Heading south

Our night at the Warrumbungle National Park was very good. In the middle of the night, I had to make an obligatory pit stop and was overawed by the night sky. It was truly beautiful. The moon had set and without a cloud in the sky, it was like you could see beyond our galaxy with the naked eye. It has been many years since I have been somewhere that you can see the night sky in so much detail. It's at these times that I regret not knowing more about astronomy so I could better appreciate it all. I also now know why there are so many observatories in these parts!

Tom was absolutely taken with the compost toilets ("Daddy, there is NO flusher! The poo just goes on the ground!") and made numerous trips to them. Biddy was delighted in just being able to wander around at leisure and not being constantly called to come back.

A late start today due to a computer malfunction at home (just prior to morning milking) that saw Mark trying to deal with 3 people all at the same time to try and fix a computer that he could not log on remotely to. All's well though thanks to the great staff at Westfalia. I also had the makings of a migraine (didn't eventuate though..phew). We eventually left our little campsite at around 11am headed for Wellington. We decided to take a route which took us through an area where a number of years ago (1994) I worked for ABARE conducting farm surveys (part of a secondment with Dept of Ag). This route took us through Binnaway, Coolah and Gulgong. I have no idea what Binnaway's claim to fame is, but Coolah is home of the black stump (took a picture of it with the kids), and Gulgong holds the title of the 'Ten Dollar Town" as it was the town that featured on our old paper $10 notes. We grabbed a bite to eat in Coolah and whilst walking to the cafe, we passed a small general store that had the most darling nativity scene for sale. I snapped it up.

We arrived at the Wellington Caves Caravan Park in Wellington too late to do any cave tours (what Wellington is famous for), so this is on our agenda tomorrow. And guess what? They also have dinosaurs here! Typical! So we will take in a tour that shows some dinosaur fossils as well (the dino from these parts was sort of like a giant wombat with sharp teeth. I'll get the details for the next post).

Despite being in the car for most of the day, the kids went to bed pretty early, which is just as good, because the cave tour we are embarking on is 1.5hrs.

Oh, and a quick update on Mark's eyes...they are much better this evening after looking pretty bad for most of the day. I can even see some white in the whites of his eyes! The drops and ointment seem to be finally doing something for him, although I still keep my distance in case he gives it to me!

Caravan park wrap up: this caravan park is attached to the cave tours, so accessibility is 100%. It is an old park and has seen a lot of visitors, but it caters well for a range of campers (caravans, tents, big rigs) and even has motel style accommodation. Whilst we didn't use it, the camp kitchen has a great range of facilities which would be great for those in tents. The playground is modest, but our kids thought it was good, with Biddy having no trouble using equipment. The amenities are old but clean and the water (and pressure) is good and hot and the washing machines clean with the cost to use them reasonable. There is a baby's bathroom which is a small sink and a toilet, but it's downfall is that there is nowhere to lay the baby down to dry and clothe them. A change table would improve this immensely. At this time of year, you can have your pick of any site (we chose the one right near the playground so we didn't have to move too far to watch kids). This park is ideal for those that need a couple of nights to base themselves in order to explore the caves and maybe the nearby Lake Burrendong, although there is campsites on the lake for those that are more self sufficient.

The eyes have it!

Bit of a play on words there, but we can't not mention how truly, unbelievably, scarily disgusting Mark's eyes now are. In fact, they are so bad that he had to see a doctor in Coonabarabran to get some heavy duty eye drops and ointment. He tells me that not only do they look bad (and believe me, they DO look bad), but they are also painful - sort of like flash burns from a welder. With all of the pus constantly coming out of them, coupled with the entire whites of his eyes now blood red, even the chemist had a hard time looking at him. Ugh. Hopefully the medications will do the trick, but we have been told that what he has is extremely contagious and that we shouldn't share any linen and to disinfect the washing (yeah right....on a caravan trip!). Mark says that he now has a new empathy with cows that get pink eye.

Today we left Dubbo and headed for the Warrumbungle National Park. In particular, Camp Blackman campsite. On the way, I decided to count the number of caravans, motorhomes and the like. By the time we got to Coonabarabran, I was up to 52. A fair number considering that the trip wasn't all that long (180kms). A quick stop in town (to see aforementioned dr) and grab some lunch before heading out to the National Park (about 36km further along).

The winding road into the park was dotted with a number of places that had their own little observatories. This is probably due to the fact that the Sliding Springs Observatory is located in the Warrumbungles. It is open during the day for visitors, but closed in the evenings because the scientists are conducting their experiments. We might call in there on our way out tomorrow.

Being a National Park, we had to collect firewood outside the park boundaries, so after depositing Biddy and I at the camp ground, Mark took Tom off for wood collection. They came back with a modest pile - enough to cook the obligatory marshmallows that we had promised Tom. He has never been camping before, and was so excited. Unbelievably, he was great around the fire, and neither kid scorched themselves on gooey confectionery.

The kangaroos are absolutely everywhere in here, many of them with joeys in their pouches suggesting that either there were some fertile roos around, or it was a good year nutritionally. Probably both! At any rate, there are Eastern Greys all over the place. And they obviously see lots of campers, because they are far from wary of us.

There are plenty of walks around here and I'm sorry that we are not here long enough to give a few a go. The scenery is spectacular - the Warrumbungles were formed as a result of volcanic activity 13 - 17 million years ago and have quite distinct craggy peaks. But be warned; in seasons other than summer, I can imagine that it gets damn cold in here. Even tonight, the cold air simply appeared and forced us into the confines of the van a bit earlier than anticipated. Bring warm stuff.

Campsite wrap up: the campsites here (that caravans can use at the least), are quite civilised, with some of the powered sites sporting bitumened areas. There is quite a bit of room here, but I am lead to believe that it is quite crowded in NSW school holidays. Even now, there are a few in. There is a new powered site area just opened up, but there is very little shade here (not a problem at the moment) as the trees are so small. The older area is amongst established trees and I daresay, would be more popular in summer. There is an amenities block (showers and toilets, public phone) which we haven't visited yet (it is a bit of a walk), but there are compost toilets close by to all the camp areas. You are allowed to have fires, but being a National Park you have to bring in your own wood. This is a nice place to rough it a bit whilst having some of the small luxuries around you. Great if you are into bushwalking or just lolling about, but unless small kids are into bushwalking too, you may find that they will be pestering you to 'do something' as there is no playground (that I saw anyway). I believe that there is a discovery programme for kids, but I don't know the details. I liked this place and would definitely return if around this way.

Half over

Sigh... a whole week has passed in the blink of an eye. And it has been pretty good as well with the kids taking to the whole adventure with great gusto. Today we spent a bit of a cruisy day bumming around for most of the morning before visiting the Old Dubbo Gaol. An interesting place to spend a couple of hours, peering into the past at how criminals used to be treated. There were 8 executions at the Dubbo Gaol, all of them because the inmate was guilty of murder. Some of the crimes were truly horrendous, even by today's standards.

The building that houses all the cells has a couple of solitary confinment cells and they are something to behold. They are in pitch black darkness and Tom was extremely reluctant to go inside even with both Mark and myself beside him. Even the lux feature (night vision) on our video camera did nothing in the total blackness. And prisoners spent sometimes weeks in there.

The rest of the day was spent just lazing around the caravan park with Tom spending much of it on the jumping pillow. It has been bloody chilly here the past couple of days which is a bit of a shame as there is a pool here that Tom has been bugging me to get in, but there is no way I'm getting in when the outside temp is barely cracking 15 degrees.

Tomorrow we are headed for Warrumbungle National Park, and the northernmost point of this trip.

Caravan park wrap up: so we spent 3 nights at the Parklands Big 4 Caravan Park and there are some pros and cons. For those that are looking for a quiet intimate park, then this is not for you. This is a large park with a number of sites. When we first arrived, the park was close to being full, but the past 2 nights have seen it empty out a bit. Our site - C13 - was quite spacious and allowed us to park the caravan, park the ute beside it and pull out the annex as well. Not something that can be done at all the sites. After both Mark and I struggled to shower the kids the first night, we discovered that this park has both a baby and a toddler bathroom. I can't comment on the baby one, but the toddler one has a bath and shower and has plenty of room. A definate plus in my book. I have previously mentioned the jumping pillow which both kids thought was simply fabbo. And it is. But the playground associated with it could do with a little more equipment suitable for babies and little toddlers. The jumping pillow gets a bit crowded (and rough) with the older kids using it, so the younger ones can find it a bit of a struggle. Something else for them would be good. The amenities are good - the camp kitchen is clean and has plenty of room and seating, the water is hot and there are a decent number of showers and toilets. However, the cleaning roster of the toilet blocks could be reviewed with the women's closed between 9 & 10am and the men's closed between 10 & 11am. Right when people are making their last abulutions before leaving. Whilst we never used it, there is also a small kiosk in the reception area where you can buy some groceries. All in all, I give this park a tick. It is certainly a very good place to base yourself from when visiting Dubbo and surrounds and is conveniently located almost next to the Open Range Zoo.

Quarks, pulsars and a slice of Africa

OK, time for another catch up.

Yesterday was day 5 and we left Forbes headed for Dubbo, calling in at the radio telescope at Parkes. But before leaving Forbes, we had to call into the local cemetary and see the graves of Ben Hall, Kate Kelly and Rebecca Shields (grand neice of Captain Cook).

The radio telescope is a MIGHTY structure ('The Dish" as it is affectionately known, is 64m in diameter) and is operated by the CSIRO and any number of scientist from Australia and abroad are conducting experiments with it. On the day we visited, I think there were about 5 scheduled experiments to happen, each of them looking at a different part of the sky. As such, we got to see the dish move around, which was quite amazing to see.

Because you can't actually go inside the telescope, there is a visitors centre set up right next to it with a range of static displays and a 20 minute 3D movie. Mark was hesitant about whether Tom would sit still and watch, but in fact, he was enthralled by it (maybe it was the 3D effect and he got to wear those really cool glasses ...not!). It was Biddy that I had to contain after the first 5 minutes, but then she fell asleep in her pram, so all was good!

OK. Now time for a bit of a bitch. We decided to grab something to eat at the on site cafe as we were already 20kms Dubbo side of Parkes and we didn't have stuff out and ready at hand in the van. Plus, the menu seemed suitable for the kids. So while Mark was out looking at the telescope with the kids, I ordered a caeser salad for me, a burger for Mark and 2 mini pizzas for the kids. Minutes ticked by. Still more minutes. Half an hour disappeared. The kids became a bit raucous, so the waitress bought out coloured pencils and paper. Other customers came and went and still our food hadn't turned up. So, with the clock nearing 50 minutes, and the kids being very good, I went up as asked how much longer, only to be told that the order hadn't even been processed because it was lost! Oh for God's sake! I mean, what did they think we were doing sitting there? Now, I can completely understand that sometimes the occasional order goes missing. But I can't understand how this can happen when there were only 3 tables occupied in the cafe and only 2 or 3 other customers came for takeaway!

So there was much running around behind the scenes and very quickly our meals came out. Too quickly. Part of our order was missing and when I went to cut the kids pizzas up, they were stone cold in the middle. So back they went and I asked for my money back on them, because by this time, the kids were beyond hungry and had picked at mine and Mark's. The manager tried to make amends by sending out some other food, but the kids didn't want it. We did get an icecream for Tom and Biddy's milk for free though. A bit too little too late.

So while Mark took Biddy back to the ute, I took Tom into the gift shop because he had found a dinosaur poster (of course!). Just as I got to the head of the queue, the phone lines went down and they announced that there was no credit card facilities. Grrr. I asked if they had a manual swipey thing and no. Great. Now Tom is at me to get the poster and I have no cash because I spent it all on our ill-fated lunch. After a trip back to the ute to deposit Tom and check out what coinage could be scraped up, I return to find that they can take my credit card details and book it up to my visa later on.

So whilst the grandeur of the radio telescope was fantastic, it was all marred somewhat by the other poor experiences that I had. But rest assured, the telescope is impressive.

So in the car and onto Dubbo. Because of all the mucking around over lunch, we lobbed into town around 4pm. A quick visit to the tourist information centre to pick up town maps, what's on, and various attractions, before setting up camp at the Parklands Big 4 Caravan Park. Now, as we are here for 3 nights, I will reserve my wrap up of this park until our last night. However, I will say that the fact that there is a jumping pillow about double the size of the one at Forbes has been an instant hit with both Tom and Biddy, despite the fact that there are numerous kids here that also think the jumping pillow is a bit of a winner.


Day 6
Mark has woken with a really badly infected eye. It was so badly junked up, that he couldn't open it when he woke up and I had to bathe it clean. It is so swollen that it has bruised and it looks like he has been in a fight. We think that he has caught some congunctivitis off Biddy as she had a bad eye a couple of days ago, but nothing like this. If it keeps up, he might need to see a doctor at one of the next towns, to get some antibiotics. Blurgh, it is really the worst eye infection I have ever seen.

Today we tackled the Open Range Zoo. Wow. This is great and the kids had a ball. So did Mark and I for that fact. We got there at around 10am and left at about 3.15pm. Whilst I'm sure that others have spent much more time there than we did, this was quite enough time for my two explorers as they walked a great deal of the 6km. And that is a looooooong way for a 4yo and 21mth old. We took our own car in and parked it and looked at exhibits and then moved on to the next exhibit. But because the car parks are quite close together, what ended up happening was that we all visited the first exhibit and then while Mark or I walked the kids to the next one, the other would go back and move the car up to the next point. This may seem to be a waste of time, but it worked quite well.

Tom was totally taken by the picture of the otter silhouette sign on the park map (he'd been studying it for a day already) and was absolutely convinced that the otter was a lizard, and continued to tell us that he was going to see an animal that lived under the ground. When we finally made it to the otter exhibit, the damn things were in hiding and we never saw one!! However, there were plenty of pictures around, so Tom got to see that otters were really nothing like lizard at all.

My favourite animal would have to to be the maned wolf. These are really beautiful creatures, although I'm sure that I would make an easy meal for them if given the chance! They sort of look like overgrown foxes but with REALLY long legs. They did stink though! Overall, the great thing about the zoo is that you almost feel like you are in with the animals, because what usually seperated you from them was a deep ditch and an electric fence running thousands of volts (no doubt). But if you stood back from the ditch or the fence, it was almost like you were in the same paddock as them. And in the case of the Galapagos Tortoise, Tom did end up in the same enclosure as them!

While Mark was inside the tortoise house looking at one, Tom appears around the back of the exhibt IN WITH THE TORTOISE. Because the barrier fences are very low (I could have easily have stepped over it), he simply jumped over it, ran past a number of other tortoises and surprises his dad by being in there with them all - "Ta Da"! Mark couldn't believe it. I could. Wish he got a photo of it though.

All in all, a great day out. The kids are exhausted - as we all are.

Oh, and I'll post some photos soon. Perhaps, I'll make a final trip post (when we get back home) of all the relevant pictures.

Day 4 - Narrandera to Forbes

After saying that our kids rarely wake with the sparrows, both of them were awake before 7am this morning which did have some benefits in that we were up and about and getting organised to head to Forbes at a reasonable hour. Still, we were one of the last to leave the caravan park even though we did get out before 10am.

We headed up the Newell Hwy stopping at West Wyalong for lunch. Two fabulous things about West Wyalong; the park at the start of the main drag (sorry, can't remember the name...if anyone knows it, please let me know), and the Round About Bakery. The park was simply the best lunch stop for the kids as there was a tops little playground which was completely fenced and had a great array of play equipment that even a toddler could use, and the bakery made the yummiest pies (although the beef and pepper pie was quite spicy..but still delicious). The sausage rolls must have also been pretty good because both kids woofed them down.

The Newell was a bit of an undulating ride - something I have never noticed in the past when driving up and down to Brisbane in years gone by. But then, I wasn't towing 500+kg behind me and the car I had at the time was pretty crap in itself! Impressively, there are many truck stops and rest stops along the route which allows for caravanners such as ourselves to easily move off the side of the road when a number of faster cars (and big rigs) are behind. Maybe those in power that are in charge of the Geelong to Warrnambool stretch of the Princes Hwy should take a trip and take notes.

We landed in Forbes around 2pm which gave us a good site and heaps of time to get settled. The Lachlan View Big 4 Caravan Park is a small park but has a handy playground for the kids which includes a jumping pillow which all of us (big kids included) thought was pretty good! Apparently there has been an enormous dust storm go across much of NSW in the past 24 hours, and it seems that Forbes was not spared. Certainly not by the colour of the kids clothes after they had finished rolling around the jumping pillow!

We are still finding that we are in need of a few things for the van, so we took a trip into town to the supermarket and took the opportunity for a quick squizz around. Forbes seems to be reknown for a couple of things; 1) the burial place for bushranger Ben Hall, 2) the burial place for Kate Kelly, the sister of even more famous bushranger Ned Kelly, and 3) some amazing heritage buildings. Tomorrow we will call around and see some of these attractions.

Caravan park wrap up: the Lachlan View is a nice little park with good sized grassed sites that allow for annexes to be pulled out and still leave you enough room not to be on top of your neighbour. The camp kitchen is reasonable and clean with a few implements (kettle, toaster etc) available for use as well as fridge and BBQ (20c/15mins). A slight problem with the BBQ's starter meant that we had to go in search of some matches but this is not a deal breaker. The playground is good and toddlers can use the equipment, although Biddy needed some help getting up on the jumping pillow (which, judging by the other kids playing on it, is a huge asset). The showers are clean and the water is hot. There is a baby bath sink in the ladies, although I found this too late and had already bathed Biddy in the laundry trough, which she thought was fine as she got to chat aimlessly to a lady who was waiting for her washing! There seems to be a number of things that happen in Forbes (a Ben Hall festival is coming up), so I would think that this park would fill up quite quickly as it is more of a smaller park.

September '09 road trip

After seemingly getting prepared for weeks, we are finally on the road and headed for Warrumbungle National Park. Well, that is our most northerly destination, but we are really only staying there one night. This trip is really about seeing sites and catching up with friends and family on the way up and the way back. So I thought that I'd better keep some sort of record of the auspicious event, plus depending on what happens on the way, it might make for entertaining reading (or not!).

I have to backtrack a couple of days, so excuse that, but I'll *try* and update most days if possible (translate: internet coverage is good).

Day 1 (Monday 20 Sept)

Not a fabulous start, and certainly, not the speedy exit that Mark had hoped to make, we eventually pulled out of the drive at Craiglands at about 12pm. Right on lunchtime. We didn't even make it into Colac when Tom started on about being hungry and wanting something to eat. So in order to keep some sort of timeliness to our day, we opted for McD's and ate on the way.

Today we travelled to Nanneella in the northern irrigation region of Vic (not very far from Echuca), to catch up with friends Selina Handley, Tim Fulton and their kids. It has been years (almost 9 I'm ashamed to say) since I have been to their place, and there has been significant improvements made to what used to be a tired old farmhouse. It is now wonderful and I am so jealous (space...they have HEAPS of space).

However, before we even got anywhere near them, I suddenly thought that we hadn't packed Tom's bedding. Whilst we did have a fair range of blankets on board, this was a significant oversight as it could mean that he ended up in bed with us. Freezing. So a quick stop into a huge shopping precinct at Kangaroo Flat (just out of Bendigo) that has seemingly just sprung up out of nowhere to buy a new doona. Mark graciously donated one of his pillows to Tom for the holiday duration.

Arrived at Nanneella at around 5.30pm just in front of a huge thunderstorm which then kept up most of the night and had me thinking that we might be blown away at any minute. Everyone was very pleased to see us as we told them that we bought the rain up for them!

Kids in bed late, but went pretty much straight to sleep.

Day 2

We have always been fortunate that our kids do not wake with the birds. They certainly do not keep dairy farmer hours. So at about 8am, both kids woke and got into bed with us. A couple of minutes later, I got out. Four bodies in 1 bed doesn't really work.

A leisurely morning was spent doing 8 tenths of bugger all. Got in touch with some more friends that happen to live about 1 km down the road (Carl & Rachelle Moon -the same Carl who shows our cows) and arranged to catch up with them later in the day. After lunch, while Mark offered to stay with Biddy while she had a nap (translate: have a nap himself), Sel and I took the remaining kids into Echuca to run some energy out at the playground and to show Tom the paddlesteamers. The weather was very warm despite the big rain storm the previous night and the kids were bright red and in need of an ice-cream after the playground (and so did Sel and I....it's tough work watching them play!)

Later that afternoon, Mark and I (and kids) caught up with the Moon's to discover that Rachelle (who is very pregnant) is actually due this day!! And is looking fantastic I must say! Of course, the conversation was about cows and grass and rain and sport, with the occasional reference to kids thrown in for good measure. Carl is coming down for Colac show again this year, so it won't be too long before we catch up again.

Tonight, kids very tired and went to sleep almost immediately.

Day 3 (today)

Time to leave Nanneella (before we wore out our welcome) and head over the border into NSW. Today we headed for Narrandera mainly because we thought that any further was too big a push for the kids. To make it a bit interesting, I navigated us through Deniliquin, Conargo (where we stopped for lunch) and past the property where I jillarooed 20+ years ago. OMG. I didn't think that it was that long until I stopped and counted up the years. I now feel old. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to look up the phone number of the family that own Barrabool Station, but I had no joy. As it turns out, when we stopped for lunch and I spoke to the lady at the general store, she told me that the brother I worked for (2 brothers owned the farm; 1 worked on farm with his wife and the other worked off farm but had a active interest in it) had left the farm and was now living in Deni. So sadly, there was no-one I knew that still was at the farm. However, the road was good for us to travel on past the property and onward to the Sturt Hwy (it is a sand road for much of it) and whilst it was soft in some spots due to recent rain, we had no trouble with the ute or the van. When we got to Barrabool we got out and I had a photo in front of the sign for old times sake. I think it really hit Mark just how remote the station was that I worked on when I was just an 18yo, and I hope he was a bit impressed!!

Travelling onto Narrandera, we passed a lot of farmland, and the crops are looking pretty good (rice) and the cattle (beef) are certainly in good nick.

Tonight is the first night we are staying in a caravan park - Lake Talbot Tourist Park - and it is a battle to moderate the kids volume control. The majority of the other travellers are couples (both young and old) and I haven't spotted too many other youngsters. Of course, you can hear Tom clear across the park and when I returned from a quick supermarket venture, a neighbour mentioned that it sounded like someone was being killed in our van!! Great.

However, Tom thought it was a great novelty to cook our dinner on the BBQ (why, I don't know, because we BBQ all the time at home. Maybe it is because we don't put money in our BBQ) and must have been hungry because everything disappeared from his plate with very little coaxing from us. Showers in the amenities block for all of us - another adventure - and kids in bed and fast asleep in record time! Bliss.

Caravan park wrap up: at this time of year, you can have your pick of any site (we chose a drive through). However, the park is a bit tired and outside of the summer period when the local pool is open (right next door), there is very little for kids to do here. In fact the only play equipment is 2 swings and the chain on the baby one is broken. The amenities were ok; the showers and toilets are clean and the water is hot, but if you wanted to use the camp kitchen, the facilities were extremely basic and the fridge wasn't turned on for people to use. Recommend for a 1 night stop over if you are pretty much self sufficient.

Update on the back situation

Ok. We've seen the specialist again, and there has been no improvement from the nerve block injection that Mark had. So the next step is surgery.

We've been advised that the surgery will almost completely fix the pain that Mark experiences down his leg, but may not do much for the actaul back pain. This is because the back pain is more of a deflated disc issue - sort of like a dodgy shock absorber! The disc is really only half the height it should be so it doesn't flex as much as a good disc should. But this pain may very well be manageable when the leg pain is removed from the equation. Or not. Which means that down the track, other treatment may be required.

So the rundown we have been given is that surgery will mean 3 days in hospital, discharge by ambulance to home because he won't be able to sit for long distances in the car, 4 weeks of no activity, next 4 weeks would be starting to get back into it, the 4 weeks after that would be moderate activity and then by the 12th week, he should be right. If the surgery happens around the middle of November, this will set Mark up for some of the fire season (because let's face it....it really doesn't get hot and horrible until mid February), and also the start of baseball season (!).

We'll see.......