Chapter 16 - The Trip Home

Day 96 – Saturday 26 August 2023 – Bargara to Bowenville

It was right on 8am as we headed out of the Bargara camp, 20 minutes behind Kay and Darryl. We skirted Childers and stopped for morning tea at Biggenden, catching up with Kay and Darryl. There was a small market near where we stopped, so Shirley stocked up on Anzac Biscuits. We browsed Murgon as we travelled through, then stopped to see the Wood Industry Museum at Wondai.

It was superbly presented with a large diorama depicting two men who drove the cattle wagons loaded with harvested timber. It was a skilled and dangerous profession. Next door was an extension to the museum with more very old wood-working implements, as well as a wood working workshop currently in operation. The quality of the wood products on display and for sale was very impressive.

Statue Outside the Wood Industry Museum

Left part of the diorama

Right part of the diorama

I had to take a photo of the 'Kelly Axe'

We then visited a second-hand shop which, we both agreed, was the most extensive second-hand shop that we have ever seen – and we have seen a lot. The prices seemed far too high so we just looked. The same amount of product could have been placed in a building 2 or 3 times the size.

"If you want it, we probably have it"

Onwards we pressed, passing towns such as Tingoora and Memerambi, and heading through very productive country with crops such as peanuts, canola, cotton, grain, avocados, macadamia, sunflower and others.

Productive 'South Burnett' land

We stopped for lunch at Kingaroy – the peanut capital of Australia. We visited the ‘Peanut Van’ and bought some ‘sea salt’ peanuts and learned a lot about growing peanuts. We then realised that we had seen lots of acres of peanut plants.

A sign that raised a smile

The "Big Peanut"

A 'Just Harvested' peanut plant

Our path deviated away from the normal path south because of our plans for tomorrow so we headed a bit east of our path and ended up at Bowenville Reserve where we stopped for the night. It is one of the best free camps that we have visited in Australia. It was huge, flat, had great toilets, soap and water to wash hands, a flowing creek that had yabbies and fish. We spoke to neighbours who are 100 km from home on their first night away in their first retirement caravan. They have been ‘practicing’ ‘free camping’ in their back yard.

Kelly camp at Bowenville Reserve 

'Willy' posed for me

The creek that runs around Bowenville Reserve 

We had pork chops and veggies for dinner.

Our day covered around 400 km, through a very productive food bowl.

Day 97 – Sunday 27 August 2023 – Bowenville to Goondiwindi

Shirley was up early so it was an early departure - just before 8 am.

We headed south and went through around 80 km of agriculture land - cotton, grain crops, etc etc. No tree crops, just stuff that grows, crops and dies. Much of it was irrigated. The amount of irrigation channels that we saw amazed us both.

We reached Millmerran and took a few photos.

Painted water tank at Millmerran

Museum wall at Millmerran

Then we pressed on to Inglewood where a coffee shop awaited us. However the navigator forgot to tell the driver that the coffee shop was 25 km before Inglewood - so we missed it. The bakery made up for it with a great coffee and an excellent chocolate muffin. To make matters even better a local elderly lady advised us that calories 'do not count on a Sunday'.

Our next stop was Yelarbon, the key reason that we were on this road anyway - the art silos. They were magnificent. The sun was in the wrong position and the photo below does not do it justice.

"When The Rain Comes" mural at Yelarbon

The local school children recorded a song, in collaboration with Josh Arnold, to tell a story about their town and district. Click here to see a short video of their song. Josh is well known for doing this sort of thing with community groups.

We duly arrived in Goondiwindi and checked into our caravan park for two nights. There was a billabong and a fire place at the back of the park - not far from our site. There were heaps of birds on the billabong or above it in the trees - mostly ducks or Magpie Geese.

Magpie Geese

I chopped some wood, then lit a fire, then loaded the camp oven with lamb chops, onions, capcisum, mushrooms, carrots, spuds and zucchini. A damper mix was added to another pot.

Happy hour started about 4:15 and went until dinner time - about 6pm.

Sunset over the billabong

Campfire and Camp-ovens

Camp-oven lamb and damper

Today we ticked over 10,000 km for the trip.

Day 98 – Monday 28 August 2023 – Goondiwindi

Today we were in tourist mode. First we visited the "Nungwai Larger than Life Sculptures" near the Airport. They were created by artist Angus Wilson who is a Goondiwindi local who has a love of re-using old materials and breathing new life into them as pieces of sculpture.

A limited set of work by Angus is shown here. For a full complement of art photos taken today please click here.

"Sunflower"

Titled "Chain Gang"

Aussie Coat of Arms

"Once Upon a Time"

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Lot's Wife"
(Each status is over 20 tonnes)

Then we drove into town and visited the information centre, and gleaned more information - on where to see more art. The following came from a walk from that source of information.

Town power poles

Shirley trying to work out what this is

It was time for a coffee and it was excellent, at a venue that had antique crockery. Shirley's was Royal Albert Red Roses (the same as we have at home). I am not sure what mine was.

We then tracked reflections of Gunsynd, nicknamed the 'Goondiwindi Grey'.

Above: Motel wall dedicated to a famous local horse
Below: A status of the same great horse - Gunsynd

We then visited the Macintyre River, the border between QLD/NSW Border. The history of floods was very interesting and how they turned it around in 1956.

Macintyre River - The QLD/NSW Border

Floods were then so common, and they were given lots of notice (as it came from a long way upstream), that locals would congregate under the tree below to discuss "how high" and "when". The tree was aptly named the "Tree of Knowledge". Its history is much more than that and worthy of research.

Shirley inspecting the "Tree of Knowledge"
So called because locals would gather here when a flood was imminent.

The following art adds to the charm of Goondiwindi.

The Past, the Present and the Future

The morning had been very productive. We bought two bread rolls and headed back to camp to relax. Lunch did not take long, but 'relax' took hours and hours.

Around 5:25 pm I walked 40 metres from the caravan and took the following photo - over the billabong behind the caravan. I returned and had happy hour with Shirley, with Queensland dates, camembert and Savoys - and a glass of Guinness.

My Last Queensland Sunset Photo of the trip

Some time later I cooked the last four sausages from the Hervey Bay butcher who provided the raffle meat trays at the bowls club. Some mash, onion gravy, carrots and broccoli rounded out the meal. It was excellent.

My next update will come from New South Wales - tomorrow.

Day 99 – Tuesday 29 August 2023 – Goondiwindi to Tooraweenah

There was a sprinkling of rain overnight, just enough to encourage me to consider a sunrise photo (nothing to do with getting Shirley up early). The following is what I saw.

Stormy Goondiwindi Sunrise

I headed to the shower, 30 minutes before Shirley. By 7:57 am we had crossed the Macintyre River and moved into NSW, after 79 days in Queensland. A few minutes later we drove into Boggabilla and took a photo of the pub that gave cause to write Slim Dusty's hit - "Wobbly Boot" - a great song. 

Wobbly Boot Pub

Again we traversed huge amount of agricultural land. Today cotton and canola seemed to be the popular choice, but there must have been others. We had rain for maybe 80 of the first 120 km.

Rich northern NSW land

Gradually the land changed to more forest and trees. Wattle was very common.

Wattle was very common

We stopped for a break just south of Moree, which is quite a large town. Later Coonabarabran provided a great bakery for a pie for lunch. I nearly paid out a woman with a yapping dog. Little did I know that 4 hours later I would be sitting next to her at Happy Hour. Phew!

Around 50 km south of Coonabarabran we turned west off the Newell highway and set up camp in Tooraweenah - a small historic town that used to be much larger. The manageress of the park was an artist with a fancy for emus and sculptures. I provide a small sample below.

Art in the Tooraweenah Caravan Park

We had an historic map of town and we went for a walk. The pub was a relic that still serves meals seven days each week.

Tooraweenah pub

We chuckled at the old petrol bowser that last served petrol when it was 5 cents per litre. Not sure if there was some skulduggery involved there.

66 litres for $3.30?

The park managers invited all campers to Happy Hour around a great fireplace that was in the middle of a corrugated iron 'hut'. It was an excellent venue to discuss who came from where. Another of the couples was camped 2 sites away from us last night at Goondiwindi. Small world.

Great fire for happy hour

Fireplace and Happy Hour Venue

Shirley and I seemed to be the only 'city slickers' as discussion centred on the $5 per sheep cost of shearing - plus the 'open' food and drink tab that the shearers need after a full day's work - at the local pub.

We had some chicken and veggies for dinner, supplemented by silverbeet from the gardens in the caravan park.

Free Silverbeet

Day 100 – Wednesday 30 August 2023 – Tooraweenah to Cowra

A casual start had us out of the caravan park by just before 8:30 am. We stopped about 1500 metres later to take the following two photos...........

A wonderful statue of a soldier stripping off his 'services' uniform so that he can resume his farming duties by 'manning' the plough. My father was one of them. His symbolic act of discarding his uniform is showing his contempt for war.

The Warrumbungles. Now on our bucket list.

We headed south and took photos of the artistic windmills at Gilgandra.

Two of the windmill art trail

Not long later Dubbo was our next stop - for tourism information and for diesel, the latter costing $2.30 per litre.

From there we headed down the 'Animals on Bikes' art trail, something we have done before and it was thoroughly enjoyed again.

The following photos were taken on the "Animals on Bikes" sculpture trail from Dubbo to Yeoval to Cumnock to Molong - a trip of 116 km. Click here if you want to see the full list of 'animal' photos from today.

As we left Molong - after lunch - we took a photo of the water tank.

Molong Water Tank

We headed south with the same tail wind that we had experienced all day. Not long after leaving Molong we entered a hail storm that lasted maybe five km. It ended like stepping out of a shower.

Rain hung about and we called it a day at Cowra. The showgrounds offered a good site and a good price.

Day 101 – Thursday 31 August 2023 – Cowra to Oxley

We were brought back to southern reality with a 4 degree start to the day – and thick fog. However, the heater worked and the shower was hot.

Shirley was surprised to see that the time started with a 7 and we were on the road – about 7:50 am. There had been minimal packing up to do. She was not happy with the front view.

Blind leading the blind

Soon after we travelled through Young and headed towards Gundagai. We hit the Hume Freeway at Coolac just north of Gundagai – 10 minutes after a morning coffee in the middle of nowhere.

The spinnaker was hoisted and we set sail for Victoria, with a small tail wind to add a smile to my face. The views were mostly great.

Great Views

The countryside was changing from mostly cotton and canola to canola and sheep, with a few head of cattle here and there . We were passing through some very fertile parts of our great country. The amount of canola that we have seen in the last three days has been amazing,

An early lunch was sought by the passenger, so we headed into ‘submarine town’ Holbrook. The Bakery looked after us with a great pie each. We then polished off our remaining fruit so that our conscience was clear as we crossed the border.

We headed south down the Hume Motorway and passed a terrible accident (on the north travelling side) that we later learned cost four people their lives. The car was unrecognisable. Very sobering and very sad.

A free camp was chosen for our last night on the road, about 5 km SE of Wangaratta. However the site was very wet, which was consistent with much of the land near Wangaratta. We moved on. Twelve 12 km later we stopped at the Oxley Recreation Reserve – which borders the King river. It is a huge reserve, apparently mainly used by horse loving locals.

A local gave us a tip that would minimize our disruption from other locals who love to fish and drink beer on Thursday and Friday nights.

The weather was too inconsistent to set up chairs and relax outside, so Shirley started to clean the caravan. The oven was first. That was it.

Our last campsite of the trip

It was a bit disappointing that we were allowed to have a fire, and lots of wood was available, but the weather seemed to suggest that a fire was a waste of time. So, the diesel heater was employed.

Dinner was a combination of the last of everything. Leftover stew, frozen peas, and one frozen tomato.

We waited for the ‘blue’ moon and competed with the trees and the clouds. It was better in reality - much more colour.

'Blue' Moon appearing through the trees

The heater chugged away as the temperature dropped.

Day 102 – Friday 1 September 2023 – Oxley to Home

It defies logic to think that I have been updating the blog for 101 days and on the day I get home Microsoft decide to change my personal parameters to have a date of birth of 2016 - meaning that i am allegedly not old enough to update a blog. Words fail me. I think I fixed the problem........

Anyway, we awoke to a chilly sunny morning with the diesel heater doing its bit to make life OK. A hot air balloon moved overhead to put a smile of our faces - and we got a wave from the 'balloon people'.

Hot Air Balloon Close to 'Home'

We decamped around 8 am heading down the Hume. Benalla was our first stop, for grocery shopping, and then further south we headed. A coffee stop happened at Euroa and then home was the final stop of the trip, just before noon.

Trip Summary and Wrap-Up:

·    We were away for 102 days, just under 15 weeks.

·    We travelled 11607 km, around 113 per day. Last year we did 16243 km over 112 days.

·    We used around 2007 litres of diesel at an average cost of $1.95 (Last year the average was $2.06). The range of prices was $1.74 to $2.14 per litre.

·    We stopped at 38 venues - at an average cost of $33 per day - $3 less than last year. Twenty one of those stops were for one night - which means that we were probably in transit from one spot to another.

.    We cooked scones or damper at least 15 times.

.    We had around 30 beach walks.

·    We had a lot more campfires and campfire dinners than last year.

.    We had a hell of a lot of fun, while seeing some of the great parts of our great country.

.    Our mishaps were minor and did not define our holiday.

This chapter and the trip is complete. I hope you enjoyed the journey.

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Last updated at 8 am on Saturday 2nd September 2023.