Echuca - Mudgee 5 - 7 September 2012

Word is out - the weather is about to change - back to the strong winds - we're outta here!

We drove along the Cobb Highway to Deniliquin. This is the beginning of "The Long Paddock" - the old stock routes that they used in periods of drought and also to move the cattle to the markets in Victoria. This was also the route of the Cobb and Co coaches (hence the name). After a photo opp at the gate of the Deni Ute Muster (this area is massive!!!) it was time to battle wind again. It makes a huge difference with the fuel consumption in the wind. It's all everyone talks about when you travel around - quite funny really.

Driving through Jerilderie, I researched Ned Kelly because on all the shop awnings there were silhouettes of the famous outlaw. This is one of the great bonuses of having an ipad with internet connection. Apparently Ned and his gang held the town captive for 2-3 days, stole 2,000 pounds from the bank and wanted a letter printed about his life. Of course, the letter wasn't printed until about 50 years after his death. We read parts of the letter and it was all about how he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and how hard done by he was in the beginning which no doubt led him to his life of crime. It was quite funny really - google it sometime. It was hard reading though - no punctuation and plenty of spelling errors. We free camped just out of Narrandera beside a lake through a really bad windstorm. SCARY!!

After surviving the night it was the Newell Highway most of the day through West Wyalong and Forbes. We stopped by the river at Forbes and reassessed our plans. We were to travel through to Parkes but DB had thought if we pushed on a slightly different direction to Burrendong Dam, we could do a little fishing before hitting Mudgee. So it was off the main highway and back on the lovely secondary roads that we love so much. Through some great farming lands at Cudal and Molong. We camped at Lower Mookerawa - obviously a busy place in the warmer months with all the water ski huts and vans positioned around. We had a lovely spot on the foreshore. Of course, once we settled in and got our campers all set up, we saw "ol' puffy" a rather inflated dead kangaroo bobbing in shallow water just on the shore. Nice one - mental note to self - stay downwind.

After a lazy morning fishing - again nothing - we headed for Mudgee through Wellington and Goolma. Really, we've travelled over 11,000 km so far on this trip and the worst roads have been the roads from Wellington to Mudgee. Absolutely disgusting. No wonder there are so many accidents in the country here. A couple of days in Mudgee partying for Craig's 50th (gotta get out of here - this pace is killing us!) and we are now headed for the coast to finally catch up with Karen and Phil. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us and give us 2 weeks of perfect sunshine - and no wind - so that we can finish our trip toasty warm!