Yamba to Geelong

25/3. Well we got away reasonably early after saying our goodbyes to our club mates. We had a good run down to Grafton then turned inland passing through beautiful country towns like Glen Innes and Inverell, stopping for the night at an off road site called Cranky Rock just west of Warialda. What a beautiful spot it was, just 3k off the main road, a very quiet bush setting with walking tracks, lots of wildlife and some very interesting sites to explore, one being Cranky Rock which until I looked back at my photos I could not see why they had called it Cranky Rock, and there it was a cranky looking face impregnated into this monstrous rock balancing precariously on another. I would give this stop 9 out of 10 if I was rating it. 26/3. The following morning we were up and on the road again by 10 o'clock which is our normal take off time, travelling merrily along absorbing all the beautiful scenery, into Moree for some supplies, lunched at a park in town then continued on our way. It wasn't until we were a fair distance from Moree when we realized we had taken the wrong road out and were headed for Walgett. We contemplated turning around but decided to continue on. We found a lovely place down by the river at Collarenebri where we had lunch and fed the wild ducks. We pulled up for the night just south of Walgett. The nights were getting cooler now, so whenever we could we lit a campfire, we just love to sit around them they are quite mesmerising. 27/3. The next day we went into Dubbo for some supplies and stopped for lunch at a park out of town, then continued onto another overnighter which I would highly recommend (another 9 out of 10) called Bogan Weir near Peak Hill a few k's of dirt road off the highway, but once you get there it is all worth it. We parked right beside the Bogan River, once again lots of wild life, and absolutely beautiful at sunset, I got some great pics. 28/3. Up and on the road again, we cruised through Parks, Forbes and West Wyalong and on to Narrandera where we found another great overnight stop just 5km outside of town on the banks of the Bundidgerry Creek called Five Mile Reserve. We put our chairs down on the riverbank lit a fire and soaked in the scenery. We've realized one has to go off road a little bit to find the good spots; it is so worth the effort. 29/3. We were on the road around the normal time the next morning, just cruising down the highway when about 40k outside of Narrandera we heard this almighty boom which came from the engine and, fearing the worst stopped to find that a large hose has blown off the turbo. Thinking that we might find the clamp we turned around and backtracked but could not find anything. Not wanting to take a chance because an emission light had been showing on the dash for a number of days, we decided to ring the NRMA who promptly came to our rescue. We were relieved to find that it was nothing serious so once the hose was cleaned of oil build-up and refitted we were on our way again. But not for long, we only got a few metres down the road when she went off with a boom again. Luckily the mechanic had followed us to make sure we were ok, he decided the best thing to do was to tow us back to Narrandera. So we spent the night in a van park & arranged to have the car towed to Wagga the next day which was the closest Holden dealer. As we were supposed to be in Geelong by the 30th to look after Will I decided to travel down by train & Warren would wait for the car to be fixed. I was about 5 minutes from boarding the train when Warren got word that the car was ready for pick up. We got back on the road again by 3 pm and drove until late into the night pulling up for a couple of hours sleep just outside of Melbourne, we arrived in Geelong to a relieved but happy family around 7.30 on Tuesday 31st. We received a wonderfully warm welcome & over a much neeeded cuppa were given our instructions for the day before Pauleen & Hugh had to leave for work.