First we pulled off a beauty of a surprise with the help of a few friends.
Neil finished up work on the dairy and we deserted the cold weather and our little caravan home and headed off on a jet plane.
Neil's first flight (other than joy riding in my parents plane a few years ago) was accomplished and we flew into Coffs airport to surprise our families with a visit.
First we sprung Neil's parents and grandparents in Urunga before a flying visit to Ag Quip at Gunnedah (an Ag field day for those not in the know).
Later we headed to Casino to suprise my family -at which point my father expected the announcement of a new grandchild on the way-squashing that rumour we were later joined by my brother, sister inlaw and Nephew and later by my little brother and his girlfriend - a very neat birthday present for my mum.
Out to lunch with Neil's folks in Coffs- after our flight got randomly cancelled (due to engineering issues) and we were awaiting our new flights.
Naomis Family out for dinner at the local steak house.
Our little Nephew Lucas wasnt missing out on the steakhouse special.
We made a speedy trip to the Dale- aka Armidale. Apologies to all we didnt get to see on our dash through -a quick stop to get our tax done on route. We arrived one arvo, spent the night with my old housemate Em (thanks Em) and saw a very few old friends.
After some flight cancellations and an unexpected night in Melbourne we made it back to check our caravan still had the annexe attached. Some ghastly winds and rain greeted us back in Colac. A day later Neil's patience with his favourite thing WIND had run out and we hit the road for a little trek north for a good nights sleep.
For those who are campers you will know wind = zero sleep as the annexe flaps and every noise is amplified. We free camped a few nights in random little places in the middle or beautiful canola and wheat fields in western VIC.Then headed to Horsham and onto Mildura through the beautiful Grampians where we stopped for the odd bushwalk.
The Grampians behind our rig.
What timing- we arrived in Mildura for the 100th celebration on the paddlesteamer PS Melbourne and scored a great day of markets and a river cruise up the Murray. The river was packed with paddle steamers from all up and down the murray that converged on Mildura for the weekend.
Mildura is a weird place- not the picture of lush green we imagined for a fruit growing capital- rather it was dry and desolate. Cleary the only reason fruit grows there is due to extensive irrigation from the Murray. Stranger still you never feel like you are in the city centre- house, vineyard, house, orange plantation house more fruit is pretty much the pattern throughout the whole town.
We enjoyed a great free camp along the murray- a little eventful to find with a road open that cleary should have been shut resulting in Neil working some magic (and me sending up a lot of prayers) to get us out of a sticky jam.Praise God for miracles! to say the least- mobile reception wasnt on hand and people were few and far between so it could have been dramatic.
Sunset at our Kings Billabong free camp near Mildura
From Mildura it was onward and upward to along the Silver City HWY towards Broken Hill. My first attempt at towing anything commenced on the widest and straightest stretch in coee. We survived as did our rig and arrived at another free camp- this time along a branch of the Darling river part way between Wentworth and Broken Hill.
We met some lovely people there and enjoyed swapping adventures like true Grey Nomads- I think were getting the touch to enter the in group even though were don't meet the age requirements.
Now we are really feeling outback. The roads are long and straight. The temperature is amazing and the scenery is flat- dotted with wild goats in there hundreds, emus left right and centre and the odd domesticated animal- sheep or cattle. The wild flowers are coming out across the sandy desert - the vegetation is low and every second tree is dead timber having surcombed to a drought over the years.
And so we have arrived in Broken Hill. Today we explored Silverton- but more on that next time.
