Friday, June 22, 2012

Day 1, Thursday 21/06/2012, Valentine to Boppy Hill


We’ve had word from Katerina and Daniel that they won’t be joining us in the Outback, so it is a definite 4 families.
It was a great start to the trip for me (not). I was delirious with fevers all night and up first thing vomiting. I have a chest, sinus and ear infection. Hope the antibiotics work quickly. After filling up at Valentine, Williams and Parkes met at Pockrans, ready to leave at 6am.

It was such a gorgeous drive through the vineyards at sunrise with steaming ponds and white frost. It’s lovely that Michael appreciates the sunrise and pink mountains, excitedly chatting on the walkie talkie. He suddenly became quiet after attempting to colour in though. Luckily we stopped at Broke for the Williams to get brekkie as Michael had a good vomit.

We arrived at Dunedoo, our morning tea stop at 10am. Got a message from Anthea that they are only just leaving now! At Dunedoo the little kids played in the park, the teenagers played on the railway track, the women took photos of the silo and the men boiled billies.




I just had word from the magazine editor that they don’t want any more photos of a Delica. Poor Bruce!

Fuelled up at Naramine. 56L diesel for $87 with our fuel economy currently at 12.5L per 100km. Again it looks like snow on the side of the road near Trangie from all of the wayward cotton.




The Macquarie River at Trangie was extremely full, bursting the inner banks and flooding surrounding trees. Michael had a great time here at our lunch stop as he told the local policeman that he was going to be a policeman. He then proceeded to take Michael for a spin in the police car and plans to post him a patch.


From Trangie to Nyngan was Jordan’s first drive out here. 1hr.  She was very brave with all the trucks flying past and doing a hill start over a railway crossing.


Tonight we’re staying at a rest stop “Florida” near Boppy Hill. The little ones are excited that the dirt is orange. The first setup went without a hitch and pretty fast, followed by sunset and railway photography. Lisa learnt the fun way that it’s best to get changed on the other side of the car after getting plenty of cheers from the crowd.



Peter and Anthea arrived at 5.15pm and have had a shocking start to their trip. Last April their Foxwing awning broke on its 2nd use (eventually replaced by Foxwing, just prior to this trip). 3 weeks ago Peter broke his foot. 2 days ago they picked up the T Van they’re hiring to find a flat battery the next day. Then on their way back to Tamworth they ran out of petrol.
So the power for the trailer is now wired to the auxiliary battery and the pump for the second fuel tank is replaced.

This morning they had terrible trouble getting the T Van hooked back up to the car as the jockey wheel wouldn’t wind low enough and it was too heavy for them. Then their jack broke. Having replaced their jack and getting the T Van hooked up, they arrived here for Peter to find out just how wide a turning circle you need when towing a trailer.

So in fact this was a perfect start. It is wonderful to have this all happen now and get sorted out, rather than in the desert.

After reheating our spag bol we sat around for a bit with a drink or 2 spinning a few yarns. Everyone seemed a bit too knackered to bother with a fire with everyone in bed by 9pm.

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