Mount Isa to Avon Downs

Day 23—Wednesday,17^th July Mount Isa to Avon Downs NT. (263kms)

Before leaving the park, we decided that, if we were to replace the microwave oven, here would be the place to do so, the town being blessed by K-Mart and Harvey Norman, among other white goods outlets. K-Mart were selling their own brand quite cheaply but the small unit at $45.00 was too small and the medium size at $99.00 would not fit the cavity space in the van, being too long by about 10mm. So we set off to find Harvey Norman and there we found an LG model, 30L and just the right dimension. We came away, some $169.00 poorer but the young assistant at HN lived up to the TV ads and carried the new unit out to the van, which I’d tottered off to fetch from the Coles car park about two blocks away. Not only that but she staggered back across the road, with our old unit for disposal! Thanks Louisa.

So, by now, it’s nearly 11.30am as we left Mount Isa behind, heading for Camooweal and the NT border. An uneventful drive until Camooweal where we had to maneuver into the Road House driveway for a top up. Less than 200kms from a $1.61. price, the roadhouse manages to demand $1.94 per litre. If that’s not price gouging, I don’t know what is!

Only a short drive to the NT border and a quick stop for a photo opportunity, then on another 60kms to the Avon Downs camp site. Here we were early enough to have a wide choice of camp spots and got well set up before the crowd arrived. Very quiet out in the outback and the stars bright and clear. A good night’s sleep was had.

Still Celebrating!

Longreach to Mount Isa

Day 19—Saturday, 13th July (Longreach to Hughenden via Winton 399kms)

On the road again by 9.30am, heading east for Winton, where we stopped for a town walk followed by lunch. There was some kind of Opal Expo going on and the town was packed, with rigs parked everywhere in the streets. We did the Matilda Museum last trip and decided to press on north along the so called Dinosaur Way, also known as the Kennedy Developmental Road, to Hughenden. We arrived just in time to snatch the last powered site which we’ll hang on to for two nights, while we go check out this Dinosaur stuff. We covered 400kms today, a change after the short hauls through the Channel Country. After getting setup, we enjoyed a quiet afternoon and after dinner, tried out the new telly, watching some footy and later the cricket. The new telly worked well, the software easy to understand and operate. Just to even things up though, during the preparation of dinner, our microwave oven blew up, Bugger! Where's Lionel? Tell him to come fetch Murphy!

Day 20—Sunday,14^th July (Hughenden 152kms bobtail)

Helen got some washing started and after breakfast, the washing got hung out. We then walked into town, about two kilometers. The streets, like most of the towns in the region, are very wide. They too would have had to U-turn teams of horse and wagon in the old days.

Not a very impressive town centre but the Information Centre, known as The Flinders Discovery Centre, stands out. Once again, information and museum combined. A large fossil collection and history section on the days when sheep stations were the main source of income in the area. Pride of place though, must go to the full skeletal replica of Muttaburrasaurus. 

The story here is that the original skeleton found near Muttaburra, was not complete.Incomplete and missing bones were "re-constructed from related dinosaurs, such as Iguanadon from Europe.

We strolled around the museum for a good couple of hours, then headed back to the CP for lunch. Washing all dried, folded and stored.

Muttaburrasaurus

After lunch, we decided on a drive out to Porcupine Gorge for a look see. This took us out of town and across the Flinders River, supposedly the longest river in Queensland. Today though all that can be seen is just a bed of sand. As we neared the gorge, we climbed to a high of 568M, as high as a any time, this trip.

The gorge is 27kms in length and the cliff drop at the lookout, 120M. We've recently been suffering from grid fever so it was good that there were only ten grids in this drive and the homesteads much closer to the road which has been built up quite high in places over the flood channels.

Porcupine Gorge

On return to town, we filled the tanks on the Patrol, ready for the off, in the morning. At dinner time, we took our snags to the camp kitchen for BBQing and had a lovely chat to a couple of German lads, doing an outback tenting tour whilst waiying to hear if they'd been accepted at their university of choice, for medicine.

Day 21—Monday,15^th July (Hughenden to Julia Creek 268kms)

Very sunny morning and after a good breakfast, we headed off westwards for Julia Creek. The highway quite uneven but getting used to it. Never again will I wonder why a caravan needs independent suspension! A raised roadway again, above the floodplain. The railline here, seems to be privately operated by Aurizon, as we’d noticed back in Hughenden and we saw regular trains with fully covered wagons!?

We  stopped at Richmond and did the Info Centre/Museum thing again. This centre taking pride of place in an otherwise unremarkable town. It’s an amazing area though and the archaeological finds are world famous. Many of the exhibits have been found by local farmers and loaned to the museum.

Helen found the local butcher and stocked up on silverside, mince, sausages and loin chops. The sausages were 2012 Sausage Champions. We will see!

After the spending spree, we moved out to the town’s other attraction, Lake Fred Tritton. A man made lake, recently completed and which now hosts water skiing and fishing competitions. It also supports plenty of birdlife, including a pair of Pelicans. We were happy just to use one of the many shelters for our sandwich and cuppa. The hospital is adjacent to the lake and we noticed the mobile Dental Service in attendance. It didn’t look very busy.

Pushing on to Julia Creek, we found the budget camping area around the creek, almost full to capacity but managed to find a level site some distance away and of course nearer to the highway.

Julia Creek (Be Early Though)

We got the Baby Q out and cooked the chops mentioned earlier and they were as good as they looked. Another good day, with the sun setting over Julia Creek and the proximity of the highway bothered me not.

Day 22—Tuesday,16^th July (Julia Creek to Mount Isa via Cloncurry 268kms)

After breakfast and some entertainment, watching a Rainbow Bee Eater catching his breakfast, we headed off into town. Julia Creek is famous for it’s Dunnart, a small marsupial, about the size of a large mouse. The Dunnart had been thought extinct until recently and has now been reared successfully at a sanctuary outside town and at a zoo in NSW. Unfortunately, feral cats have been a great pest in the area and hindering successful release of the animal.

The Julia Creek Dunnart

Stopped in Cloncurry, at the Mary Kathleen Mine Museum for lunch. The museum car park was littered with rigs, mostly hugging the edges where there was some shade, so we moved out towards the highway and parked under a gum tree. While we lunched, we were well entertained by a Magpie singing for his mate.

When we arrived in Mount Isa, we found the Top Tourist CP full, or no powered sites anyway. We had been here in 2009 and it was full then but they found us a site in the “overflow area” which was easy to drive into but very difficult to reverse out of. So not to unhappily turned around and headed back down the highway and pinched the last powered site at the Mount Isa Caravan Park (Oz Parks). Next to the highway, very noisy back also next to the laundry which was convenient as Helen wanted to change and wash the bed linen.

After all that and unhooking the Patrol, we set off to renew our acquaintanceship with the Mount Isa Irish Club where we celebrated Helen’s birthday. We both had grilled barramundi along with a complementary bottle of Yellow Tail Cab Sav. Nice and they knew nothing about somebody’s birthday! I think we did the same, last trip in 2009 but no vino! On the way back to the CP we filled up at Coles Express with the help of a shopper docket from an earlier visit to Coles. At a 161.9c per litre, a 4c discount doesn’t make much difference.

Coopers Creek to Longreach

Day 16—Wednesday, 10^th July

Single Lane Bridge Over Cooper Creek near Windorah

After breakfast, headed off across Cooper Creek’s one lane bridge, into Winton. As usual, first call at the Info Centre. As with many of these centres, this one too was part museum, part community centre, so we had a good wander around. Helen bought a dammit Doll?

Something that makes Windorah unique, is their Solar Farm, five huge mirror dishes, each dish contains 112 mirrors measuring 1100mms square. The mirrors concentrate the sunlight onto a panel of cells, which is converted into electricity, which is then fed into the town’s power network.

So, onwards towards Helen’s favourite destination about 60kms up the highway towards Longreach. This was a small town called Stonehenge! Nothing like that other better known Stonehenge but a visit out of curiosity. The Community/Info Centre was of some interest, mainly because it had internet access which we made use of to send some cash home, for firewood. To mark the visit, we decided on lunch at the pub, bacon and egg burger for me and a pie for Helen, with a good cold one to wash it all down.

We were almost done when the publican came by and asked how was lunch, then where do you come from. The usual explanation cause nobody knows where Nyora is, right, Should have learned from our earlier experience! It went somthing like: “I know where Nyora is, I was born in Inverloch”. “My family owned pubs at various times and places, including the one at Loch”! The name was Beaton. Again, how small a world. Must be a big change, moving to a town with a population of thirty, six of them school children!

We finally reached Longreach around 4.00pm and got set up. Dinner was a sausage sizzle at the campfire, listening to a country singer.

Day 17—Thursday, 11^th July

In the morning, a drive into town for a wander and to check out prices on 22” TV’s. We also found a garage that can do the service on the Patrol in the morning. That might mean another night. At the Info Centre, we were referred to Desert Channels for  a copy of a map of the Cooper Basin that we took a fancy too. A great store to tour, is Kinnons & Co., a gift shop come leather goods shop. Best visited when you’ve left your wallet at home! During our wanders, we decided to lash out on a new TV. The brand unfamiliar but it ticks a couple of boxes, such as external power supply and built in DVD player. External power supply means we can connect directly to the 12v supply in the van.

After returning to the van and a sandwich, we drove down the highway to the Hall of Fame and forked out another $100 for a two day ticket to the museum and dinner and show at the Catleman’s Bar & Grill. So the rest of the day was spent going through the Hall of Fame Museum. Dinner was a fixed menu, rump steak, chips and vege and delicious.

The Stockman's Hall of Fame

The stockman dinner show was by Lachie Cossor from Yackandandah, a half hour mix of whip cracking and riding skills, including all three of Lachie’s daughters, ranging from nine years to fifteen all excellent riders. After the show, dinner as above was served.

Day 18—Friday, 12th July

Early out and into Longreach with the Patrol, then a 2km walk back to the van for shower and breakfast. We had discovered a shortcut to the Hall of Fame from the back of the caravan park so we headed back there for another visit. You check in at the reception desk and get wrist banded in the day’s colour.

Since we’d enjoyed the Stockman’s Show last night, we booked in for the extended version at 11am and then took a wander through the Hugh Sawrey Art Gallery.

The one hour extended show was much enjoyed, although now without the three girls, probably at school! Today the show included horse training as well as dogs working sheep. I reckon the sheep were pretty well trained too. Also on display was Jigsaw a huge cross bred bull from a Brahman bull and a cross Hereford/Friesian cow.

Lachie Cosser and Jigsaw

 After walking back to the van and some lunch we strolled back into town to collect the Patrol, another $300.00 injection into the local economy. Getting over that, we then pulled into the Caltex service station to fill up, another $215.00.

Here for the first time since Dubbo, we were able to top up the LPG too. Over the last couple of diesel only fills, the fuel economy blew out from 16l/100k to 20l/100k, so the saving on dual diesel/gas is noticeable. But out here the cost of LPG at $1.00 per litre, compared to an average of $0.60 at home, reduces the gap. Although, as the cost of diesel increases, it’s all relative.

Back at the van, we sat outside for a little happy hour and were joined by our neighbours, a couple from Horsham. One delight at this caravan park is the unafraid, not tame, presence of a pair of Brolga’s which management advise not to feed.

Thargomindah to Coopers Creek

Day 13—Sunday, 7^th July

A beautiful clear blue sky again this morning and Helen took advantage and did a load of washing at the park laundry. We had been interested to visit here as the ACC Southern Nomads held a muster here last year and the reports had been glowing. We found the reports well justified. After laundry and then morning tea, we took a town walk, along the banks of the Bulloo River. A wide muddy slow moving river with great picnic spots but the country is very dry, the comparison quite stark. Carrying on with our walk, we were surprised to find that the river was  now, just a couple of disconnected pools and were reminded that’s mostly what  outback rivers are in dry times.

After reaching the spot where, long ago, Cobb & Co coaches crossed the river, we returned through the main street to the caravan park. This took us past Leahy House, a restored original mud brick cottage, once owned by Sir Sydney Kidman. The cottage is open 24 hrs, 7 days a week, you just open the front door and enter. Apparently no problems with vandalism in Thargomindah. Back at the park, it was lunch and get the washing in.

After lunch, we made a visit to the Information Centre. This old building was originally the  local hospital. Now it’s a combination information centre and museum, the museum part is all about the hospital but outside, a display of old machinery. This building, also mud brick will be closed soon as museum and information move into brand new premises in the main street. Town council is already planning renovations and future use ideas. The hospital was closed in 1976 and the town is now serviced twice weekly by the Flying Doctor service.

I think the highlight of the visit, was a visit to the old Hydro Power Plant, closed down now as the town is now “on the grid”. The story goes that Thargomindah was the third town in the world to have electric street lights, after Paris and London! The Power Plant was driven by Artesian Basin water which reaches the surface at high pressure and high temperature. The water was connected to a generator and even had a system where the pressure could be regulated according to power demand!

High Pressure at 85º

The bore is still uncapped and the flow of water now services the cattle at a nearby station. Plans are being made to cap the bore as part of a national scheme to cap bores which are all very wasteful and lose much of the flow just to evaporation.

Day 14—Monday, 8^th July

The plan today, is to drive to Quilpie and this will include a thirty kilometre section of gravel. The first thirty kay though is beautiful almost brand new, wide tarmac. Lots of roads in the state are being rebuilt after big wets. Enjoyed it while it lasted.

Once the gravel was behind us, the sealed road varied between single lane with stretches of double lane width, with lots of floodways and cattle grids.

Good Gravel to Toompine

About halfway between Thargomindah and Quilpie is a Pub with no town at Toompine. We just had to visit and ended up with home made pie and chips with the beer. Ginger beer for Helen. While enjoying our lunch, another tradie type guy arrived and ordered same. That was the lunch hour rush. There are powered caravan sites alongside the Pub, free! I guess the catch is the expectation that you dine at the Pub. Unconfirmed.

Arriving at Quilpie, we headed just out of town to Lake Houdraman and set up at the lakesde. The Lake was quite well attended by about a dozen or so campers. Here, we particularly missed the use of the inverter and we soon ran out of power on the laptop, which probably needs a new battery. Helen’s iPad held it’s charge and the phones too. No problem.

Camped at Lake Houdraman

Day 15—Tuesday, 9^th July

After breakfast we made the seven kilometer drive into own and fueled up. Still no LPG in these parts. A quiet little town and a visit to the Info Centre was rewarded with a walk through it’s history thanks to a very well put together display in the attached museum. A visit to St Finbarrs church to view the boulder opal alter.

St Finbarrs at Quilpie

Along the way towards Windorah, at a rest area stop for a sandwich and cuppa, we bumped into a Kennedy neighbour, from Jeetho, Mick Connelly. Had a chat and wondered at how small a world we live in??

We’re heading for a campsite at the Cooper Creek crossing about twelve kilometers before Windorah, arriving a bit late but easily found a spot with plenty of separation. As we took a walk along the creek, we saw nice Yellow Belly being reeled in by other campers. Guess who didn’t bring the rods?

As our gadget batteries were either dead or nearly so, we decided to give the new Honda gennie a go and get everything charged up. Too easy and while on things new, got the Baby Q out and plugged into the gas bayonet. The snags were great, so the night of firsts was declared a success.

Collarenebri to Thargomindah (Day 010 to 012)

Day 10—Thursday, 4^th July

Set of after breakfast and farewell to Braden. Next time, we should stay longer and sample Bradens cooking, two nights exhausted the eat out places! We have to set off without the rear view camera as one of Bradens dogs, we suspect Doc, has eaten through both ends of the Wozza cable connecting the caravan to the Patrol.

So, headed back towards Walgett and the Highway. A quick stop at Stanley, just south of the Ridge and admired the metal art, a huge metal emu, made out of car parts, some of which looked a bit VWish.

Next stop was at the Information Centre at Darrinbandi, which was closed for lunch. So, taking the hint we retreated back to the van and had our lunch.

After lunch, a bit of a town walk but not much to look at so that didn’t take long. We found the Police Station, wanting to ask for road conditions to Bollon but they must have been at lunch too. Eventually, we found someone at the Information Centre who thought the road we planned was good. Going to Bollon directly meant about 40kms of gravel but would save about 100kms going via St George. We fuelled up at the local service station but no LPG and it sounds like there won’t be any for some time.

Collarenibri to Thargomindah (627kms)

In the event, we did take the shortcut and found most of it brand newly sealed except about thirty kms in three sections and this well graded and wide.

At Bollon, we found a lovely camp down by the Wallam Creek where about twenty other vans had beaten us to the best sites. Our first power free night and we discovered that the inverter had “gone to god”. We did enjoy a pleasant afternoon and evening, with a great sunset, this time with clouds and a pair of Brolgas in the paddock, behind us.

After dinner, I spent a half hour or so trying to splice together the camera cable, with success, now we wait to see if it will hold together without soldered joins.

Day 11—Friday, 5^th July

In the morning we were amused to see a mob of sheep, and drover on motorbike, slowly drift through the camp area. 

Off again heading west now toward Cunnamulla. The road quite flat in places with some gentle slopes, not much fencing, with cattle, sheep and lots of goats, which we guessed are feral. We’re now entering Kite country and can see them floating lazily overhead, very seldom not in view. And crows, lots of them, attracted to the highway by the roadkill.

Only a relatively short drive today, reaching Cunnamulla just after noon. Checked into the caravan park, It turned out to be the final day of a big school football carnival, so the park was busy but I had booked ahead, so no problem. Later though and unbooked it may have been a problem Then we discovered that Cunnamulla boasts a second CP. After lunch, a walk into town and a visit to the Info Centre, The Cunnamulla Fella Centre. A very well laid out museum here which we enjoyed greatly, including an artesian time tunnel, taking you back 50 million years. Back at the park we were invited to take happy hour at the park campfire where we met a half dozen other pairs of travellers. TV reception has been patchy since leaving Dubbo and here was no diffrence with only a few digital channels. No footy. Then, a flash of inspiration, tried tuning analogue and came up with channel seven which was showing Pies and Blues, only just watchable. Two of the digital channels were 7mate and seven2 but no seven, except the analogue which will be switched off at monthe end. For the record, the Pies won well.

Day 12—Saturday, 6^th July

Packed up and got ready to go but took the time to take a walk to a nearby lookout, high on a sand dune. The dune is obviously used by local kids for sand skiing, there were bits and pieces of cardboard lying about, even a couple of pieces of masonite. Could be fun but us oldies not tempted. Just getting up there was a challenge.

Back to the park and pulled out, making for the Info Centre and a photo shoot of Cunnamulla Fella sitting on his swag. Couldn’t shoot yesterday for all the kids climbing all over him. Since we had another short drive today, we decided to find the Allan Tannock Weir, about 7kms out of town along the Warrego River. On the waym we noticed the second CP, right on the rivers edge. Finally, decided to fuel up, which hopefully we see us through to Longreach.

Once on the way, more of the same, unfenced paddocks, with cattle here and there, plenty of sheep, not so many goats. Back at Darrinbandi, we’d spotted a quad storey road train, full of goats. Maybe they were from these parts.

Had lunch at Eulo and a walk around town. Everybody sells opals hereabouts, not surprising, since it’s old opal country. On the way out of town at the Paroo River crossing, we discovered why we’d had Eulo to ourselves, everybody was parked by the river, some looked a bit long term too.

Arriving at Thargomindah, we lucked the last powered site and took a two night stay. The telly tonight in this part of the country, dominated by rugby, the Wallabies v The Lions and then NRL. Unhappily, we couldn’t watch, our telly seems to have gone to god. No connection to one gone to god inverter. Ah well, nuts.

Dubbo to Collarenebri and Lightning Ridge (Day 008 to 009)

Day 8—Tuesday, 2nd July

After leaving the Caravan Park at 9.30am, we made a short trip to the Information Centre (plenty of van parking), for a closer look at the old rail bridge which carries the line over the river into Dubbo station. 

The Dubbo rail bridge over Macquarie River is a heritage-listed bridge on the Main Western line, located west of the Dubbo central business district.

It was designed by John Whitton, at the time, the Engineer-in-Chief for the New South Wales Government Railways.

The bridge was built during 1884 by Benjamin Barnes, with ironwork by Cochrane & Co, Middlesborough, England. The railway bridge is also known as the Dubbo Lattice Railway Bridge. The bridge was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register in 1999.
The bridge is sited 462.8 kilometres (287.5 miles), from Sydney Central Station

After a walk along the river bank and a few snaps, we were off, heading north on the Castlereagh Highway.

Dubbo to Collarenibri (350kms)

After a short stop at Hunter Park, Gilgandra, where we had morning tea, we carried on towards Coonamble, where it was lunch  that held us up. At Coonamble, in a little rest area, opposite the footy oval, we found three or four other vans enjoying a break. A sign of improving weather, instead of sitting in the van, we dragged the camp chairs out and set them up on a grassy strip and enjoyed the sunshine. All this about ten meters from the highway. The passing parade of locals, truckies and other travellers must have thought we were daft.

Instead of going directly to Lightning Ridge, we had decided to detour slightly to Collarenebri and visit an old friend, Braden Hamilton. We'd heard a rumour that Braden was an experienced Ridge tour guide! So after passing through Walgett, we turned off the Highway about fifteen kilometres north of Walgett and travelled another sixty to Collarenebri. Our arrival was well timed, we'd not long pulled up outside No. 43, than Braden appeared, walking home from work.

Braden had lured us to Colly with a promise of the use of his washing machine and we took advantage by getting the bed linen washed and dried. After all this activity, we were all in a hungry mood, so off to the Pub for dinner. As a bonus, we also met the rest of Braden's workmates. Did I mention, Braden and workmates are Ambulance Officers in the NSW Ambulance Service

Day 9—Wednesday, 3rd July

After breakfast, Braden in his capacity as tour guide drove us to the local Aboriginal Cemetery, just a little way out of town.

This was a new experience, to see the way the locals buried their dead. After burial, the graves are left to settle, tall mounds, decorated with plastic flowers and other ornaments. After a while, some three, four or five years, the grave is levelled and a wooden frame is built around the grave which is then back filled and levelled before being decorated with coloured glass and other glass ornaments. Very interesting.

Next, our tour took us via the "back road" to Lightning Ridge. This is an unsealed road of about 100kms which saves about 50kms on the trip on the highway, back towards Walgett and the Castlereagh Highway. The road is wide and well maintained, although there were a couple of rough patches which had been churned up by heavy transports after rain.

We arrived in Lightning Ridge and made a quick visit to the Information Centre, picking up some details of the local "car door" tours. These are a selection of tours of local sights, marked out by different coloured old car doors.

By now though, it was lunch time so we checked in at the Bowling Club and had a feed. Then off on the Yellow Car Door Tour, which took us to The lunitics lookout and one of the original pits, all fenced of now and preserved as a monument to the early opal miners. Other sites were Amigos Castle and the Polish Astronomers Monument, not so much about digging for opals, as the effect on the mind caused by digging for opals. Other car door tours, were the red and blue, in between which we made a visit to the John Murray Gallery.

The last tour, the green car door was based on the drive out to the sunset lookout. Along the way were various markers but the impression was, that the organisers were running out of things to mention. But we set up our camp chairs on a mullock heap and had Happy Hour while we waited for the sunset. Unhappily, the day was clear as a bell, not a cloud in the sky! Most of the great sunsets rely to some extent, the late sun reflected on the clouds. But not bad at all.

After the last shutter click (electronic), we packed all the chairs into Bradens Subaru and headed home, an uneventful drive but not the best time of the day for traveling. We came across sheep and kangaroos wandering along the road verge and we learned about slowing right down when oncoming headlights shortened the range of visability. Of course, as always, lots of roadkill. Home in time for a stroll to the Colly Bowls Club for dinner.

Junee to Dubbo (Day 005 to 007)

Day 5—Saturday, 29th June

We departed the Junee CP around 10.00am on Saturday morning, destination Dubbo on the Olympic Highway. It had rained lightly during the night and continued most of the morning as we headed north.

Passing through Bethungra, we were interested to see the 360º rail spiral. The spiral makes use of local geography in the shape of a convenient hill which the uphill line spirals around. This eases the gradient, allowing the train to make height and enable it to climb over over the local ranges. Only used by north bound trains, The southbound take the original steep downhill line. The hills became more noticeable as we climbed out of Bethungra, heading towards Young.

By the time we reached Young, the rain had almost ceased, as we pulled into the Information Centre. The Info Centre is housed in the old Railway Station Building and has an Art Gallery as well. Too early for lunch so we went for a wander round the town's retail area. Just another country town, with the shopkeepers starting to wind down for the half day close. Back to the van which we'd left parked at the Info Centre's allocated caravan parking and lunch.

Onward up the Olympic and to Cowra. You'll know that Cowra is famous for the Cowra Breakout, when in 1944, some 500+ Japanese POW's staged a breakout from the POW camp, just outside the town as it was then. Many of the POW's died in the attempt, the Japanese being ashamed to be captured and would rather die fighting for their Emperor. Much later, in the 60's, the Japanese Government arranged for the remains of all other Japanese killed on Australian soil, to be re-buried at Cowra.

Nowadays Cowra is better known for it's beautiful Japanese Gardens. Helen had been wanting to visit the gardens for years and now we did. Truly delightful and tranquil and well worth the visit. After a couple of hours in the garden, we drove bck into town and checked into thr Cowra CP, situated on the edge of the Lachlan River. Overnight, no unhitching.

Day 6—Sunday, 30th June

Woke to a brilliant sunny day and after our usual breakfast, headed onwards about 9.00am, benefiting from not having unhitched, looking forward to Dubbo wher we had pre-booked for two nights, just in case NSW school holidays made sites hard to come by. Passed through Canowindra and then Molong before pulling up at Cameron Park in Wellington for lunch. We had a quick walk around town and called into Coles for some fresh bread for sandwiches. Moving on, we arrived at Dubbo's Top Tourist CP at 2.15pm.

After setting up, we decided that since it was such a nice sunny, clear blue sky afternoon, we'd just have a loaf until dinner. Got the camp chairs out and relaxed. I did manage to find some time to re-arrange a couple of items in the caravan boot though, nothing too strenuous. Off to the Zoo in the morning.

Day 7—Monday, 1st July

First day of the new financial year, so what!! And another beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky. After breakfast, Helen thought it might be just as well to do some laundry and get it out to dry, which it should be by the time we return.

So, by the time we got to the Zoo, the rest of NSW population is queueing up for tickets. Did I say it was school holidays up here? It wasn't that bad, a ten minute wait and forked out for two concession tickets.

I had really been looking forward to this visit but of course my memories of game viewing in Africa do not compute, even at Western Plains. Still, compared to a plane ticket to Niarobi, this was cheap entertainment.

I think I enjoyed the Giraffe enclosure best. There were about ten animals of various age including one quite huge bull. Turned out he was "the daddy", one of the cows having dropped a calf about ten days ago and a second cow gave birth last week. The latter mother and baby not yet on public display. When I say dropped by the way, I do mean dropped. The cow births standing and the new born calf drops about two meters to the ground. The calf has to be up and about, literally in minutes, something they don't have to worry about here as there are no lions or hyenas around. Could have spent the day watching them. Unhappily, there's no natural feed for them here and they have to be hand fed, hay and other fodder, although there was some grass in the enclosure and we were told there's also a much larger enclosure, "out back" and out of view.
Next best, must be the White Rhinos and the new arrival as of May, 2013. As we arrived baby, who has still not been named, was busy having a feed from Mum. Dad was really busy having a snooze. We spent a while here just watching no-name trotting around the enclosure, all very close to us. Just weeks before we left home, we had watched the ABC series on Wildlife at the Zoo, which featured the two rhinos being introduced. Looks like the intro went well. I think the series is still running.

After the Giraffes and rhinos, on to the hippo's, then elephants (Indian), zebra, eland and various other non African species. Most of these could happily live together in the one paddock but I guess it would need to be a big paddock and being fenced, that would make it difficult for the paying public. Oh well, might have to save up for that plane ticket.

Back to the van about 2.30pm, got the kettle on while Helen got the washing off the line. After a cuppa, we went for a drive into town and a visit to the Western Plains Cultural Centre. On the way back to the CP, we filled up at the local Coles Express but unhappily, no shopper docket. Back to the van, got the camera's downloaded to the laptop and got the laptop backed up for the week. Then it was dinner, dishes, some typing for the blog and bed. We had something like 26 TV channels here but no ABC! Not that there's much worth watching Monday nights ABC. Off again in the morning, heading for Collarenebri via Walgett.