Goondiwindi

Tuesday, 18 June 2013


Last night, we took the advice of the caravan park receptionist and walked next door (across the other side of a park, we discovered) to the West Dubbo Bowls Club bistro. This was a very popular venue with tourists (10% discount for us!) and locals alike. There would appear to be many rugby players (or men built like rugby players) in Dubbo.

Another freezing start to the day, with thick fog until 10.00 am. We had a long drive today, with nearly 500 kms to travel between Dubbo and Goondiwindi. The first part of the drive was fairly slow because of the conditions but after we changed drivers at Coonabarabran, the road condition improved, as well as levelled out. The traffic wasn’t too heavy, nor were the truckies intimidating.

We cruised along well until we reached Narrabri, where we had decided to stop for lunch. After going through the first roundabout, the instructions came very firmly to “pull right off the road, here!” So I pulled off onto the grass, as there was no where else to go, only to be told not to go on the grass – confusion reigned and the M & Ms had to be brought out to de-stress the driver. After changing drivers, I was told that HE wanted to drive through Narrabri and find somewhere to park for lunch! HE decided when he saw the empty car park at the soccer club that it would be a good stopping place, so in we went and in attempting to park so that the door of the caravan faced north (ie the sun), HE did two circuits of the car park, two u-turns and a back-back, and was still facing the wrong way. More M & Ms were needed!!!

After half an hour soaking up some vitamin D, although only about 16 degrees, we continued north through cotton, grain, sunflower and canola country – very, very flat. We had a long chat with a truck driver behind us as we passed through Moree – he forgot that his radio could be heard by anyone and was rather descriptive about a truck driver who pulled out in front of us and apologised profusely when I agreed with him. We eventually caught up with him again at Boggabilla – what a wonderful name for a town!

We are at the Big4 Goondiwindi for two nights – after three long days on the road, we need a bit of a break, need to do some laundry and need to do some shopping. We had a lovely surprise just after we booked in, as damper and a cuppa were being served around the campfire at the “bush hut” just across from our caravan. With a hot artesian pool here as well, hopefully tomorrow will be warm enough for a soak.

No photos today, sorry.