Merriwagga & Gum Bend Lake

Our stay at Gogeldrie continued to be very pleasant. Darryl caught a fish, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and spoilt ourselves at Whitton

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Unfortunately, the sunset heralded more rain, but we still managed to keep the fire going, and enjoyed our evening albeit a little damp! Our day to Whitton was full of surprises. It’s the oldest town in the area, but has a beautiful picnic area with sculptures in front of an amazing Anzac tribute on the water tower. 

Then a few kms out of town is the Whitton Malt House which is a world class facility with accommodation, function areas, restaurant and bar, golf driving range, a lake with waterfalls and swinging bridge - all in beautiful lawns and gardens.  We were really blown away - even though people had told us it was pretty good. 

We enjoyed yummy cod & chips - made up for our fishermen not catching a cod for us. 

We’d certainly recommend anyone visit there if you’re anywhere near Darlington Point, Leeton or Griffith.

We packed up Saturday morning and travelled a whole 106km to a little town Merriwagga which is between Hillston and Griffith. We stayed at the old school camp site which was also quiet and relaxing.

It’s owned and operated by Kel, a friendly local who passed on much information to us. The place was so clean and tidy, it’s a credit to him. At his recommendation we dined at the local pub, which has the highest bar in the Southern Hemisphere and the stools were gigantic -  Darryl felt like ‘Dicky Knee’ peering over the bar to order drinks. The meal was excellent so we were spoilt again. We studied the maps and learned things around Ivanhoe and Menindee are still wet with roads closed so we’ve really given up on Lake Menindee for now. So we instead, headed east. We had morning tea at Hillston by a lake and the Lachlan River and then lunch at Lake Cargelligo.

Now we’re still on the water theme and are at a free camp spot out of Condobolin at Gum Bend lake. It’s a beautiful spot with new ammenities, a walking track around the lake, picnic facilities and shelters. Not bad for a donation!! No doubt we’ll get the maps out again and determine where our next location will be. Meanwhile, we’ll tour around here a bit and get to know more about this area. 

We trust all is well for family and friends and send our love to all. ❌❌

 

Griffith area

Our stay at Lake Wyangan was very pleasant and we were able to attend the Anzac Day service in Griffith which was very nice and very well attended. The sun actually shone - but I think that’s the last time we saw the sun. Just as well we are now on a powered site. 

From the Anzac service we enjoyed lunch at the Victoria Hotel which was a nice spoil for a change. Our day was then spent looking at all the caravan parks and camping spots in the area and we found a beauty! It’s on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River by the weir at Gogeldrie. We are able to set up facing each other, can have our campfire and have clean and tidy facilities at our disposal. Best of all there’s only 2 other camps here so we virtually have the place to ourselves. The caretaker is so friendly and obliging - she even bought us across homemade scones, jam and cream for afternoon tea! 

We took the scenic route to here and called into Darlington Point for a lovely coffee - pity we are in our vans and couldn’t buy any of the homewares on sale! Along the dirt River Road track we were able to stop and cut some more wood to replenish our supplies. 

We also saw ‘Dennis’ the fire truck - a very fitting name we thought! 

                                                                                

We survived the rain yesterday and wonder if we’ll stay here another night until the forecast is clear.

We toured around Leeton and spent a few dollars there and today spent some more dollars at Griffith - mainly at camping shops! We enjoyed our delicious pies - heated in the little buddy oven - at the lookout by the Hermits Cave. This hermit, Valeri Ricetti, lived here for 30 odd years and created a garden, a chapel, a living area and even water cisterns, stone walling, steps and paths that are still evident today. His outlook over the town is quite spectacular, but of course many of the houses visible today wouldn’t have been there in his time.

Dennis & Darryl are now trying out some of their new gear and we anticipate a cod dinner coming up😜.

It’s been a lovely restful stay here and we’d highly recommend this park - especially to fisher people and those loving a quiet peaceful place. We’ve yet to decide our next plans so stay tuned. It looks like once we get through tomorrow, the rain could be gone and we’ll be hoping some outback roads are opened up again. We trust all our readers are well. Love from the travellers. ❌❌

Destination unknown!

Well since the last blog from Mt Little station last year, much has happened. We are now the proud owners of a lovely new Torus caravan - we advertised and sold the Lifestyle van very promptly then had a long wait before we took possession of the new one. So we’ve had one short shakedown trip and have now begun our trip to who knows where!

                         
We set off Friday after lunch and met Dennis & Tops in Moulamein then travelled onto Hay. We had booked into the Hay caravan park and had a great spot amongst all the Winnebago’s - set up for cast and crew of the new Mad Max movie which is being shot out on the Ivanhoe road. However, the park was relatively quiet and we assumed most had gone home for the long weekend - so we didn’t spy Chris Hemsworth! 

How lovely it is to be sitting around the campfire again 🙂.
The reason we chose Hay as our first stop was that Murrabit was playing footy & netball there so we had a very pleasant Saturday watching grandchildren and Jess play sport and catching up with family before we head away. We were particularly impressed with this goal umpire! 

The senior football had a rather unusual ending as the score board showed a draw at full time. The crowd and players were subdued and silent - then after about 5 minutes, the siren sounded again and the scoreboard flashed up a revised score, which had us up by a point. So instantly the Murrabit boys were happy - probably the Hay boys weren’t! To finish off a successful day, Port finally had a win so it was celebrations all round.

Hay is a beautiful outback town with lovely old buildings - the courthouse is magnificent, and we enjoyed a lovely morning tea at ‘The Convent’

Our original idea was to travel onto Lake Menindee to see the lakes full, but the forecast of rain has scared us off - we have experienced a wet camp along the lake and it wasn’t much fun camping in the mud!! So instead we have traveled east towards Griffith. We took the back road which is so interesting with cotton beginning to look very pretty. We even had an opportunity to replenish our wood supply (once Darryl found the right key to unlock the box) 

We are now set up in a lovely spot at LakeWyangan - which is  a few Kms from Griffith. It’s very relaxing overlooking the lake - which was once a gypsum mine & natural swamp area. We’ll stay here a while and have a look around the area then where we go will be dependent on weather and road conditions. Without any definite destination, our idea is to not race from place to place, but to setup for a few days and explore places we’ve previously just traveled through. 

 We’re loving the new van, loving the relaxed 

lifestyle and enjoying the company. (as much as the grandchildren think we must get sick of each other 😜) It’s exciting really not knowing where our next camp spot will be. 

Today we’re also thinking of Nick Hein and Matt Webb who are celebrating their special birthdays 🎉🎂. 

Until the next blog, the travellers sign off ❌❌❌