Day 1: Tue 19 Mar 24 - Home to Narrandera

Tue 19 Mar 24 - Home to Narrandera (327km)

17 Deg, no wind and humid in Canberra, reaching a very tropical 35 Deg in Narrandera.  After a few delays, we are finally on our way to WA. It’s been a hectic start to the year and we’re happy (and relieved) to be finally travelling again.  Friends Greg and Wendy, and Kevin and Jo from QLD are already well ahead of us already enjoying the sights of WA. Our challenge is to try and catch up with them without missing out on too many of the places we had planned to visit. The delay has also pushed our schedule right by 4 weeks, and we are now expected to arrive in WA at Easter which is followed by WA school holidays. It will be very busy and almost impossible to stay where we had intended. The latest iteration of our trip, before the delays took us across the Nullarbor to the South and South West of WA, then north along the coast to  Karratha / Port Hedland, returning inland via Karijini National Park and Kalgoorlie, then back across the Nullarbor to home again. We aim to try and cover the same route but expect it will be with a lot of  adjustments. Time will tell, we need to stay flexible.

After a some final preparations this morning at home, we drove away at 0940, waving goodbye to Jason our neighbour (and Poochy the hound). It was a beautiful morning, and there was very little traffic driving out of Canberra. Timing our departure until after the school drop off traffic subsided was a good call.  First stop after 138km was at 11:20 at the Coolac Rest Area along the Hume Highway. Café Noeleene provided a much needed coffee and fresh baked blueberry muffins.

The heat was already building, and we were on the road again 30 minutes later. We had a good, thankfully uneventful, drive to our first planned overnight stop at Brewery Flat Reserve at Narrandera.  This is a large Free Camp in Narrandera with a lot of open space and plenty of shade. We were parked and set up for the night by 2:30. After a short rest, in the 35 Deg heat, I unloaded my bike and went for a short ride around town, while Noel stayed behind at the van and tried to stay cool. Noel didn’t say anything, but I’m sure she was wishing we’d booked into a caravan park. Back at the van, I had a refreshing ale while we chatted then we ate dinner (Precooked Madras Beef Curry with pumpkin) outside under the awning as a storm rolled past, thankfully producing minimal rain or wind. After the storm passed, it became very still and humid again, but I’m hoping after the excitement of our first day back on the road, we will sleep well. 

On the road again Coolac Test Area

Happy travelers and a very dry countryside

Brewery Flats Reserve Narrandera 

Monument at Marie Bashir Park

Narrandera Flour Mill

Narrandera Railway Station

Historic Star Lodge and Station Masters house

Narrandera Water Tower Art

Narrandera Water Tower Art

Narrandera Water Tower Art

Narrandera Water Tower Art

Victoria Square Memorial Gardens

Victoria Square Memorial Gardens

Council Chambers

Boys fishing in the Murrumbidgee near Brewery Flats

Banks of the Murrumbidgee with the old Brewery in the background

Comments

  1. HippofarmerMarch 19, 2024 at 11:17 PM

    Yay, you finally made it. Safe travels Kimbono, looking fwd to you catching up to us

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steven BarbMarch 20, 2024 at 3:24 PM

    Happy travels , Happy campers 😊.

    ReplyDelete

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