Gilgandra

Saturday, 9 June 2012


A very crisp -2 this morning and we are over being told that, being Tasmanians, we would be used to the cold! Once the sun came it, it quickly started to warm up after we left Cobar, heading east for Gilgandra. The drive to Nyngan was absolutely glorious, good road, flat, no wind and lovely country – sheep and wheat farms, with a corridor of trees along the road.

At Nyngan, we turned south and changed drivers. The pilot certainly knew the best time to hand over control – the Mitchell Highway between Nyngan and Nevertire would have to be the worst stretch of road we have ever travelled over with the caravan! The road was straight and flat, but certainly not level – it was a complete mish-mash of lumps, bumps, dips and hollows. The caravan constantly pitched and rolled in all directions; just as well we didn’t have any cream in the frig otherwise it would have turned to butter!

After making it to Nevertire, we turned east again, and changed drivers, before travelling through cotton plantations. This is the first time we have actually seen cotton growing in the fields – there were still some crops awaiting harvest and plenty of bails ready for collection. Near Warren, we passed at the Auscot processing depot. The township of Warren looked a very prosperous place, was neat and tidy, had a reasonable shopping centre, a golf course and a bowling club, and what looked to be a nice caravan park. Well work a remember if we are in the area again.

We arrived at Gilgandra at 12.30 pm and checked into the Gilgandra Caravan Park. This is a nice grassy park, with very large sites. However, it is right beside the Newell Highway, so there may be a bit of truck noise during the night. With the temperature hovering around the 18 degrees, and no wind, we were actually able to sit in the sun and eat our lunch today. Afterwards, we walked into the small township, had an ice cream and walked back. As we were here a few years ago, we didn’t revisit the Coo-ee March museum.