After a really cold night, we woke to sunshine and blue sky.
Breakfasted with our friends, who were planning to head back to Canberra later today, and left their place at 10.15am.
A comfortable overnight stop
Knowing the proximity of the larger centre, Cootamundra, to our friends’ intended retirement home, we paid more than usual attention as we travelled south through there. It seemed a sizeable centre, with interesting old flour mill buildings.
Wagga appeared to be growing fast, from what we observed as we took the ring route that avoided the town centre.
Took the Narrandera road west, then turned off that at Collingullie onto a road that would take us directly to Jerilderie. This was a way we hadn’t gone before; not a major road but perfectly fine for our rig.
Stopped at Lockhart for lunch, pulling in at a park by the swimming pool, where there was also a toilet block. Pleasant spot for our purpose. I made sandwiches from the makings I had in Bus.
John decided to let Couey off the leash for a little run on the grass. But the great swamp dog sniffed a distant puddle of water and took off for a wallow in that, coming back muddy, smelly, but oh-so-happy. I wasn’t.
Lockhart park
After Lockhart, the country became flatter with less natural vegetation and more obvious farm activity. For quite a while, trees were almost a novelty.
Trees!
At Jerilderie, joined the Newell Highway, a very familiar route. Decided to stop for the day at Tocumwal, where we had stayed on previous occasions.
Took an en-suite site at the caravan park, costing $37.80, after chain discount.
Tocumwal site
This is a park that has a dedicated, fenced, dog exercise run – something I’d love to see more parks adopt. So, after setting up, dog got a nice ball throw session in the run.
The carvavan park dog run
Lazed about for the rest of the afternoon.
Tea was a concoction made in the frypan, from mince and some vegies – kind of a stir fry, but without rice.
Had we realized then that this was to be the last night we would spend in Bus, probably would have made a bigger occasion of it.
When I got up in the morning, there were leaves all over Bus and car. Annoying. It took me quite a while to pick them out of the grille sections at the front of Terios.
Left Griffith at 10am on a day that was cool, but with blue sky and sunshine.
Not far out of town, we passed what appeared to be a very sizeable but apparently unused poultry farm. We wondered why it was this way and whether it was a casualty of the move to free range eggs? This area is a major one for egg and poultry production.
Just a bit south of Hanwood there was a large and fairly ornate new building. There were no signs to show what it was. The two sets of large gateposts were closed. Big house? Defunct winery?
We passed a truck waiting to turn onto the road with a load of round, yellow shrink-wrapped somethings… We were discussing what these might have been when a clue appeared in the form of white blobs beside the road. Cotton! I hadn’t realized that this had become a cotton growing area. We soon started to see lots of the round, wrapped, bales of cotton stored in the paddocks, in long rows.
Roadside cotton blobs
There were more trucks transporting bales. They seemed to be converging on the Darlington Point township. (Later research revealed there was a cotton processing gin there).
Shrink wrapped cotton bales
We even saw some cotton plants growing, still with white blobs on the plants – maybe ready for harvesting? It hadn’t occurred to me before that there was much I didn’t know about this product and processes. Is there one harvest season for cotton, like for wheat? Or do the plants produce all year round?
Cotton growing…
We crossed the Murrumbidgee River at Darlington Point. Noted that there was quite a good looking caravan park on the banks of the river there. That could be a good place to relax for a few days, sometime.
Coleambally village had an old irrigation channel digger on display – large beastie.
Then we were back on the Newell again, after our friend visiting detour of yesterday.
We stopped at Jerilderie for a break, by a very attractive area of park land by a lake. Part of it was a War Memorial and contained military memorabilia, like a tank.
Military memorabilia at Jerilderie
There was a stylized windmill sort of structure in the distance. From the number of caravans moving in and out and pulled up there, it was obviously a well-known rest area.
Lake and rest area
This was a very handy area for a walk, toilet stop and dog ball throw – which we did on a grassed area over the road from the parklands.
I would really prefer just to lie here and look at it…
Not a great success – there were burrs or prickles in the grass, judging by a high-stepping dog. Really, all she wanted to do was head for, and probably get into, the lake. No way….
That’s as wet as dog is going to get…
Jerilderie appeared a very pleasant town. Next time we were on the Newell we should consider staying a night or two here.
Jerilderie lake
Continued on, with occasional clouds starting to appear in the sky ahead.
Do we need to be concerned?
In our travels on the Newell, over the past few days, had noticed a surprising number of trucks carrying new caravans northwards.
Drove through Finley without stopping, but noted there was a caravan park, by a lake, that could also be good for a stay.
South of Finley there was an ominous build up of dark cloud ahead. Guess we were heading for Victoria!
Victoria up ahead!
At 1pm, crossed back into our home State, at Tocumwal. As soon as we were across the Murray River, it started to rain – heavily.
As we approached Numurkah, the GPS directed us to turn right. That put us on to the road to Nathalia. Initially we thought this might be some sort of bypass route around Shepparton, but no, the lady definitely wanted us to go to Nathalia. We didn’t. Eventually were able to turn around and go back to the highway. The reason for that directing remains a mystery. We are not giving up on paper maps any time soon.
Drove through central Shepparton – there was no alternative – to the Lake Victoria Caravan Park. The way into this caravan park is not all that easy to find, tucked in as it is by a servo.
This area had obviously recently had some heavy rain – much heavier than we’d driven through – as there was water lying about everywhere.
Our en-suite site cost $37.80, after discount. After booking in at the office, I walked to the site, with John trundling Bus along behind me and the dog barking her head off in there, because I wasn’t inside. I had to dodge great pools of water. We would have to keep a tight lead on Couey if we didn’t want a wet dog to worry about.
We had to unhitch the car before backing into place.
There was a very attractive outlook over a large grassed area, towards the lake/river.
Back in 2001 we’d stayed a few days at this park, when we came up from Melbourne for a family wedding. I remembered the lake as being a fair-sized, open body of water, and was surprised to now find it more a series of ponds with large areas of reed banks. Wasn’t sure if my memory was faulty or if it really had changed that much.
It was fairly chilly and damp, but I managed to take Couey for a couple of walks around the park and along a good path by the lake. Of course, she spent a lot of time straining at the lead in an attempt to go get her feet – and more – wet.
It was a cold night. Yes – we were definitely back in Victoria.
This Adventurous Age 