Tuesday - Day 14 - 9 May 2023

This is the view as I'm writing the blog this afternoon. We are staying at a motel in Kempsey - we've stayed here before and only once have we not had a room on the river front. We love the view, the serenity and, hopefully, wildlife and a moon rise later this afternoon/evening. There used to be a jetty here and one night we fished and kept hooking eels (not our favourite) and on the last casts Sooz had something large - which she kept hoping would flip itself off as eels do, and we shone the torch over to look, just in time to see the biggest flathead she had ever hooked jumping off her line. As she said, as we were remembering it on the drive in today, it was good it got away because there was nothing we could have done with it anyway!

We left Bulahdelah at around 10 this morning, after breakfast at Robyn's Cafe, the #1 restaurant (of 4) according to Trip Advisor. It was good, and a bit quirky, which we always take as a good sign. We listened to a program on the ABC yesterday afternoon which talked about "cash or card" and which you prefer, and were there any places that didn't take either. Well, just as well I still had some cash left over from the trip because Robyn's Cafe only does cash or direct debit. The direct debit wouldn't have been an issue, but I was glad I had cash. And glad I had a bit more so I could help the woman whose coffee was made before mine - she thought she had some cash secreted away in her wallet, but she did not. I'll shout you one, I told her, and after some protestations on her part, she let me. The woman behind the counter told her to make sure she payed it forward!

The only disappointment at breakfast this morning was that I could hear the jets from Williamtown base roaring somewhere overhead, but I could not see them. Did the tea party on the lawn, the assorted tea pots behind the counter, the giant koala and the tiger seat make up for it ... a little.

 

Our next stop was Nabiac, not that far up the road. It's cute but it would have been cuter if all the arts and crafts stores had been open so we could have a longer look at - and seen a bigger selection - of what was on offer. One of the stores is opened only a couple of days a week, staffed by volunteers, and quite quaint.

We were in Kempsey by 1pm, too early to check in to our motel, so we parked underneath Kempsey Central, were amazed by the mural there, and went upstairs to see what else the centre had to offer. The Depot overlooks the river, and that's where we had lunch - but not before we saw the lamb (real! ) in a shopping cart down the other end of the centre. Who knew they could be so loud close up - and we wondered if it was louder because it was just across from the butcher! They have a cinema in the complex and they are playing "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3" - which we are seeing with friends on Thursday and luckily managed to resist the urge to fall in to see it today!

 There was no more snow today, but the day did start with a Telstra mobile phone outage. I managed to fix mine by turning Airplane Mode off and on (always good for making sure you are connected to a tower) and this was the fix they were recommending to customers - as I found out later today when I read an article about the outage. My sister had the same issue and I recommended she do that as well - although I did first ask her if she had turned the phone on and off again - which would have had the same effect.

I was hoping to see the moon rise over the river tonight but it is a bit overcast so that's not a goer ... but the stars are amazing!

Did I mention that we loved our dinner at the Bulahdelah Motor Lodge restaurant last night? Yes, I know we were rushing a little to make sure we didn't miss MasterChef but the steak and parmesan mash was lovely, especially when followed with lemon meringue tart!

Monday - Day 13 - 8 May 2023

We knew it was going to be a big driving day today - but we had absolutely no idea that it would also be a "huge" day because we saw SNOW! 

Snow day! 

We left Orange at 8am and I admit I was a bit disappointed that it hadn't snowed overnight - it certainly felt cold enough that it could have ... but no, when I looked out at first light this morning, the car park was still black.  Do car parks get covered with snow?  They must, if roads do.  But, back to today - there was no snow in Orange but it was still cold - 2 degrees C, and Ravi was still warning about the possibility of black ice on the road.  We were careful. Especially when we saw the road signs warning of snow (drat!) and ice.  

It wasn't until we were nearing Lithgow that we noticed the hills in the distance seemed to be white on top.  Snow?  Why, yes it was, and we were soon driving with snow on either side of the road.  Thanks to the dash cam and that it takes photos as well as videos, we were able to get some pictures.  We were also able to hear our excitement "Look at that! look at that! It's snow! " - over and over again (without replaying the video).  Our friend M may have noticed our excitement as well when she rang to see if we had encountered any cold weather in our travels. 

We took the opportunity of being within range of telephone towers to make some phone calls as we drove - but we should have kept them for when we were stuck in traffic near the Hexham Bridge for forty minutes or so.  I blame myself for us being in the traffic jam.  I had seen the sign saying there had been an accident and that traffic was reduced to one lane only - but wasn't sure where it was.  When Waze tried to direct me away from the way I knew, I resisted ... that was my mistake - especially since the one lane of traffic was when six or seven lanes merged.  Aaarrrgghhhhh.  We were pleased that the accident hadn't involved us and didn't seem to be too serious - we didn't see or hear any ambulance sirens in the area - and also that we were only an hour or so from our destination when the traffic pulled to a standstill. 

The good news is that we were still at Bulahdelah by 4:30pm, not a bad effort for the drive for the day.  I had had enough by the time we arrived and was happy to have a break before we took ourselves to dinner in the Motel's restaurant at 6:30.  

I'm not saying we rushed dinner but we were back in our room for the start of Night 2 of MasterChef.  We watched the start of the season last night in Orange - including The Project's tribute to Jock Zonfrillo (the  MasterChef judge who died the week before this season was due to start).  It looks like they have a good crop of contestants so we are looking forward to watching this season.  

I spent some time this afternoon going through the dash cam footage from the last few days of the trip and will put the best ones onto the photo blog - as a way of remembering the parts of our Silo Art Trail Tour which weren't Silo Art. 

It will be a short drive tomorrow - we are off to Kempsey where we will stay at one of our favourite motels.  Hopefully I will get the opportunity to take the camera out for a walk around the town and down by the river. 

Sunday - Day 12 - 7 May 2023

West Wyalong

You know you're back in New South Wales when the metal public toilet bowls don't have plastic seats - one of the features we loved in Victoria. You can really feel the difference especially when the temperature is around 11 degrees C (Forbes NSW). Thank goodness it wasn't any colder because anything could have happened!

 
It was colder at our stop for the night though. The temperature was 3 degrees C as we drove into Orange - and the person who checked us into the motel said we were lucky we missed the sleet. Wow! That explains why Ravi warned us of the possibility of black ice on the road - who knew there was even a little dash icon for that? I took heed - and turned the Cruise Control off. It has been unseasonably cold in NSW today - there has been snow in the ski fields, and on the streets of Canberra - where we were this time last week. I don't mind not having to drive on snow - although you never know what tomorrow morning will bring here in Orange! Part of me wants it to snow overnight ... it's okay we have the heater cranked right up for the night - the other part of me thinks it will be very cold packing the car in the morning if we have to crunch through snow!

Lions guarding the plane @ West Wyalong

There were some very demanding drivers on the roads between Narrandera and Orange today. At one point we had someone riding almost on our back bumper so at the very first opportunity, I pulled to the side so he could overtake - and the person behind him - and then they proceeded to go slower than us for the next 20km. Hmmmmm. Mind you, part of that was though "not" road works, and we've decided we will speak with our friend Syl to ask her what the go is when there isn't road works happening in road works zone - what's the allowed speed limit. If anyone will know, it will be her.

We almost went to another Silo for art today but it turned out to be a bit far off our beaten track - and we've decided we will come back to Weethalle another day - probably when we go to the Wildlife Centre (Zoo) at Darlington Point.

Forbes Fountain

We had to have a laugh at the sign as we entered the Bland Shire - "Far From Dull and Boring". We liked it, especially when we found the sign that explained that Bland Shire had teamed with the towns of Dull (in Scotland) and Boring (Oregon USA) to form the League of Extraordinary Communities. This sign was in front of a Royal Australian Air Force plane which seems to have been in the West Wyalong park for quite a while!

We lunched in Forbes - and while it wasn't incredibly inspiring, it did hold us over until dinner. Breakfast was better - Sooz found Cafe Shazaray in Narrandera on Trip Advisor - it had a good review - and it looked like the locals had heard about it too because it was packed.

Saturday - Day 11 - 6 May 2023

We left our motel twice this morning - once to get some photos of the Silo Art, and then to get a coffee before we left Sea Lake; the second to return to motel key. Thank goodness I found it in my pocket before we left Sea Lake - I don't think I would have wanted to retrace our steps from our next stop - Swan Hill. 

We are not sure about Swan Hill - we could see no hill and we saw no swans - so we're thinking they could rename it Swanless Flats. Of course, the swans may have migrated to England to be with their official owner - newly-crowned King Charles who apparently owns all swans that aren't tagged (ie wearing a leg ring). We watched the Coronation from our motel room in Narrandera - well, Sooz did, I went outside a couple of times to see the almost full moon.

The drive down from Sea Lake was almost 6 hours by the time we stopped along the way for refreshments, pit stops, sightseeing and photographs. You never know what you're going to see along the way. Who knew there was a painted water tank (well two) at Hay? We only found it while we were looking for something to eat which wasn't Service Station Food.

And who knew there was something called the Altina Wildlife Park (at Darlington Point, near Narrandera) which has native and exotic animals - and which you can tour in a horse-drawn cart I want to say it's where the deer and the antelope play, and they do, but there is so much more there including rhinos, lions and giraffes. We may need to pass this way again! We noticed it because of the large giraffe statues at their front gate - which, alas, was closed! They weren't the first giraffes we had seen today - there was one, we call it Pebbles, across the road from the painted silos at Sea Lake.  Click here to see pics of the Silos and other sights from today. 

And while we liked Pebbles, I was even happier with the Giant Murray Cod at Swanless Flats. It is a whopper! It also meant that we were about to cross the border into NSW. We have loved Victoria (I am a great fan of their roads which leave some of the pot-hole holders we travelled on last April for dead! )

I heard back from Liz at the motel in Horsham - I had done a review of their new wireless chargers (actually a Bauhn not a Bauer) - and she thanked me and said she hoped we found one - which we did at Aldi in Swanless Flats. The challenge is whether we leave it in its box until we get home - or start using it along the way! The latter me thinks.

 
We stayed up later than usual waiting for the flypast for the Coronation - 68 aircraft from different vintages which had been carefully choreographed and scheduled for the flypast, mustering over the North Sea - that was the plan anyway, but wet weather put an end to that so, for safety reasons, there were helicopters and the Red Arrows trailing their red, white and blue smoke. Spectacular!

Friday - Day 10 - 5 May 2023

It was crisp but clear when we left our motel in Dimboola this morning. What a pretty town! We had heard of it, of course, through the Jack Hibberd play - and because we know someone who grew up here ... but that's about all. Little did we know it was the gateway to the Little Desert (National Park) - and we can't wait for this to come up as a question in Trivia.

We had breakfast at the Dimboola Store - which lived up to its review with a massive Egg and Bacon Roll and a very nice coffee. We have been pleasantly surprised by the coffees in regional Victoria - especially Naked roast which has a wonderful nutty flavour. Yes, yes, I know we packed a coffee machine for the trip - and now have the new milk frother - and we are still using them - but it's harder to pull them out and use them during the day.

And speaking of a lack of power points ... we have noticed that there don't often seem to be powerpoints on the left-hand side of beds in motel rooms where we've stayed. Hmmmm. I know this because I would usually need to plug a CPAP machine in - and it would be difficult to run an extension cord to the nearest powerpoint in some of the rooms we've had. Thank goodness for the travel CPAP machine - complete with battery - which can easily last a night of sleep. It has certainly taken some of the stress out of travelling without power points.

We saw only two silos today - at Patchewollock which also had two large Mallee Fowls near the silo - and at Albacutya - which, quite surprisingly, turned out to be just outside of Rainbow (which made for a great photo opportunity! ) Other pics from today's travels can be accessed by clicking this link.

So far we've travelled over 3,000km since we left home - and given that we start our trip home tomorrow, we may end up with a total round trip figure of about 5,000 km. We have enjoyed the roads in Victoria - and can't help comparing them with the roads we travelled in NSW around this time last year - where there were more potholes than roads in some of the secondary and tertiary roads.

The rain stayed away all of today, but we were thinking they need it at Lake Tyrrell which was all but dry when we drove past there this afternoon on the way to Sea Lake. The book "Lake Tyrrell - an ever changing landscape" was in our motel room tonight and Anne Morley has taken some fantastic photographs of the Lake in various seasons/conditions/times of days. It was interesting to see the salt crust and formations in the Lake.

I have decided that I don't know enough about Australian farming - agriculture or husbandry. We have seen so many crops this trip that we have no idea what they are. And there are so many questions: do sheep for shearing or eating have different coloured fleeces? How much of the hay/lucerne produce from Victoria is sent to other destinations around Australia or overseas?

It's raining in Sea Lake tonight so that means I couldn't get a photo of the full moon rising over ... anything. Hopefully we will have more luck tomorrow night.

Thursday - Day 9 - 4 May 2023

It was another busy day on the Silo Art Trail, starting from Horsham. We didn't even have to leave town before we saw our first Silo Art; the person who served me at the Pharmacy told me there was a silo near her place (just down the road) which had been painted a few months back - so following her directions, we arrived there in a couple of minutes. We were stunned by the Black Cockatoo and the mural depicting the rescue of Jane "Duff" and her two brothers in August 1864 who had been lost for 9 days on the edge of the Little Desert after being sent out by their mother to find firewood. They were eventually found 10km from home, after having wandered for about 100km - in a large circle, thanks to the efforts of three black trackers who were brought in after the "whitefeller" search ended after a rainstorm washed out the children's tracks.

During their time in the bush, the older brother kept climbing trees trying to see Mount Arapiles, hoping that would help them get their bearings. We passed by Mount Arapiles today and it was quite impressive, rising high above the surrounding territory - if you're close enough, and if you can get high enough in the shrub that would have covered all the area way back when the kids were lost.

As we left Horsham today the odometer read 2668 km - and we added a few more hundred kilometres before we pulled in to Dimboola for the night. Today saw us at Edenhope (for bird murals), at Goroke (silo art - birds), Kaniva (silo art - birds; Sheep Art Trail) and Arkona (silo art - the invisible man with tennis gear). We are absolutely in awe of the talent and expertise of the painters of the silo art! The attention to detail is stunning - and that they can keep the perspective of the work as they wrap the bird/person/whatever around a rounded silo is nothing short of stunning! To see shots from today - click this link. 

One of the issues we have at motels is having enough light so we can move around non-familiar rooms if we need to get up in the night. At the motel last night we were offered to test drive a new device they are looking to put in their rooms - it was a Bauer twin wireless phone charger with adjustable night light and alarm clock radio. We liked it very much! Sooz wants to get one just for the night light - which really did the job last night - although I kind of missed sleeping with the bathroom light on.

I'll have to look at our route for tomorrow because the two-day itinerary I worked out the other night is done. We're due in Sea Lake for tomorrow night - and we have a couple of silos still to see on the way - so I'll look to see if we can stay on B roads - the C roads aren't that bad, but the B roads are definitely better. We were on some C roads today and we definitely had to do "two on two off" with some of the trucks that came belting down the roads towards us.  

I have been meaning to say that I am very impressed with the promotional material available for the Silo Art and surrounding towns.   It makes planning your trip much easier! 

It was good seeing wind farms in the distance today - although I really would love to see them close up.

Wednesday - Day 8 - 3 May 2023

We were looking forward to a relaxing breakfast in Sea Lake this morning - either at the Top Cafe or the Bottom Cafe, depending on which looked as though it had the nicest fare. Well, that didn't happen. Who knew they would be doing something with the electricity in the main street - meaning no-one was trading along that strip - certainly not the cafes - Top or Bottom. You'll find something at Lascelles, someone suggested - and since it was only 30km up the road, that seemed doable - and would have been if we could have found a place that was open. So, off we went to the next stop of the Silo Art trail - Woomelang. It did have a cafe - but not a sit-down one - unless you wanted to sit out with the snake in the very cold wind - we had toasted sandwiches (ham and cheese; ham and tomato) but they were eaten in the car, where we had parked outside the cafe. They weren't the worst sandwiches we've ever had; the coffee was good.

The day was fine and sunny - and did I mention there was a bit of a wind (read: gale). I have been feeling a bit guilty that I hadn't spent more time practicisng with the drone because I had wanted to use it to get higher POV shots of the silos, but it has worked out because there's no way I could put the drone up in these winds - I wouldn't want to see it swept away, never to be seen again.

Speaking of winds, we have been fortunate enough to see a few wedge-tailed eagles riding the winds not far from some of the roads we've been on - and today there was one over the silo at Sheep Hills.

 
We made the wrong choice for lunch today. We were in one of the small towns, feeling a bit peckish and decided not to have the mobile diner's LAMB SHANK AND VEGETABLE SOUP, opting instead for a nearby cafe. Big mistake. By the time we realised we could have the soup for dinner (we have a YETI cup big enough for a couple of serves) they were closed!

You never know what you are going to find on the road.  Today as we were having a quick look for other facilities, we found Christmas Lane - complete with manger, tyre Christmas tree, reindeer and baubles! 

Also on the road today - several sets of roadworks.  We were impressed with one of them - with traffic lights - and a countdown timer  which when we saw it was 6 we hoped was seconds, but was actually in minutes.  What a great idea.  It certainly seemed more efficient that the gentleman we'd seen earlier with the traffic control paddle (stop/slow) who just let it fall to the ground as we drove past.- no need to hold that up anymore ... job done! 

The silos we've seen today have been amazing. I'm just sorry that we missed the newest one - at Murtoa. We stopped in there to see the Stick Shed which used to be used for storing grain but which hasn't been used since 1989. 

The newest Silo on the trail has just been finished somewhere in Murtoa - and I'm thinking about whether we backtrack to see it. That will be a decision for tomorrow - and it would be an easier one if we didn't have about 300km to drive tomorrow without that detour. Hmmmm.

We are in a very comfortable motel (with a slightly larger room) in Horsham tonight. We were lucky that the Guest Laundry was free because we were able to get our washing done and dried this afternoon - which is a relief because we were down to our last clean changes. Life on the road is good!

For more photos from today:  click on this link. 

Tuesday - Day 7 - 2 May 2023

It was a good day - with the start of our tour of the North-East Victorian Silo Art Trail, starting from Benalla. The four installations we saw were within 30km of Benalla - and they are amazing! I had seen photos of them, so I knew what to expect (although I was still blown away) while Sooz had no idea what to expect. I wish I could have seen the look on her face as we drove in to the first town and she saw the Kestrel painted on the side of the building in front of us. Wow! After we'd taken photos of the silos, I drove back to take a photo of the kestrel, and the gentleman wheeling his rubbish bin out to the kerb reminded me to look in on the Church at the end of town. I had forgotten the Sophia mural was there and I was so pleased he reminded me!

 The next silos, at Devenish, St James and Tungamah were astounding. The detail and effort that goes into each is amazing. We now have to find out who funds Silo Art. I think I read somewhere that GrainCorp provides the silos free of charge as a "canvas" but I am going to have to check on this.

Some of the roads we travelled today were definitely "less travelled" with some being "two-on two-off". Luckily we didn't run into a lot of traffic along the way - except for the bad black car which we tailed for a while because we couldn't overtake safely - and we so much wanted to - as they came to a bend in the road, their brakes would come on - and sometimes, for no reason at all, their brakes would come on as well. When there was enough room to overtake (it is not my most favourite thing to do) they would either speed up or ride the centre of the road so you couldn't see who was coming. We finally lost them when we had to stop to dispose of our fruit at a roadside bin. We had talked with our friends who do a fair amount of road travel about fruit quarantines but I forgot to ask where they were ... I had assumed it would be at borders - but apparently not. It was a wrench to throw away our beautiful bananas and oranges - but at least we were able to gobble some down before we despatched them.

 Rain kept us company for most of the day - but we had heavy downpours for only a couple of minutes here and there. We couldn't believe how quickly the rain was replaced by clear blue skies - or how quickly the rain came back!
We arrived at Sea Lake - our stop for the night - mid-afternoon and I have to admit it is the smallest motel room we have ever been in. There was room for the bed - and it seemed like the en suite was in there with us. But it was just for the night so it was okay. The motel rooms are spread around a central area where there are BBQ and cooking facilities, so we're thinking it's a good choice for work folk in the area.

Dinner was at the local hotel - and we managed to see a very orange sunset on the way there. It may be the only venue open for dinner during the week - but the meals were good - lamb cutlets for Sooz, steak for me.

Monday - Day 6 - 1 May 2023

Before we could set off from Canberra this morning, I had an appointment with a group I am starting work with in a couple of weeks.  It was a chance to go into Canberra City and have a look around after I'd parked the car and while I waited for the appointment.  It wasn't raining (very heavily) so I did manage to get a couple of shots of the ACT Memorial and artwork around the immediate area. 

  

  

I had left Sooz at Maccas at Dickson while I went into the City (and make sure you don't go over 40, said the gentleman we met over lunch at Pho Phu yesterday:  they're into revenue-raising! ).  I think Maccas has definitely up'ed their coffee game because she said the coffee she had there this morning was excellent. I was still drinking the one I'd made at the motel by the time I collected her and we set off on the road again.  I thought about grabbing another, but ... 

The rain held off most of the time for our drive to Gundagai and, of course, we had to pull off the motorway to see The Dog.  Sooz has seen The Dog before and she said she remembered it as being "lower" and after we'd had a sandwich and a coffee for lunch, we did find another Tuckerbox, sans The Dog, which may have been where it been when Sooz saw it last.  

I don't know what's wrong with the GPS but according to it we still had another 2km before we reached our motel in Benalla.  Just as well I noticed the sign for our motel as we were about to go around a roundabout.  It's a great location - across the road from Woolworths, KFC and Maccas, and a couple of alcohol outlets.  Something for everyone. 

I had booked a room with a spa so it was wonderful to feel the road tension just drift away. That, a cuppa and a bit of television, and a lot of looking at maps to work out where to next and for how long (yes, yes, it has been worked out but there will be changes) - and it was time for bed!