Heading West

30th April 2024

Distance: 409 Km

Fuel: 43L

Am heading off to Western Australia, probably for one last time. This will be much quicker than the last trip, probably will only take half of last time.

Left home at about 9,30am in miserable weather – grey skies and rain. It remained like this until just after the Canberra Federal Highway turn off when the sun appeared, the showers disappeared and it turned into quite a nice afternoon.

Headed off the Hume Highway toward Harden, decided to stay at Temora Airport Caravan Park for the first night. Not a very exciting drive covering old territory. Probably only half a dozen caravans using the park.

Didn’t make much of a camp just unhitched the teardrop, unloaded my chair and made a coffee before going to get fuel. Spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine reading a book or watching a few light aircraft coming and going.

Temora to Wollongong (Home Again)

8th June 2021

Distance: 416km
Fuel: 41L

It was not going to be an early start but in the event we packed up for the last time on this trip very quickly. Originally I was going to carry some of Katie’s excess baggage as far as Yass then hand it over to her but she got it all in her car and we decided to make Yass just a lunch stop.

We had a leisurely lunch at Yass before going our separate ways, she to Canberra and me to Wollongong.

Trip Statistics

Time Taken: 17 days (plus a couple of days in Canberra)
Total Distance: 4473km
Total Fuel: 464L
Fuel Consumption: 10.4 litres per 100km
Average Fuel Price: $1.42/L
Cost of Accommodation: $514 (that was just for me)

It was a really enjoyable trip, travelling with adult kids is a very novel experience as was travelling in convoy. I was very glad that I bought a new jumper and puffer jacket before I left but I did get used to early nights and mornings because of the cold, the temperature plummeted as soon as the sun went down. The camper was very easy to warm up with my new 400watt heater from Amazon. The night skies in the bush never cease to amaze me, there are just so many stars.

The only fly in the ointment was the need to plan ahead and book camp sites at least a day before, this is something I have never had to do before and while it is not a deal breaker it has got me rethinking my travel arrangements.

Covid has certainly changed people’s travel, the number of caravans on the road has noticeably increased and the number of brand new ‘vans in the parks is also an obvious feature as is the lack of backpackers.

Thanks to Katie and Andrew for accompanying me, it was a great trip and one I had been wanting to do for some years. The next serious trip is to once again attempt the Oodnadatta Track – I have tried three times before but each time it rained just before I arrived and the roads were closed. I have to be honest I have never had any ambition to attempt the more serious journeys like the Gibb River Road, or even the Birdsville Track. but I still enjoy camping and travelling no matter where it is.

The Route

Where we travelled – for some reason the Cameron’s Corner section is wrong (blame Google) because the corner (G), is, for obvious reasons, right in the corner where the NSW, SA and Queensland borders meet.

Dubbo to Temora

7th June 2021

Distance: 325km
Fuel: 33L

This is where we say farewell to Andrew (and the doggie) who has to return to Sydney for his work, We only have one more day left of our trip too.

It is possible to drive from Dubbo to our respective homes in Wollongong and Canberra but it is a long drive so we decided to drive to Temora and go home from there.

This morning was cold though not as cold as yesterday so we all had a late start, Andrew left by 8.30am but Katie and I didn’t get away until after 9am.

It was an easy drive through undulating country, quite different to the Outback.

Arrived in Temora just after 1pm to an almost empty caravan park. It is one of those council run parks where you pick a site and a council worker/caretaker comes round in the late afternoon to collect the money.

Once we set up we wandered over to the Temora Aviation Museum, I have been several times before but it was Katie’s first visit and I think she really enjoyed it. Most of their planes still fly.

It was cold that evening.

But the sunset was spectacular.