No Room at the Inn!

21st November 2025

Distance: 377 km

Fuel: 75 L

Headed off at almost exactly 10am. I intended to stay at Cowra Holiday Park and they don’t allow entry before 2pm.

First stop was The Utes in the Paddock on the way into Condobolin. I have stopped here before but, boy has it changed, now it has a massive visitors centre, new car and truck park.

I bought a coffee and an excellent egg and bacon roll after viewing the utes.

The visitors centre even had its own sculpture – a very large goanna.

While I was in the visitors centre I took a brochure for the Lachlan Shire, interestingly it talked about sculptures all along the Lachlan River in the shire. One looked very striking but strangely it didn’t give its location. However on the road to Forbes I saw signs for the various sculptures and stopped at a few though not all. Some were very good.

The rest of the trip to Cowra was uneventful, I had intended to make one more stop at a rest area but travelling on “B” roads they are few and far between.

When I arrived at the Cowra Holiday Park it was a good time (2.20) so parked at the office expecting to be able to check in. There was a sign “Bookings only – No drop ins”. When I spoke to the owner he told me that they had “ infrastructure problems” and I could not stay. Oh dear!

Decided to drive the extra 50km to Boorowa (there is another park in the centre of Cowra) and try that caravan park which I remembered as a small but good one. So set off on the 50 minute drive further on.

At Boorowa all was well, checked into the caravan park, excellent value at $25 a night and set myself up.

Decided to go for a short walk after a quick drive into town for fuel. It was quite a nice walk along the Boorowa River (or is it Creek?) before returning to the park for a cup of tea and a chance to read my book. It was actually quite windy and slightly chilly – at least enough to put my cardigan on after 5pm.

Shall be home tomorrow but doubt I will enter a blog post it will just be a trip almost entirely along the Hume Highway and Picton Road, Boorowa is only about 20km from the Hume.

22nd November 2025

Distance: 298 km

Home again

Arrived home after an uneventful drive from Boorowa, stopped only once to stretch my legs.

It was a lovely few days away, enjoyed it very much. The weather was pretty good most of the time only raining for a short while on the first day during the drive to Harden and again in almost the same place on the Hume highway today. The biggest complaint weatherwise for the whole trip would be the wind on the first few days and even that really was a very minor issue.

Trip Statistics

Total Distance: 2320 km
Total Fuel Used: 253 Litres
Fuel Cost: $499
Accommodation Cost: $263

18/19th May 2018–Canberra & Home

18th May

Distance: 225 Km

Only a couple of hundred k’s to travel today to my daughter and son in law’s house in Canberra. My last chance to see them before they go to Europe for a six week holiday.

The scenery changed from the flat plains to rolling hills as I went south toward the Hume Highway. Didn’t stop in Boorowa because it was too early for coffee in the end I didn’t stop until I reached my destination.

19th May

Distance: 277 Km
Fuel: 51 L

Canberra is cold at night. There are a lot of nice things to be said about Canberra but its climate is not one of them.

Spent the morning with the kids then set off after lunch so they could continue their packing and travel preparations in peace.

Arrived home at about 5pm.

Statistics for Trip

Total Distance: 7905 Km
Total Fuel: 824 L
Length of Trip: 26 Days
Total Fuel Cost: $1205
Average Fuel Price: $1.46/L
Total Accommodation Cost: $723
Average Park Cost: $28.96

Summing up

Good trip – saw just about everything I expected or wanted to see and I enjoyed every minute of the trip. Love travelling inland Australia; there is nowhere in the world like it. Apart from the miserable weather near Ravenshoe on the way up the weather for the whole trip was near perfect; warm sunny days and, even in NSW, dry (cool) nights.

On occasions found towing a bit of a nuisance because it meant that in some towns or places of interest it was not possible to park or turn round. Would still use the camper for longer trips but for shorter trips am definitely thinking of going back to my tent with the option of the odd motel stay.

I don’t think I need a powered site because the solar panel on the car roof, together with the aux battery, seems to run the fridge easily with some power to spare. During the whole trip the fridge was never plugged into the mains power at all yet the battery remained fully charged or nearly so. We shall see, when spring comes I might give it a go again, I always liked camping.

19th March–Boorowa

Distance: 247 km
Fuel: 29 L

The temperature dropped sharply during the night. That is not to say it was cold but by morning it was no longer a heatwave but still pleasant enough wearing a T shirt.

Today’s journey was through well travelled territory – Young, Cowra, Canowindra, Forbes etc are all interesting towns in their own right but it was not that long ago that I visited.

Click here to have a look at last years’ visit to the area.

Made a brief stop at the Parkes Radio Telescope just for old times sake.

The scenery became more undulating as I neared Boorowa – probably why they describe themselves as “Hilltops”.

Boorowa Caravan Park was well sign posted, I was instructed to find a site and someone would see me later. I chose one with a reasonable amount of shade.