Day 1 – Home to Carrathool (Hay)

After waking several times, as you do when you know you need to get up extra early, the clock finally says 4:45, not much point trying to get 15mins more sleep.  Like last time Liam is up early.   We get ready in near record time and are on the road by 5:45.   I’ve got to say doing a U turn with a caravan in Clarke St is interesting at the best of time, let alone 5:30.

We’ve chosen to leave at stupid o’clock to miss the long weekend traffic, surprisingly (maybe not at 5:45!) there is much less traffic than I expected.  Oddly it was after Campbelltown it seemed to get busier.

The driving is pretty easy and the sun starts to rise.  About this time, we’re around Mossvale, and the car is really struggling.  Is it a headwind?  I’m starting to listen really closely to every sound the car is making as I’m starting to think that something might be wrong with it as it working that hard. I’ve nearly got my foot to the floor just to keep it near 100k/h.  But after about 30 or so mins, things seem to return to normal (was it uphill????)

Breakky at Suttons Forrest and it’s damn cold.  Past Gundagai and we finally take the Wagga Wagga turn off.   While I know Wagga is a big town, it’s bigger than I remember, ok It’s probably grown since I was here 15 or so years ago.

We stop in Narrandera for lunch, after the story of the Melbourne covid couple who drove to Queensland while under lockdown first stopped here, this was the last place I expected us to stop.   Unexpectedly, the visitor centre has “The Largest Playable Guitar in Australia”  Yep it’s a thing and Liam is beside himself! Then they see a sign that says “Please don’t touch the Guitar” due to covid. Liam asks very politely at the front counter if he can play it – there is no-one else in the centre, so the lady says it’s fine as long as we all clean our hands before & after.  Justine & Liam try playing Smoke on the Water – it kind-of works, but the guitar is woefully out of tune. Still a bit of fun.

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We’ve roughly planned to free camp somewhere before Hay on the Murrumbidgee river.  The first camp is right on the highway so probably not a great option.  The next place is off a side road It seems nice enough, but there are a few groups here.  We try another camp further up the road, but the entrance road is so soft and muddy, I’ve got images in my mind of the van up to the axles….Justine did a test walk and sank very quickly into the mud.

Back to the earlier stop, there is enough room by the river.  At least here it is flowing too, not like at Collarenebri or Brewarrina.  Finally a campfire, one of the things I really love about getting away and not going to caravan parks.  

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After testing the diesel heater at home about 3 or 4 times since fixing it, today as we go to put it on it decides not to play friendly and just blow smoke.  Crap.  Error code 10 again, just like back in Nyngan a year or so back.   So like then I get under the van and it seems the fuel filter might have a crack, is it letting air in?  Under the van and I remove the filter,  I’m covered in diesel, but eventually get the heater going.   Maybe best not to stand too close to the fire.

The group near us has have had a generator going all afternoon.  Surely they’ll turn it off after dark…. But No.  So at 9pm I go over and ask them if they intend on running it all night,  not sure of what reaction I’ll get, while there is a bit of grumbling, they turn it off, so hopefully we’ll get some sleep and be ready for another long day tomorrow.