Just when you thought it was safe…..

Firstly my sincere apologies for leaving it so long to update what’s going on and where Ive been etc etc. No excuses Im afraid, it was purely down to laziness. So I will endeavour to up date you on a regular basis from here on.

I finally got back to Blaxland and my brothers house on the 9th of November having dropped off the caravan to get the roof repaired and a new water pump fitted. Three weeks later I was out and about once again, and I was hoping to start the long trip, down to Victoria to call in on my sister, then across to South Australia then North through the centre of the country to Darwin and slowly drift down the west coast towards Perth. I reckoned this should take me about 18months to 2 years. However, as with all the best plans these days, Corona virus had other ideas and all the borders were closed again due to a couple of outbreaks in the Sydney area. So, basically I was locked into NSW until they decide to let people move freely again. Just as an aside, they have people from Victoria unable to get back home due to the restrictions, but they can fly in 1200 tennis players and support staff, some already with positive tests. I guess money talks. Now they are all complaining as there has been four more positive test and they are all in strict isolation. Welcome to the real world I say.

Anyway enough of that sort of thing. So I left Blaxland on 30th November to start my long trip, we were all virus free at this point and borders were sort of open, and drove down to the lovely little township of Gunning, staying at the Showgrounds free of charge. Weather was sunny with the odd shower but very windy. Whilst the caravan was in getting repaired I had a new awning fitted, well, the second day of using it the wind started to pick up so I thought I would roll the awning away. Took off the guy ropes and undid the locking nut in readiness to roll it back up to the van, when a large gust of wind folded it back for me, well one end of it anyway. Unfortunately in folding it back the wind actually badly buckled one of the arms, so my new awning on the second day of use was in the words of Hugh Grant buggered. It took me nearly two hours of banging the arm on a block of wood and with my mallet to get it to fold back flat against the van. So it was onto the phone again to book the caravan in for another repair in Canberra, which was only about 60kms away.

The van was booked in for the 14th Dec so I stayed in gunning until the 11th then drifted down to Canberra ready for the 14th. I was looking forward to Canberra a place I have always liked and especially looked forward to revisiting the National War Memorial/Musuem. Again the best plans were foiled this time by the weather, it rained pretty much the whole weekend so it was a very quiet time.

By now the borders had shut again, so rather than the planned trip into Victoria, I thought it was a good idea to pay a visit to the Snowy Mountains area, so South again it was on leaving Canberra.

Stayed the night just outside the town of Cooma, I was going to stay in the town bu the free camp space was full so found another one about 10kms outside at a place called Numerella. Basically just a large flat area with a couple of long drop toilets, but perfectly adequate. At least here the sun was out so I was able to dry out a couple of things which had got wet in the car. The following morning it was a leisurely drive up to Jindabyne, which in winter time is a ski resort and I had booked myself into a nice caravan park for a couple of night. Once again the rain came so sight seeing was not really an option, I was going to go further into the mountains to the town of Threbo, but that was inside the National Park and dogs are not allowed. Technically you can drive through but other than the toilet you are not allowed to stop or use any other facility so didnt see the point of going.

Looking at my book of maps I thought a nice drive over the mountains would be in order to a town on the West side called Tumut (for those interested google Tumut Brooms). from Jindabyne to Tumut is a trip of about 200kms or so. I set off in bright sunshine and it was looking like a lovely day so was really looking forward to the drive over the mountains and taking some photos on the way, and also seeing all the damage caused by the fires at the beginning of last year (2020). A recurring theme in this blog and something I should have been aware of was, the best laid plans. Came down the mountain then turned to catch another road up into the mountains towards Tumut, as soon as I started climbing again it wasnt too long until I was in the clouds and down to about 20mtr visibility with a very light drizzle. So it was all lights on and a slow crawl, and saw absolutely nothing apart from the verge and the road, I even went thru a small village and could only just make out the buildings either side. It wasn’t until I started coming down the other side that it started to clear and when I got to lake Bowring it came out sunny again. So it was on to Tumut and parking up by the river which was running a bit high but I was a good 3metres above it. A lovely spot and Tumut itself is a lovely little town. Stayed here for five nights when on the last night heavy rain was forecast for the area and as the river had risen about .75mtr since I had arrived I thought it may be prudent to move on as the river was only going to get higher and the ground would turn very muddy.

So onwards again still generally heading south to a wee place called Batlow, famous for its apples and cherries. Huge orchards all covered with miles of netting to keep the birds and bugs off. Again found a lovely little spot to free camp and spent Christmas here before leaving on the 27th. Still with the recurring theme of plans, I was heading to a town called Henty to go onto power for a couple of days. As I was still the foothills of the snowy mountains it looked like it would be a nice trip for part of the way before heading Westerly and flatter land.

Coming down a hill I noticed the smell of something like burning rubber and thought one of the van wheels had locked up, pulled into a gravel lay-by no sound of skidding but I thought at least it will give me a chance to let the dogs have a stretch and some water. On checking the van wheels nothing seemed excessively hot and nothing appeared locked, strange thought I. On returning to the car to get the water for the dogs, the whole car smelt of burning oil, on popping th bonnet blue smoke was coming out from the rear of the engine roughly where the turbos were. Just my luck no phone signal, so I had to wait for just over an hour until someone came by and kindly took me up the hill to get reception. Called NRMA (our AA/RAC) told them I had a major oil leak and would need a tow, sorted they say. Another hour later the patrol turns up,what seems the problem he say, big oil leak says I, oh he says that’s an immediate tow as we can’t fix them on the road, that’s what I told your call centre I reply, nearly 3 hours later the tow truck turns up loads the car and hooks up the caravan behind. While waiting for the truck someone else stops by to asks if he can help as he was a mechanic. He has a look and says it looks like intercooler has blown and if that’s the case it’s probably cooked the turbos as well, if that was the case I was looking at a $4k to $5.5k or so. Any ways I get taken to Wagga Wagga and dropped off at the Showgrounds which luckily was less than 2kms from the Nissan dealer.
Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as first thought it was just the manifold into the intercooler had broken, so all up it was less than $600, so was more than happy with that.

So by now it was a warm welcome to 2021, with everything crossed it would be a better year.

From Wagga it was onwards to Urana still heading West and heading into the outback, stayed free camping for a week and we had two days of very hot weather one of 42c and the other 44c and when you only have a 4inch 12v fan to try and cool you it’s a lost cause. The dogs particularly suffered it would certainly help if they liked to swim, they weren’t overly keen that I put ice into their water.

From Urana it was on to Deniliquin a town I free camped in last year, this time I booked into a lovely campsite for four nights. This is my kind of town not too big but everything you need including a really lovely bakery. From there it was to my present position in Hay. Huge free camp area again near the river and good facilities. From here it will be Griffith as I need the van to get its annual safety inspection and that’s the closest where there is a mechanic who does that sort of thing.

So that’s about it, we are all up to date, and will forego any further plan making and just go by gut feeling.

a few photos to end with, haven’t taken any for a while but will get back into it