Total km: 1450

Woke to the stirring of river birds and once the kookaburras got going we knew it was time to get out of bed.

Lovely people at our camp site last night so the morning ‘yarns’ meant we were a bit slower packing up. However we were on the road by 8.45 and heading north to St George.

Much more barren landscape today but  still beautiful under the big skies. Temperature heating up so we broke out the shorts and t-shirts.

This is cattle country- lots of calves in tow. We’ve seen lots of emus (living) and plenty of Roos (sadly most of them flat) and billions of flies. We’ve become very adept at jumping in and out of the car quickly so as not to let the flies in.

Crossed the border into Queensland round 10.30am with that ‘ok, now we’re really on holidays’ feeling. Stopped just over the border at the Hebel Pub and General store for a homemade beef pie, coffee and to refuel – ironically the most remote yet cheapest fuel yet on this journey. 

From there we followed the Great Inland Way all the way to St George.

We set up camp in the Kapunda camp site (a station stay right on the banks of the Bellome river). It was stinking hot when we arrived so we set up as quickly as we could under the only bit of shade we could find and set off in search of cooler surrounds.

Found our way to the Riversands Winery (thanks for the recommendation S & J) where we sat under a huge shady veranda with a cheese plate to die for until closing time. 

Back to camp in time for a shower and sunset. It’s now a balmy 20 degrees – the river is like glass and all is well in the world.

Total km: 1097 (we cracked the ton!)

Awoke to the morning chorus and 6.30 sunshine. Leapt out of bed (at least in our minds) and got the coffee pot humming.

We aimed for an 8am departure and were on the road, coffee and banana in hand- unshowered but hey, we’re camping!

First stop to take a picture of the local playground for you know who…then on to Condoblin

Arrived in Condoblin round 9.30. The town was a mass of people and horses with the local camp draft underway. It’s a beautiful, thriving regional  town, beautifully preserved buildings and obviously a vibrant community. 

Resisted the temptation to buy a prized lam- or property but could see us living here in a parallel universe.

Stopped off at the ‘Utes in a Paddock’ art installation which has a couple of dozen Australian utes painted by famous artists reflecting outback history (mostly post colonial mind you).

Fully caffeinated and fed we continued north.

Next stop was Tottenham whose claim to fame is being the geographical centre of NSW. On arrival we discovered the true centre is marked 20km west of town. Given the long drive ahead we opted out  of the photo op and decided near enough is good enough.

Followed the ‘Bogan Way’ today north through long miles of lush cattle and canola country – easy to see how this region gets its Kings in grass castles reputation.

We are listening to the book ‘Outback Stations’ as we go – a historical account of the Aussie meat industry and the 8 biggest cattle stations in Australia, some of them along the route we are taking.  A & J you’d love it!

Arrived in our riverside camp spot right on the banks of the Barwon River. We stayed here a couple of years ago and it’s still magical. We are all set up and David’s in the process of cleaning the 5000 mashes insects off our windscreen (no exaggeration) before settling in for our sunset G&T.

Using our stellar organisational skills we were packed ready to go with car and camper on street ready to rock and roll by 8pm last night (a PB for us). We were very relieved to wake up and find it still there’s this morning!

David assured me he was securing the gerry cans and not just checking out the view!

we aimed to leave at 6am and at 5::59 we were in the road feeling very proud of ourselves.

it was a pretty uneventful drive today. We fast tracked it up the Hume. Breakfast in Seymour which has grown exponentially since we last went through, and lunch in in Culcairn in a cute little courtyard cafe (Feed the Soul) – and it did.

Frm there our GPS took us on a bit of a Tikki Tour mostly through farming backroads. Farm lands were as green as except for the vibrant gold canola crops. Mostly cropping and or beef.

Arrived in West Wyalong mid afternoon in glorious sunshine. A bit of a shock fuelling up at $2.90/litre- given we are averagi 7.8km/l.

Now camped up at the West Wyalong Showgrounds- lots of people here but pretty spread out. Most people like us have remained hitched so I’d say it’s a popular overnighter and there will be a mass exodus in the morning.

Now sitting in Sun, G & T in hand. Life doesn’t get much better than this!