What a lot of exciting sights we have seen and a lot of really nice people we have met over the past five and a half months on the road. People ask how we are going to settle down when we get back home next week and the answer to that question is “I don’t know”. It has been an amazing trip and surpassed all our expectations. We have a family Christmas to look forward to and some catching up with friends and then we will start planning our next trip which will start about April next year and will take us up the centre of this huge and vast country to Darwin and across the top right hand side to Cairns and up to Cooktown. It will be a totally different trip to this one but one we are looking forward to immensely.
After our stay in Tamworth we moved onto Dubbo and rather than taking the main highway we decided to take the secondary route. The roads took us through lots of farming country and some very old country towns. Australia is full of similar towns, all with closed shops, very old pubs, a church and little else. An emu crossed the road right in front of us on this trip. It just ran out of the bushes on one side of the road and into the bush on the other side. We have seen so many different types of farming and planting. In this part of the country farmers are planting canola for cooking oil. I thought it was mustard initially but it is a much brighter colour than mustard. There were acres and acres of it and the brilliant yellow of it can be seen for miles. Very spectacular.
Dubbo is home of the Western Plains Zoo, an open plan safari zoo, where you can either drive around it, cycle or walk. We decided to drive as that allowed us to go around a couple of times and stop off at feeding times. One ticket allows you entry for 2 days but as we were there just after opening and stayed for about 6 hours, we managed to cram everything in. It was a great day and it was just like being in a safari park. We saw giraffes, lions, zebras, hippos, rhinos, monkeys, cheetahs, huge tortoises, koalas etc. all in their natural habitat. The highlight for me was watching the hippos being fed. They are huge animals that walk very slowly and we were told that they can run up to 35kmh but I wouldn’t be hanging around to see.
Narrandera was our next stop, another old town, but with beautiful old homes, trees and gardens. It is on the Murrumbidgee River so would have been a stop over for boats on the river. We have seen so many lovely old buildings, some better than others, but most of them are still in use, especially old pubs. I think the oldest we have seen was 1887. Because of the earthquakes and it’s being a much younger country, NZ doesn’t have so many old buildings, which is such a shame as there is so much history attached to them.
We then moved on to Cobram which is on the Victorian side of the Murray River. The skies got blacker and blacker as we drove and we saw the most amazing lightning show. We’d never seen anything like it. Part of this trip took us through the Murray-Darling Basin which is one of the most drought affected parts of Australia. Narrandera was lovely and green as water from the Murrumbidgee is used for irrigation in that area but the land between the Murrumbidgee and the Murray is just parched. There is no stock, no fences, just mile after mile of dust covered soil. Farmers here would give anything to have a quarter of NZ’s rainfall. We kept waiting for the rain to come from these dark clouds but we didn’t get rain, we got a dust storm! It was amazing, so dark and stormy in the middle of the day. We had rain that night at Cobram but it was red rain from all the dust the day before. You can imagine what sort of mess that left on the car and van. The Murray River is a very long river and there are hundreds of lovely beaches all along it, especially around Cobram and Tocumwal. We saw lots of vans and tents just camped on the side of the river as it was school holidays.
While in Cobram we visited Chrysties Farm and Car Antiques. I thought it would be a real blokey place but it was just great. This guy has old Holdens, Zephyrs and even a Nash Metropolitan. Most of them are restored but he has as many again just rusting away outside. He has a couple of old caravans and one of them was built in 1940s and it even has a bath under one of the seats. Unbelievable! Goodness knows how long it took to heat the water, if they did, as they only had a small kerosene cooker. He was such an interesting guy to talk to and has a story to tell about most of his cars.
Even though Melbourne has the most serious water problems of all the main cities, the countryside in this part of Victoria looks much greener and fruitful than we have seen for a long time. We have seen lots of fruit trees around Shepparton and the Murray River and we have had some lovely strawberries on our travels. There is no doubt the drought has had a very negative effect on farming in this part of the world, some parts have had no decent rain for 12 years and some dams are only 11% full. In Shepparton they are only allowed to use 4% of their normal water allowance. I don’t think Kapiti has much to worry about!
While in Shepparton we played on a very nice gold course and on the way home we saw our one and only snake. It was quite a big one and was on the road. It looked as if it was being attacked by a magpie.
We have now moved in with Stephen, Sarah and the boys for a few days and then it is home for us. It will be good to get back to Nicola, Adrian and the girls and all our friends again. As I said earlier the whole trip has been amazing and the best thing is that Jim and I are still speaking to each other! Some things that will stick in our minds about Oz are the dreadful state of NSW roads; the P plate drivers who hoon every-where and the bureaucratic nonsense that exists between the different states. We will miss the wonderful birdlife and their early morning chorus; the great weather ( and this was considered one of the worst winters on record) and our very comfortable caravan. The Prado has performed really well too and got us safely over 13,000 kms. Most of all we miss the wonderful friends we have met and made over the past 6 months. Some are from NZ and doing the same things as we are doing and lots of Australians who have made us so welcome. To all those who have shared a wine or two and swapped other traveller tales late in the afternoon and often into the early evening, thank you all so much and we hope we can catch up with you in the future.
We look forward to bringing you all our news on our next trip.
To follow our next trip in 2009 go to the following site:-
http://2009marshalls-trip.blogspot.com/
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