Day 6: Goondiwindi to Brisbane

This day’s journey was to be a walk in the park, a mere 300-odd kilometre journey down to Brisbane. However it was not to be so. We left Goondiwindi early enough, but without giving any thought whatsoever to filling up the petrol tank. Little did we know that our assumption of many country towns along the road to Toowoomba, the Gore Highway, was totally unfounded. So we set off with less than a third of a tank of petrol and about 140 kms to the next petrol station. Even the previous day’s flat terrain was not with us – we were driving east into the Great Dividing Range separating us from the coast. Up hill and down dale, slowing down to 80 kph and coasting down the hills. The petrol light came on about 40 kms out and we feared the worst, until suddenly there was the petrol station 10 kms on our side of the town we thought it was in! We heaved a sigh of relief and treated ourselves to an ice cream.

Goondiwindi to Millmerran - 138 kms. Petrol at Captains Mountain!

Then on to Toowoomba and lunch. We found Toowoomba to be a very pleasant town with not a flat bit in sight, which makes me think there must have been an incredible amount of water involved in the 2011 floods. Driving out of Toowoomba towards Brisbane we hit a very steep descent, but we got down safely , passed Ipswich on the freeway, were directed around and about and deposited at the front gate of the Galaxy Caravan Park. At this point I must put in a good word for Tom Tom’s voice Selena. She really does her best as she did today, and her relationship with Joke (who also likes to tell me where to go from time to time) is quite warm and friendly. There is very little rivalry between them – all in all a pleasant way to travel.
At the Galaxy Caravan Park we were put in a drive-through space and we had the opportunity to unfurl the awning for the first time. Not really for shade, but more to keep us dry.

Awning out! Note pot of tea - indicating seriously high level of relaxation.

Day 5: We arrive in Queensland

No wonder we were cold last night! There was a thick frost on the ground this morning at Dubbo and our fingers and toes were very much aware of it! 

Frost in the fields at Dubbo!

 But when there is frost there is sunshine, so we did not care too much about our frozen extremities, because the world looked bright and new!

The country north of Dubbo was all flat, as much of the country before it was. In fact we have travelled through more flat country than there is in all of the Netherlands.

Flat country, big sky.

  I suppose I knew somewhere, but it isn’t until you actually drive through it that it strikes you how flat large parts of Australia are. One pleasant exception was the sudden appearance of the Warrumbungles, a mountain range which we had to go through between Gilgandra 

Gilgandra

and Coonabarabran. We had to climb to 750 metres a.s.l. to get over the highest pass. After Coonabarabran the land flattened out and the mountains receded behind us until the country was just as flat as it was before.

We had lunch at Narrabri, eating healthy salad and low-fat chicken (Chicken Caesar wrap at Macca’s!!) and tanked petrol and got under way again. The road north of Narrabri was exceptionally straight, so it was a good time to initiate Joke into the mysteries of towing a caravan. 

Joke debuting as caravan towstress. Big smile, no white knuckles!

This she did very well, and we powered through Moree with hardly a glance to left and right.

Yes, the caravan is still following....

Some people had told us at Narrabri that there were thermal springs at Moree, and said we ought to try them out, but with Joke on a roll, and us not being in swimming mode (we haven’t even got to the shorts stage yet!) we just went on. This was cotton country, with enormous bales of it waiting to be picked up in the fields and lots of white fluffy bits littering the roadside.

Bale of cotton ready for pickup.

Halfway to Goondiwindi we swapped around again and we coasted toward Goondiwindi trailing long shadows in the late afternoon. It was another 500 kms day and we both could feel it. As we crossed the Queensland border (the Mackintyre River) I felt the first effects of my new-found classical education and spoke proudly with Julius Caesar: “Alea iacta est!”. The die was cast and we now stood on the threshold of conquering Queensland. Just then an old ute drove up and this fat round bloke said to this skinny bloke beside him: “Tok, tok, these Romans are crazy!” As Asterix and Obelix drove on.........

Thanks Deviant Art! :-)

 Wrong story. Anyhow, we cruised into Goondiwindi and went to the el cheapo caravan park we had selected, drove in the entrance and straight out the other side. It was an extremely dodgy-looking place! The alternative was the Big 4 park on the other side of town: bright, clean, cheerful people, lovely sites and still the same price (with our membership discount) as the dodgy cheapie.

Our site at Goondiwindi.

That evening we went and had damper and tea and met Peter and Johanna Rutten, Brabanders who had been farmers near Rockhampton and were now enjoying their retirement. Peter had written a book about his emigrant life, published in English and in Dutch: 50 Years in the Promised Land.

We had now done about 1500 kms – roughly the road distance from Amsterdam to Barcelona as well as a 430 kms sea trip.

Full moon and all-night trucking at Goondiwindi.

Day 4: A cold night in Dubbo

Today started off with a sprinkle which we thought would soon go away. So we packed up – a quick job as we had not unhitched the caravan the night before. Off we went from Narrandera north to West Wyalong where we had morning tea

Joke enjoying coffee and a Raspberry and White Choc Chip Muffin

West Wyalong from the tearooms

 and a bit of a walk around town. I counted 5 pubs and 2 banks in one block. Then on to Forbes: our lunch destination. Well, we were only just under way when the rain came back. This time it stayed with us all the way to Dubbo. It was real weather of Pock (liberally translated from my Dad’s Dutch pokkenweer): light rain, heavy rain, low cloud, misery.

Our lunch venue in Forbes

Lunch in Forbes was OK, we opened up the caravan, turned on the gas, heated up the soup and lunch was served. 

De Havilland Vampire bomber in Forbes

   

After lunch we drove on through Parkes (got a glimpse of the radio telescope through veils of rain) and finally got to Dubbo where we are now situated in a very basic caravan park right next to a shopping centre, and next to the Macquarie River, also prone to flooding. The friendly caravan park man explained that in the last flood the office had been in about 50cm of water. It was on the first floor! What is this fascination with floods in country New South Wales??

Despite the very best efforts of our little heater, it is getting colder by the minute and the only solution to that is to dive under the winter doona. And to think that we had wondered whether it was worth taking along.......

Day 3: Wet start, lunch on the Murray and a dry finish

At the Murray in Tocumwal

Yesterday (Day 3) we left the caravan park in Braybrook between showers, or so we thought. Actually, the weather was just pausing to gather strength for a real onslaught. This caught us on the Ring Road in peak-hour traffic and it was not much fun. However we struggled manfully and womanfully onward, made it to the Hume Highway and took off up north, hoping to out-distance the elements and their liquid fury. No such luck until we got to Seymour, so we slithered and slid and aquaplaned along until the turn-off to Shepparton. Gradually the weather improved, and the sun made an appearance. This encouraged us to take a break at Tocumwal on the banks of the Murray, just inside NSW. We had lunch (soup and rolls) there on the banks of the Murray, listening to the corellas screeching on the other side of the river and generally enjoying ourselves.

Joke at lunch - note the soup bowls

Murray River at Tocumwal

Then we took off up the Newell Highway, which was going to guide us on our journey for the next 1200 kms or so. We passed Finley, our planned stopping place and proceeded to Narrandera, where we took a site in a cheap caravan park which was rebuilding itself after the Murrumbidgee floods of 3-4 months ago. The park had been under about 170 cms under water, just above my head! We decided against free camping because we needed the power to run our little heater, thereby making life bearable.

Day 2: Melbourne on Sunday

It’s Sunday evening. We have good music on our little digital radio (thanks Alice!), we have finished dinner – traditional Sunday-night chicken soup :-), 

Special one-finger preparation of chicken soup!

done the dishes and are now sitting back with a well-deserved coffee.  

Yesterday we viewed the rain in the morning with some dismay. 

Dismay-causing rain.

We had a hill to get up and down (West Launceston) and did not really need a slippery road. However, though it was pouring when we picked up the caravan at Roelf and Tiny’s, it dried up nicely by the time we got home. 

We finished off the packing etc. at our leisure, said goodbye to Niels, and toddled off to Devonport mid-afternoon. With its heavier-than-ever load and new tyres the caravan handled really nice and it was a smooth ride into the ferry terminal. It was well into twilight by the time we were lined up to go on board.

Twilight at the ferry terminal.

Boarding went smoothly. We were directed almost to the front of the boat, which meant we would be one of the first ones to get off at the other end. Our cabin was also at the front of the boat. It was the size of a roomy walk-in wardrobe, but it had everything we needed plus two spare bunks. 

Lifejacket drill with realistically simulated panic.

We had a meal and bumped into my colleague from St Lukes, Deb and her husband. They were on their way to Cape York, and hoped to be in Cairns by Wednesday, whereas we need to get there by 22 June. They were going to travel 900 kms today. We, on the other hand, enjoyed our day of rest!

Sleeping on the boat can be problematical, but we managed a few hours between us. The hot-and-cold-again air conditioning didn’t help – at one stage I was so overheated that I thought I was joining Joke in the overgang! But the ferry did its job, and woke us at 10 to 6 to tell us so, and could we please get ready to up and begone by 6:30. In the very quiet of an early Melbourne Sunday morning with almost zero traffic we got to Ashley Gardens Caravan Park in Braybrook just on 7 a.m. While Joke was getting out the makings of breakfast we were invited to enter the park and make ourselves comfortable. By 9 a.m. we were all done, so we decided we would attend the morning service at Box Hill Christian Reformed Church, 27 kms away. We got there in good time, enjoyed the service led by pastor Albert Esselbrugge whose sermon on Acts 5 was well worth listening to. We met all sorts of Dutch types at the coffee counter afterwards, including a Mr Visser, whose brothers are all members of our churches in W.A.

It took us much longer in time and kms to get back to the caravan park as we chose to ignore the GPS. When we decided we had better take note, we managed to misinterpret its instructions and found ourselves on the freeway going in the opposite direction. Don’t you hate that?

The scribe at work.

Tomorrow will be an early start and then we’ll see how far we get.

The night before

It's Friday night and the journey will start tomorrow. It is eerily quiet in the Veltkamp household. No last-minute panics, no rushing about, no lists of things still to be done tomorrow (weell, only tiny lists, really). We are uncharacteristically well organised.

Pa and Moe phoned from Holland to wish us well. So did Renske and Miriam. Niels came around for last-minute instructions, and Wes came to wish us a good trip too. Nice to see and hear from everybody.

So, tomorrow we will start on a 12,400 km journey. I have been telling everybody we would do 15,000 kms, but I was a bit optimistic. Google Maps set me straight with its excellent directions feature. We have two set dates: June 22 we have to be in Cairns for my exam, and July 7 we have to be in Darwin to meet up with Renske, Miriam and Adam. For the rest we are free.

Now, if the Saints can still beat Richmond in the last quarter, all will be well. :-)

7 days to go...

It's d-day -7, or the Saturday before departure. The excitement is rising as we realise our long-planned trip is about to start. There is the occasional bout of tension as well. Will it all go well? Will it all go according to plan? What have we overlooked?
We started the day off very early - at least compared to our usual Saturday routine. We had arranged through Rob Southen to have new tyres put on the van. That was to take place at Goodyear down in Margaret Street at 8 a.m. So we drove off to pick up the van, raced back and then found that the place was not opening until 8:30. Time for a coffee in Cucina opposite.
We had arranged to have light truck tyres put on. When the tyres were on, I drove the van home, parked it in front of the house and we spent the day cleaning, fixing, loading gear etc. Winter gear, summer gear - probably more stuff than we will get to use.

[Picture 1: As last night's storm recedes, the caravan stands out the front in the mild sunshine.]

As the day progressed the weather got better, and it was a mild winter afternoon by the time we brought the van back to Legana.