Collarenebri.... obviously someone has a penchant for Bri names! We also went through Moree which has natural hot thermal springs, awesome!

 After Moree the road turns to crap! Bumpy & potholed, really rough in some patches! Apparently the problem is that a lot of these roads are built on black soil, which has a tendency to subside in places, so we spent about 3 hours today rattling around inside the Discovery, glad to get out of the car really.

 Hot chocolate report, today we played it safe! Bought our HC’s from Macca’s (no carpet on the floor) $8.60 for 2 HC’s Hope my accountant can find a way to claim $8.60 7 days a week for 4 months?

 Which brings me to something else! Do any of you NOT drink milk? I mean cow’s milk? My darling wife is one of the few people I know that does not drink milk. (apparently there is someone named Box in Dubai that has this weird habit too!) She will only drink SOY milk. 

Can you imagine what it would be like to pull up at a truck stop in somewhere like Narrabri or Boggabri, go up to the counter amongst half a dozen singlet wearing truckies & ask if they can do a SOY Latte’ or a SOY hot chocolate!.... I’m going to get bashed!

 At the caravan park last night there was a couple travelling with their dog.... made me think of Panda, I miss her already! She is staying with family but I’ll be happy to see her in June.

We pulled into the Miles caravan park & Ness jumped out to book us in, the office is a small portable building & has double doors at the front which were wide open, I could see in from the car. The guy behind the counter was carrying a few extra kilo’s..... lets say about 120 or so extra kilo’s! He dumped a basket of washing on the counter & turned to Ness & said “just park your van & come back later!”

 Ness asked me to come back with her after we had the van set up, the guy introduced himself as Ron Howard, I thought of a few things I could say but held back! He told us he is flat out with Cabin rentals. For those of you who don’t know this area is going through a mining boom. There are plans to open new mines & coal seam gas plants up here. There is no accommodation for the workers so this guy is making a killing with his cabin rentals. (There is a message hidden in here for Jodie & Daz... buy property NOW!!!)

 Things that made us laugh today

• A guy on an antique ride on lawnmower, seriously this thing was old!
• An elderly couple on the main road in matching electric scooters, they were riding side by side..... hilarious
• The art gallery in Goondiwindi! A local artist does 2cm X 2cm watercolours of sheep & cows & wants $130 a pop for them... She’s dreamin!
• Ron Howard
• Ness talking to herself whilst trying to do crosswords
• How green it is up here

 Until next time

Au Revoir

James

Day 2 – West Wyalong to Gunnedah

Had a great night in West Wyalong the master chef (my wife) threw together some chicken, rice, olives, butter beans & made a magnificent bacon, chilli, Basil & white wine tomato base. Yum! Anyone who wants the recipe (Brad) just email Ness. I guess one day we will start using the hundreds of cans we are carrying with us

 Slept like logs, the caravan is really comfy. Still annoyed that I could not watch all of Bear Grills though! Hopefully better TV  reception in Gunnedah.

 Jumped into the shower, now most of you know we have our own shower & toilet in the van.... But when we are in a caravan park we use their facilities (saves using our water) now I have not stayed at a caravan park since before Christmas so I had forgotten the joys of communal bathing!

 The guy that was showering in the cubicle next to me was seriously dying! He was coughing, spluttering, spitting & farting like I have never heard before! There was a gap between his cubicle & mine, I kept checking to make sure no foreign objects were floating into my space! Think ill start using the van shower.

 The Discovery is performing well, (Thanks very much Egg!) I looked at the speedo at one stage today & we were actually doing 103 Km/hr.

 On the way out of West Wyalong we decided we needed a treat, the local bakery was open & I found a car park nearby..... which by the way is another thing, it is hard enough to find a car park these days, you should try it when you have 21 foot of caravan behind you!

Anyhow I found a park, Ness only had to walk a few hundred meters to the bakery!

 When Vanessa came back with the Hot Chocolates (they were not real flash.... so next time you pass through W.W. give the bakery a miss!) She said that she had just seen something strange..... I was expecting her to tell me that there was a guy in a dress, or a farmer kissing his sheep.... but no, she said that the bakery had carpet on the floor! What the!!!!

 We then spent the next hour or so in the car drinking crappy Hot Chocolates & discussing why you would have carpet on the floor of a bakery.... Gees! We are only on day 2!

 Driving out of West Wyalong we were amazed at how many motels there are, can anyone shed any light on why there are so many motels in W.W.? it is a farming town in the middle of no where!

 A couple of highlights on the drive were the Elvis museum in Parkes (Egg you have to get up here, maybe a future trip when you buy that new 4WD?) The Dish just outside Parkes, and for me personally I came across a yard fully fenced off with an amazing assortment of old rusting out cars.... (Russell .... there were FC’s EK’s HR’s HK’s HT’s HG’s even a HG the same colour as mine!).... its just wrong, they are just wasting away... I nearly cried!

 The drive for me today was awesome, especially as we got closer to Gunnedah, for those of you who don’t know I grew up in Gunnedah & my dad is buried there, so I was firstly excited about showing Ness my old stomping ground & also catching up with my dad & introducing him to my wife. (I know, sounds a bit weird huh?)

 We came through Coonabarabran, & then Mullaley where one of my best mates lives, we rang him (on the last number I had for him) but he was not home so we continued on to Gunnedah.

 We were being followed closely by a large delivery van & doing between 70 & 95 Km/h (depending on gradient) and we were coming down a hill at a good speed when an echidna started to walk across into our lane!!!

 Now all up I am guessing we are close to 6 tonnes! & we are articulated so the last thing I want to do is swerve sharply. The echidna by now has heard us coming & is starting to panic. It was in the middle of the lane & I had to decide whether to go right or left. I chose Left & put my two left wheels over the line but not off the road, we went past where the echidna was & was relieved to see it in my rear vision mirror after the caravan had passed!

 But I then watched in horror as the van decided to go right & squashed the poor little bugger!

 Hahaha!... no just kidding, the van went into the right hand lane & missed it too! Bet the echidna soiled its spikes!

 Got to Gunnedah & unhooked the van, headed straight to the cemetery. Dad has not moved (lazy bastard) but we still struggled to find his plot! Ness & I were covering different rows with no success so I eventually rang my sister for advice.... She did not have a clue so put me on to my brother in law Brad, his advice was useless (thanks anyway Brad) but we eventually found him.

 Had a few moments with him & we even took a couple of pics, he has not aged in 17 years!

 Then did a bit of a town tour & showed Vanessa some of the good & bad bits of Gunnedah. That took about 5 minutes!..... no really it was great fun sharing some of my old stories.

 We had to go shopping at the local woollies store, I waited outside while Ness went in, after a couple of minutes I had to grab a newspaper & hide my face... I was surprised at how many people I knew coming in & out of the supermarket!... I kept peeking over the top thinking... “ I know him... or I know her!”  I didn’t want anyone to know I was in town! Doesn’t anyone “Move on” anymore?

 Anyway back in the van, tonight’s dish is Risotto with fresh salmon, lemon, chilli,  & fresh rocket lettuce...... Mmmmm Looks like the cans travel another 500km with us!!!

 Anyone know where I can find Bear Grills DVD’s?

Sayonara till tomorrow.....James

Day 1 - Dixons Creek to West Wylong

Hello family, friends & people we know. Well the time has finally arrived, today we departed our beautiful home (Saltbush) and headed off on the first day of our four month adventure.

 The time since the wedding has been spent mainly cleaning, organising things for when we are away & packing for the trip. Most of you will have packed for a weekend away or even an extended holiday, but imagine what you would take with you for 4 whole months!

 Our LandRover has a towing capacity of 3.5 tonnes, I reckon we are pushing pretty close to the limit. Vanessa has wondered over the last week why I get frustrated when she asks “James can I take another pair of shoes?”.... She already has 10 pairs in the Van!... we are staying in caravan parks in remote areas, not the Hilton in the city!

 Do you know how much a can of beans, soup, or tomatoes weighs? A bloody lot! Especially if you have 20 or 30 of them in your caravan cupboard! But I’m not complaining..... when the Discovery is struggling up the hills at 60Km/h with 15 cars stuck behind us all screaming that caravans should be banned from the road.... I’m thinking.... “Can’t wait till dinner tonight”

Yesterday we went to bed early & decided that we would leave by 8am, well we actually drove out at 1030am, best laid plans.....

 The trip was fairly uneventful... got my CB radio stuck on channel 40 (the truckie channel)... The truckies are a good source of road information, But some of the conversations are “Colourful”.... I reckon truckies are the only people who can manage to fit the “F” word 5 times into a 10 word sentence!

 The only idiot we saw today was on a narrow country road who proceeded to overtake us on double yellow lines on a left hand bend (there was no way he could see what was coming) Dickhead! (Apologies to mum & Sandy for the language)

 We are sitting in the van at West Wyalong  tonight, they have a DC3 parked on a pole out the front! What the!....  we took a new GPS with us, I’m not happy with it! for those of you who have one of these gadgets you will know that you can choose the voice that gives you instructions. Ours does not give you much of a choice..... we had Mandy who speaks in an American accent on for a while but she was annoying, we then chose Ken from Australia... who actually speaks in quite a posh English accent..... but guess what, our GPS unit has the capability to record your own voice!.... so watch this space, Ness & I are going to record real OZZIE GPS voices, Shazza & Bazza from Yarra glen, we will do your GPS if you like? Just think “Slow down ya dickhead!”.... or “Turn around peanut”

 Do you know that our van has a digital antenna on the roof, great for anywhere that has digital TV! Not real good in West Wyalong, my favourite TV show is on tonight.... Man VS Wild, I can hear the sound but the picture is not good..... how am I supposed to learn how to rescue me & Vanessa if I can’t watch Bear Grills (yes his real name) & learn my survival tactics!

 Ok, might have to ditch Bear Grills & watch a DVD.... will probably put on an episode of Top Gear & watch Jeremy & his team drive exotic cars at way  over the speed limit..... will keep me going throughout tomorrow when we sit in the car with 3.5 tonnes of caravan (or should I say 1.5 tonnes of van & 2 tonnes of Vanessa’s stuff!) struggling along at 80k/hr

Adios till tomorrow, James.

James and Vanessa get married!!!

Yes on the 26th Jan James and I tied the knot in an absolutley fanatastic cermony and wedding party at Fergussson winery.

Thank you to everyone that helped us celebrate this amazing day!  We had a ball and are still grinning from ear to ear.

Hope to have a bunch of photos uploaded very soon.

Cheers VWx

Tassie Adventures

This month Vanessa & I went to Tasmania, I had some work in Hobart and in Rosebery, we came across on the boat & brought the car & mountain bikes. This place is beautiful.

Vanessa is working from the lodge we are staying at & i am going to the minesite for work. ill put some photos on the website when i have a minute.

see you soon...... J&V