Tocumwal on the Murray River

Tocumal (nickname Toc) pop 2,150 is a quaint small town on the NSW bank of the Murray river. There are lots of free camping areas on the "beaches" and very popular by the amount of campers around - mind you it is school holidays and there are rugrats everywhere. Nice local pub which we will visit on Sat night to see the NRL league final between the Paramatta Eels and Melbourne Storm. Today we did big laundry, sorted out the Tribby, and late afternoon went over the bridge into Victoria and off road to a family resort called "Time Out" on the river bank to look for Koalas. Didn't take long, there was one above within 20 metres of where we parked!. In total we saw 6 Koalas, some of them within handshake distance. Big ones, small ones, they completely ignored us. First time in Australia we have seen them in the wild, and they appear to be abundant around the Time Out camp.

Tocumwal Friday 2 Oct
We left the caravan park yesterday morning and moved about 2kms to a camp beside the river. It has toilets & clean water, $5 per day. Parked facing the river, great view.
Not many here but Victoria school hols start today (bugger). We will be here until Monday and then meander upstream on the Victoria side to somewhere like Wodonga or Albury. It's still cool and will possibly rain later. Went to Cobram, a larger town 15 mins away this morning and had the laptop keyboard fixed - they actually had an identical spare kboard out the back and replaced our faulty one - how jammy was that !. Also bought a wireless keyboard and mouse for a backup. They had a Woollies there so stocked up and also got some cheap petrol at their Caltex link.
Pics: Koonoomoo big strawberry (yum), Town Beach camp by Murray, Home office on batteries.

Tocumwal Tuesday 6 Oct
Yesterday did a box trip from here to Finley, west to Deniliquin, south to Mathaura, and east back to Toc. Lovely country, lots of sheep, sunny, and got the main battery charged via the Anderson plug.
Today went to the IGA and stocked up on tucker, tonight we having homemade hamburgers. Wind has come up and we had a sudden squally shower. Tomorrow we head off on the NSW side of the river east to Corowa to stay 3 days. George and Maree are two caravanners we met at Sunseeker Caloundra and they live at Corowa so will pop in and see them while there. It's been lovely here (except for heavy road noise from the Newell highway over the river - during the night, convoys of trucks go past every 15-30 seconds. Unbelievable.
Photos at the top: Tocumwal main street, and taking the dog .... err lamb, for a stroll. Will go for another look at the Koalas at Time Out tonight.

Narrabri to Tocumwal

Left Narrabri this morning in fine weather. Uneventful trip through the bush to Coonabarabran where we stopped for a cuppa. Halfway there, a pair of young Emus popped out and jaywalked along the highway. Climbed steadily to the tablelands overlooking the Warrumbungles - light traffic, mainly trucks and caravans. Through Gilgandra and onto Dubbo where we will stay the night at the Poplars caravan park at the back of the main street and across from the Centro- only $20 for the night. Dubbo is a lot larger and more modern than we first thought. Tomorrow they are forcasting windy conditions with a high possibility of another dust storm, so we will see what happens in the morning. There is no hurry.

Dubbo Sat 26 Sept
Wind came up overnight and the temp dropped, so we are sitting tight for another day until it eases off. No dust though (sofar) which is a bonus. Had to redrill and rescrew the door latch as the frame has twisted and dropped down. Maintenance day today, charging batteries, tyres etc. Watched NRL semi-final last night - great game. Tonight the Broncs play The Storm down in Melbourne. Lockyer's bruised and battered boys will have to be at the top of their game tonight to beat the Storm on their home ground. Pics: Poplars CP and downtown Dubbo.

Dubbo Sunday 27 Sept
Left Dubbo and drove into a solid headwind. Speed down to 80kmph and sometimes slower. Deviated off the Newell highway to the Parkes Radio Telescope where we had a cuppa and a look around. Very interesting place. On the short drive into the telescope a large dog fox crossed the road in front of us and disappeared into the grain fields.
Spent the night in a truck parking area 10km south of Narrandera. The only TV station we could pick up on our old B & W 12v portable TV/Radio was ABC1 so at least we go to see the news.

Newell Highway Monday 28 sept
Every large town we passed through on the way south had an old military aircraft sitting near the highway. Forbes had a Mosquito, West Wyalong an old DC3 in RAAF colours. Stopped at Jerilderie for a cuppa and then the short drive to Tocumwal on the Murray. We are staying 3 nights at a lovely caravan park at the back of Tocumwal, The wind has dropped away and it actually got warm early this afternoon !

Trip South - Caloundra to Narrabri

Left Sunseeker village 1030 Sat morning 19 Sept, bound for our first stopover at Moonie, south of Dalby. On Fri night we went out with David & Helen to a Thai Restaurant in Caloundra - a place at Kings Beach we hadn't visited before. The food was lovely - spicy and hot Pad Thai chicken, Massaman curry beef, chicken noodles, and one other chicken dish - all delish. Entre of Thai fish cakes, samosas, spring rolls and chicken toast. On Saturday, head along the D'Aguilar highway to Yarraman - the smell of smoke everywhere as the pre season burning was going on. Passed thru Dalby quickly and just a few kays short of Moonie ran over a black snake lying in the middle of the highway. Moonie caravan park is just clay based and very casual. The servo is an all-in-one, caravan park, hotel, restaurant, shop, petrol. The meals are plain but HUGE, and they have 3 large TV's We were able to watch the Allblacks v Wallabies over a couple of cold beers. Left there Sun morning and had an uneventful drive down thru Goondiwindi and over the border into NSW. Stopped at Moree for a lunchtime drink and snack and then ambled down here to Narrabri. We are in a nice little caravan park beside the river and the sites are sweet. Just out of Narrabri we ran over another snake!. This time is was a larger tiger or brown snake - the buggers are about with the warm weather. 32-36 today on the road, and 30 inside the van at the moment. Will get back with some photos after we've had a look around - this is the cotton capital of Australia so we will go into town and have a look at some of the displays. We'll be here for 3 nights and may extend if we like the place. Got good TV reception and full bars on Vodafone & Telstra mobiles. cherio for now.
pics - 1. Moonie Caravan Park. 2. Looking toward Mt Kaputar National Park, Narrabri
p.s. having a few probs with the laptop keyboard, sometimes it wont print the letters "s" "w" and a few others so if you don't hear from us for some time, that will be the cause.

Narrabri Monday 21 Sept
Bit of road noise from the street we are on in the morning but otherwise a comfortable and clean caravan park. Done our laundry and sorted out a lot of stuff,. Camping used to be about a tent and open fire, these days we have microwave, HD digital TV, internet with video calls, fridge & oven. Do we miss the old days? not on your nelly!. Started raining about midday so we stayed inside most of the day. Watched DVD The Bucket List.

Narrabri Tuesday 22 Sept
Still raining and very windy overnight, up to 60kmph. Added extra deflappers to awning. Everything held up. Inbetween showers we drove down to the Cotton Centre and saw the displays, a 3D video and climbed up onto the huge cottonpickin' cotton picker. Through lack of local support and interest, the centre is closing down at the end of the month - shame, it tells the history of cotton around here very well.
After that we went out along the Kamilaroi highway to the Aqua fish farm and had a look. Not much there except for a very large Murray Cod "Scarface" and some yabbies which they breed for local bait. After lunch took a drive further out to the Australian Radio telescope array. These are 6 22m radio scopes, 5 on a 3km rail track and one fixed. Fascinating. Did a bit of a diversion to Wee Waa and on the way came across a dead horse on the side of the road, looked like it had been hit by a ute. Owner was riding another horse and he didn't seem too happy. Wee Waa is a small farming town and nothing to see or do so we came back. Tomorrow if the weather is ok we'll go up to the Kaputar mountains to see Sawn rock which is like organ pipes. Will get some photos.

Narrabri Wed 23 Sept
Overnight a dry thunderstorm swept through to the south of us, followed by a humungous dust storm which moved east from Adelaide. Sydney got hammered and apparently the dust is hitting most of the east coast. NZ may pick up some as well. We are sitting tight here until it clears, and we should be moving south again on Friday. Went down to 18c and has been dusty all day.
photos: Dust storm sweeping across eastern Australia. BigSky Narrabri, Cotton Centre, Murray Cod, Herbs on the move, Australia radio telescope

Narrabri Thurs 24 Sept
Skies cleared this morning and we had a cleanup. Brushed and washed the awning which was the worst affected. In the afternoon drove 40kms east to Mt Kaputa Nat Park and did the easy track to Sawn Rocks which are a volcanic bluff with hexagonal "organ pipes" quite unique. Pics at the top. Leave here tomorrow morning, south to Dubbo and probably free camp at Tomingley overnight. A few flies about.