Posts

Home at last

 3rd August 2025 The 378 km drive from Jugiong was relatively uneventful. The Everest continues to tow the Torus with ease and I am coming to grips with optimum speeds to manage fuel consumption. Packing up the van for departure was pretty quick given that we didn’t unhitch, we also took the opportunity to fill the water tanks whilst we were at Jugiong as this free camp amazingly has drinking water, a dump point and toilets. A great facility for those travelling up and down the Hume Hwy. Once again we stopped at Sutton Forest for an early lunch before moving on to Sydney. We have had some patches of light rain along the way and are not looking forward to the rain increasing as we get closer to Sydney. Sydney did not disappoint, as the rain steadily increased as we got closer, sometimes heavy enough to make visibility difficult. We arrived at our storage paddock at Ingleside at around 3 pm, and the rain was still coming down, sometimes heavy enough we sat in the car until it eased, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jugiong overnight, then home

Image
 2nd August 2025 The Lake  Talbot Holiday Park in Narrandera is probably the best park we have stayed in this trip. It was hard to fault anything there. Today we have a shorter cross country trip to Jugiong through a few small towns a great scenery. We had already decided that we would stop in Junee for our morning coffee, and The Junee Chocolate and Liquorice Factory seemed the perfect venue. On the site of a 5 story abandoned flour mill, a substantial liquorice and chocolate factory has been established with a large cafe and dining outlets included. We were ready for a cup of coffee when we arrived so headed for the cafe first before exploring the rest of the site. This a small cafe area with a much larger space further inside the complex Inside the operating factory the old building is the main feature On the way out, of course you need to pass through the store selling their products and we acquired some chocolate coated liquorice, a good combination of their two key produ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Narrandera

Image
 1st August 2025 Today’s drive is around 385 km which seems a good distance for us when towing. On the Hay  plains there are not a lot of opportunities to stop for a cup of coffee, so we decide we will stop earlier than normal and have our coffee break at Balranald where we could park in a backstreet and found a nice cafe in the Main Street. There was also an IGA nearby where we bought some meat to BBQ tonight. .From then onwards the drive is pretty boring, the highlight was looking for a roadside stop to pull over and make some lunch. We eventually found one about 100 km before Narrandera, and had a relaxing lunch in the van.  We arrived at the Lake Talbot Holiday Park in Narrandera at around 2.30 pm. It is a very impressive caravan park on the shore of LakeTalbot. We were guided to our site by a man in a golf buggy driving ahead of us and giving hand signals. There were a few tight turns and lining up for the drive through site was also tight, but his guidance was excel...
Post a Comment
Read more

On our way home, Robinvale first stop

Image
 31st July 2025 All packed up by 9 am, we said our farewells to Brian and Ann, and headed off towards Sydney planning to stop at Robinvale tonight. The distance is a bit over 400 km so at towing speed it should take us around 5 hrs. We were ready for a cup of coffee by the time we reached Barmera, and as we did on our trip through in the other direction, drove down towards Lake Bonney to find somewhere to park and a cafe. This time we tried The Lakes Cafe and Bakery. The coffee and scones did the trick to revitalise us for our trip. Parking nearby was also very easy. We were making pretty good time and lunch time was approaching, so we decided we could see if we could find a nice quiet spot to stop before we get to Mildura, and make a sandwich, as we have plenty of supplies in the van. As we were driving through Cullulleraine we saw a sign suggesting there was a picnic area down near a lake, so we went to have a look. We discovered a great park on Lake Cullulleraine, with a caravan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Our last day in the Barossa

Image
 30th July 2025 It is another very cool morning and it is 10 am before it is nice outside and we head out for our last day in the Barossa. We have decided to head down to Lyndoch, visit a Lavender Garden there and have coffee at their cafe as our first stop. The last few km to the Garden is on a dirt road with stunning scenery of a quite hilly and very green landscape. We later discovered there was bitumen access from the other direction, but the direction we came from was certainly worth the view. Yearning for a cup of coffee we entered the shop/cafe only to be told that at this time of the year the cafe is only open on weekends. Our disappointment must have been obvious and as we groused through the offerings in the shop, the owner relented and said if we only wanted coffee, she would make us one. Carole browsing the shelves After token purchases from the shop we enjoyed sitting outside in the sun enjoying our coffee.  Not a bad setting for a cup of coffee It seems that ther...
Post a Comment
Read more

Barossa Valley

Image
 29th July 2025 It is bitterly cold this morning when we wake up, but is around 9 C at 10.15 am when we set out with our first planned stop at Maggie Beer’s Farm shop, only a short drive from here. Once inside the shop, our first priority was to get a warm cup of coffee. The fireplace came a close second Now warmed up it was time to look around the shop, which also includes the  Kitchen used to film the TV series “The Cook and the Chef”.  A staff member was keen to take our photo in the kitchen As expected, there were lots of delectable items for sale and we walked out with a couple of jars of relishes. Outside the complex is quite expansive, with a separate building dedicated to a restaurant and cooking school, overlooking a pond. Initially started out as a pheasant farm, the property has an impressive aviary, with many exotic game birds and peacocks on display. This peacock was desperately trying to impress a couple of very disinterested pea heads. A few healthy looking...
Post a Comment
Read more