welcome again

Well its been a couple of weeks and things have moved on a bit since I arrived in Bathurst. I was only going to stay there for the weekend but ended up staying a couple of extra days, mainly because it was so cold in the mornings around the minus 1 minus 2 Celsius region that I couldn’t be bothered getting out in the cold to stow the gear away, and anyway the water and waste pipes were frozen so would have had to wait for them to thaw out before I could sort it out. So I decided it was prudent to just put the heating on and stay in bed for a while longer before starting the day in earnest. Even the dogs were not overly keen to get out of the van with a frost on the ground, but more on the weather later. Anyway on the Wednesday morning I bit the bullet and packed up and headed off to a small town called Sofala which was only about 45kms up the road to make that my next stop for a few days.

Now Sofala is an old gold mining town which if you believe the advertising around the town its the oldest gold mining town in NSW, it has a permanent residency of about 250 people and is in a valley next to a river where you can still hire equipment to do a bit of panning for gold. However, this is appears to be a mainly summer thing as when I was there only one little place was open which laid claim be the local grocery store, cafe, tourist information and souvenir shop. Well lets just be kind to the owners and say they may have over stated their enterprise a tad. I was able to get some fresh milk and a freshish loaf of bread which had already seen the best part of two weeks in their freezer before I bought it according to the sell by date on the packet. Anyway the free camping site was about 6kms out of town on a little back road so off I set to find it. A lovelier spot you couldn’t ask for, right by the river, with basic long drop toilets and rubbish bins. And yes long drop toilets are exactly as they sound. I had the place to myself so I chose my spot and set myself up. Now for those of you not in the know, free camping is just that, it doesn’t cost anything but there are usually no facilities, no water no power and usually no toilets, so that at least was a bonus. But as a bonus (or not) at this site there was no phone or internet reception either. It was a 4km drive back towards the township to pick up any decent reception or a bit of climb up the local hill to pick up a single bar of reception but no internet. So I thought this will do me for a few days, lots of walking opportunities for the dogs and I also as I was to discover later that day some really friendly neighbours.  The first day I was there the temperature got up to a very pleasant 23c so I was more than happy to sit outside under my awning reading my Kindle and catching a few rays, when the sun went behind the local hill the temperature dropped very rapidly and that night got down to minus 4. I hadn’t seen temperatures like this since I left the UK, minus 1 was the lowest I got in NZ. Even with the doubling up of the dooner on the bed it was still a very chilly night. The next day dawned and with it the sun and up went the temps again to the low 20’s and this is how it was for the next couple of days. So after a while I thought I should move on and get out of this valley and find somewhere else which would be a bit warmer at night. Oh boy was that a great decision, what’s that old saying, man plans and God laughs.

My next stop was a place called Rylstone another one horse town in the back of beyond, again not much there including very little phone reception, but I thought this will do for a couple of nights, again free camping. Little did I know that there was an Arctic blast on the way up from the Southern Ocean which was going to hit central NSW the next day. I woke up the next morning to a light drizzle and very chilly, at least the locals would be happy as every drop of rain would be very welcome on a very parched land. Well the temp that day didn’t get above 4c and that night whoa Nelly,  it got down to minus 9, I was putting more clothes on to go to bed than I was wearing in the daytime.  The Blue Mountains area was cut off due to snow as the Great Western Highway which runs through them was snowbound. Luckily my brother and his wife who live there had gone away in their caravan so they were spared it. I didn’t get any snow where I was but on the afternoon drive to have a look around I ran into some when going up a back road into the hills, so promptly gave that us as a bad job and went back to the van. So after putting up with this for a few days I thought its time to go and get on some power and get my heating on I packed up and drove up to Mudgee.

Mudgee is a decent sized town and is right in the middle of Central NSW wine region. I parked up at the show grounds on power and water, with shower and toilets, so it gave me a good chance to regroup, and thaw out. My first job after setting up was to go and get some food in as I was starting to run a bit low, and to by a hot water bottle, never had the need for one before but its paid for itself already. I also decided whilst in Mudgee not to head out west towards Broken Hill as I was originally planning to do as I thought the weather out that way at night wouldn’t be a lot better, so decided to head a bit further north instead.

On leaving Mudgee on a bright Saturday morning I headed North going through Gulgong which was like driving through the 1800s apart from the modern vehicles on towards Denedoo, then hung a left to go west to Dubbo. Now my reason for suddenly heading towards Dubbo was I had seen on the internet that there was a large Jayco caravan dealership there and I had realised while free camping that I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how to switch over between my two water tanks onboard. I thought I had figured it out but wanted to be sure just incase I was doing it wrong. So yes it was a bit of a detour but it was worth it for my peace of mind. Turned out that I had got it right but it was good to have it confirmed.  Why I didn’t ask the chap who parked next to me in Mudgee Show grounds who also had a Jayco is another matter entirely.

Consulting my book of camping spots I headed off from Dubbo towards Coonabarabran and a little place which had good recommends about 40kms before there called Hickey Falls. I got there after a very uneventful drive early afternoon and it was a lovely spot not far from the main highway but a large flat tarmac area surrounded by lots of trees. I left the car hitched up to the van and just put the legs down for stability and set off with the dogs to look for Hickey Falls. Well the were literally 50mtrs from the van and I found out the reason I couldn’t hear them, it was completely dried up, and had been for a long while looking at the surrounding area. there were a couple of small pools of water at the base of the falls and you could see on the rocks where the falls should have been but not even a dribble.  But as it was such a lovely spot I decided to spend a couple of nights there. Man alive the cockatoos! When I got up on the Sunday morning I looked at a tree about 30mtrs away and thought it was a magnolia tree in bloom, then when I put my specs on I realised it was full of cockatoos, I went to get my camera from the car to take a picture of it, but Cody and Whisper saw some goats grazing nearby and started barking which made the birds take flight. But it was quite the sight.

Well to end this rather long winded tale Im now in Tamworth arrived here yesterday (Monday) and will be heading off again Thursday morning.  Now Tamworth is the Australian capital of Country Music, a bit like Nashville Tennessee but drier and with an Aussie twist. It does make the radio stations a bit repetitive and there is no mistaking the sound of the banjo or twanging guitars.  Never really got into Country music but hey each to their own.

Thats it for now, some photos for you all