Day 4 - Siding Springs to Dubbo

Leaving the van at the Warrumbungle national park, we made our way to Sidings
Springs Observatory.  The damage from the bush fires, and it is obvious that a massive effort was made to protect the telescopes.  In places there are burnt trees only ten meters from telescope buildings.  I can't help but be amazed that they were able to save most of the facility from major damage.

The fire reached just below those trees.

The kids (big and little) spent a fair bit of time looking through the exploritorum and at the telescope before we headed back to the Warrumbungles to pick up the van and head off to Dubbo.

We headed back to the Newell highway via Tonderburine, a nice quiet drive after the speed of the Newel.  Into Gilgandra and some (almost) much need fuel and down to Dubbo.

After lunch near the visitors centre, we walked down to the Dubbo Gaol and spend a very interesting arvo looking over the very primitive accommodations that were still in use up to 1966.

The Emily and Tim enjoyed helping out with a couple of the demonstrations about escapes.

The night was spent in the first paid caravan park of the trip.   Not sure that paying got us better accommodation than the free (or almost free) alternatives.

Day 3 - arvo

Our fun with the van and little sojourn into the Australia Telescope had left us a little behind schedule. We were supposed to be at Siding Springs for Lunch. Oh well, no plan was ever so good that it could not be thrown out if better ideas come along.

We got to Coonoobarabran at about 3:30pm and headed up towards the Telescope.  On reflection and we decided to head to the Warrumbungle National Park camping ground and go to Siding Springs in the morning.

Warrumbungle National Park is a place that deserves a lot more than a quick visit.  The entire area was devastated a year or two ago by massive bush fires and is still recovering.  The visitors centre was destroyed and is currently a temporary atco hut.  Fortunately the amenities block with HOT!!! showers was not damaged and after we had set up the van we retired to wash of the dust.

The view from the camp site was spectacular.  

Day 3 - morning.

Just having breakfast at Tookee creak rest area.  Beautiful morning.

Fairly noisy night with traffic until about midnight when it quietened down.

One if the motor homes who were sharing the site seem to have given up during the night and moved on. We got a fairly good sleep later in the night only to be woken at 4:30 by (you guessed it) a cereal box being knocked off the the bench by Em whilst rolling in her bed. Not much sleep to be had after that.

We had breakfast and started to pack up.  We were dropping the roof of the van when we noticed it stopped half way down...   Up again, and down, stopped again.  bugger.

We raised it up and unpacked all the bedding and everything else that was packed under the table and started removing panels to get at the lifting mechanism.  The right hand front, where we'd had trouble down in Stanthorpe was ok, over to the winch side.  Finally worked out how to access the winch, to find that the lifting cable had got jammed under one of the winds on the winch.  Looks like the winch is slightly out of alignment causing the cable to wind up on one side.   Looked like one of these winds had collapsed down on a later one jamming it and stopping it from unwinding when we were dropping the roof.  A smart rap with the mallet on the cable released the jam, dropped the roof by about an inch with a bang, scaring kerrie who was looking in the door....

Ok, pack the gear back in the van, dropped the roof, successfully this time, and buttoned everything up.  Drink a bottle of water as I had been doing a bit of sweating.  Hook her up and hit the road about an hour later than we hoped to.

As much as we have been having some little hassles with the van, I'm getting very confident that we now starting to understand the lifting system and how it can go wrong and how to fix it.

Hit the road.

We got into Narabri and decided to take a side trip off to the Australia Telescope Compact Array.  We've been here before, but decided that the kids would get a bit from the visit.  I've got to say I love this site.  When I was in the army I used to get IPS solar condition reports from here to assist in our HF radio communications.  The kids enjoyed playing with the simple radio telescope that plays the sounds of electronic noise from the Sun.  It's a 1.5 m dish that you can steer around and point at the sun manually.  The noise getting louder the closer you are.

There is also a couple of microwave dishes that are placed about 50 meters apart.  You can whisper in one and be heard easily from the other.  The kids had a ball whispering to us.

After spending some time in the visitors centre, watching some historic videos and looking at the telescopes we headed back into Narabri to have lunch and get back onto the Newell Highway and heading south. 

Day 2. Shopping for forgotten things and Toowoomba to Tookey Creek rest area

Morning in Toowoomba started at about 4:30 when a book fell loudly out of one of the kids beds. No chance of getting to sleep again after that fright.  

After raiding Kerries Dad's kitchen for breakfast we had to do the rounds of Toowoomba clothes shops looking for dance shorts for Em. Somehow they had been forgotten in the pack up. 

Finally at about 10:30 we got ourselves organised and headed west along the Gore highway for Goondiwindi. 

The car and van have been travelling well. I had a bit of a scare when the extension mirror crashed back when a double b barrelled past.  This happened a couple of more times before I got the message and stopped and took the eaten soon mirror off.  We're going to have to get some that mount on the door rather tan the cars mirror. Not really much difference with just the standard car mirror, they are pretty good anyway. 

It's been interesting to watch the fuel consumption. Up hills we push about 16l/100km but in the flat it settled down to Just under 13l/100km. Not too bad, and a bit better than we used to get from the commodore. The pajero travels well in drive  4wd-high letting the auto deal with gear changes. I tried out using manual 4th as recommend in a number of forums. It did not seem to improve the fuel consumption and the car seemed to be working a lot harder. 

At some point in the past it looks like there has been about 30km of resurfacing if this highway.  They had out in a 80km/h zone to avoid stone damage.  Unfortunately they seem to have forgotten to take the speed signs away when there was no more need. 

The road was fairly rough from Millmerren to Gundi keeping everybody shaken up. 

We efilled at Gundi, cheaper than Brisbane and went shopping for some food for lunch and dinner.  It never ceases to amaze me that the the supermarkets everywhere seem to have the same food. 

Having got the makings of lunch and dinner we went to the park for late lunch. The kids found one of those "round and round" swings at the playground and had a fine time. 

The trip to Moree and the free camp went quietly apart from some spots of rain and some very threatening clouds.  The car happily cruses along at 100km/h, and we made it to the free camp at about 5:30. This is a truck and car rest area just off the Newell. Not the most quiet of spots, but the price is right.  We've got two other vans here as well. 

So tomorrow we are off to Coonabarabran and the Siding Springs observatory.  Tomorrow night should be a lot quieter with the option of a couple of bush camps. 

 

Day 1 - Finally away.

After a day of packing "just one more thing", we finally got away late this afternoon.

Getting out of Brisbane was a bit slow through peak hour but was no stress.  I don't know that I'd like to do it with a big van though. 

We're now at Withcott having pizza for dinner at Pappa Joes Pizzeria.  Brilliant pizza. 

Just about to head up the range and see how the car goes. 

We're spending the night at grandpa's place and heading south early. 

4 days to go

So, four days to go.
The car is purchased, the van is serviced and packed with everything but food and clothes.

We think we are ready - well we will see.

Three weeks on the road with two teenagers (well almost) and an 8 year old who keeps both of us well and truly on our toes.

We have only two definite destinations and one absolute schedule.   We must be in Melbourne for Easter weekend.