Moree, NSW 25July2022 380km

 Moree, NSW 25July2022 380km

The day started out with the run up through Gilgandra, past Balladoran and the property Warrawillah, where Judy’s father was born and raised. We then swung across to Coonabarabran, where we took a late morning tea and a rest at Roses Cafe, before the 200+ km leg up through Narrabri to Moree. For added interest, Coonabarabran is where my mother’s aunt lived with her family.

The road had been plain sailing so far but the farther north we went the worse the road got, most road works to do with the new $37bn freight rail link between Brisbane and Melbourne. The project upgrades a bunch of existing lines and adds a pile of missing bits to complete the 1700 km railway line. The link even spurs off at Parkes and heads to Adelaide and Perth. Each train is 1.8km long and carries double-stacked containers, just like the ones that run between Adelaide and Darwin. Each train is designed to put 180 B-Double trucks off the road.

Double-decker freight trains, heeding to a station near you. This one is in Port Augusta, SA

Now in the past, I have said some rather unpleasant things about Moree and especially about the caravan park where we had previously stayed, the one that had the big heated pools, one of which I’m sure was the inspiration for Cocoon. I really didn’t understand why we would be heading back there, but as we were booked into the Mehi River Caravan Park, and given that the last two of the five hours on the road had been a bit of trial, I was ready to try anything.

The park is a lot of things the other isn’t, not so large, nowhere near as crowded, certainly no cheek-by-jowl camping as we were at the last one and only one tiny spa pool. Not a cocoon to be seen floating anywhere!