A funny thing happened on the way to Tasmania
............... we didn’t quite get there!
Here’s what happened and a recap. I’d been suffering from a bad middle ear infection post flu for quite a while before we left on holidays. This left me with an occasional episode of vertigo (not fun) and I have already acknowledged the fact that I’m the world’s worst sea traveller. ... ...
Getting the picture? I was getting more and more anxious and worried about the sea travel, and knew that the whole holiday I’d be worried about the return trip as well. Combine this with really bad weather conditions on Bass Strait at the time (high winds, big seas) and the decision was made about 3 hours out of Melbourne that maybe we should just cancel the Tasmanian leg of the holiday.
Fortunately because we were travelling in off season we had only pre-booked the ferry nothing else. Yes, we lost a bit of money, but the peace of mind (for me) was worth it. We will go another time for sure (I’ll be the one in the plane).
So what did we do? Well there’s still lots of Australia that we hadn’t been to and we decided just to freewheel a bit and travel through parts of NSW/Victoria. It was fabulous! No set plans, just winging it as we went.
We had no problems finding accommodation (White Cliffs underground motel shown above) the roads were relatively uncrowded and we did lots of fun things and met lots of people along the way. It was a great way to travel.
So to start off we basically went back to the Victorian border and followed the Murray along for a while before we headed into rural NSW. So pleased we did it when we did, considering the dreadful conditions at the moment.
Sending out thoughts to all affected by these horrific bushfires.
Some personal highlights were (in no particular order) would be
: Beechworth, paddle steamer ride at Euchucha - sleeping in underground Motel at White Cliffs - exploring Wombeyan Caves - finally seeing the spectacular Blue Mountains - Mungo National Park - having a cuppa near Boundary Bend at the junction of the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers - beautiful Nundle and the wool mill - the town of Grenfell and and bushranger history - Wentworth on the junction of the Darling and Murray rivers - Cranky Rock Reserve Warialda - and visually lots of fields of gold (canola).
Quite often it would be the little towns that attracted us. We definitely stayed away from the bright lights. It was a wonderful trip and it was fabulous to have the freedom to travel this way. Fortunately no incidents or accidents. Unfortunately lots of dead wombat sightings, which was sad as we didn’t see any live ones.
We have however discovered that we are latent twitchers ... bird watchers! We found a great place - Reed Bed Bird Hide at Mathoura on the Murray was fabulous. As was Wonga Wetland in Albury.
Lots more of course. Five weeks on the road! We are not quite grey nomads, but may well be when the time comes. Husband has been through a rough couple of years at his workplace, so it was an opportune time to take a well earned break. We had a great time, and I would thoroughly recommend this type of trip to anyone. It can be done on a budget, we lived fairly frugally and the main cost of course was accommodation. We stayed a lot in standard cabins which seem to be cheaper away from the coast and bigger towns. They vary a bit of course, but overall the standard was pretty good. Quite often we would find a motel to be cheaper than available cabins.
Our car is not 4 wheel drive, it is a 4 door sedan. We did carry some camping gear including a gas cooker and cooking gear. This is a great way to save money! We only ate 'out' occasionally.
So
back home again. I had some temp work to
start as soon as I returned, so have been working full time, which has been
good to recoup some $$! Some people may query how we could afford both an overseas holiday and a 5 week road trip in one year. That's probably another post in itself!
(all photos taken on my iphone)
Cheers
for now
Wendy
