Judy & Brian Tour Oz

 Swan Hill Vic, 29th July 2026 Parked up at the Big 4 Riverside caravan park, Backed in right up to the edge of the river. The wind is fairly howling across the park and it freezing cold. Judy thought she might sit out in the sunshine and read a book, but apart from being too windy and too cold, 10,000 ducks came demanding a feed. We are staying two days, and I feel definitely like I could do with the break after 4 days on the run.  There is something odd about this place and it turns out we have been here before, in 2015 and parked in almost exactly the same spot! The ducks almost exactly the same as well! Here's a view out of my back window, now that I've cleaned it.... Murray River. Swan Hill Vic July 2026 We are right next to the Heritage Village which we've been to at least 3 times and despite  them having a light show tonight out across the river we've decided to forego the pleasure this time. However, back along the road about 15km there is a little place...

 Jerilderie NSW 27 July 2026 Passed through Deniliquin and then Narrandera on our way to Jerilderie. Stopped at Narrandera for a coffee and took the opportunity to have a look at the Tiger Moth aeroplane. They are commemoration their involvement in WWII as they were one of the flying schools set up to train thousands of pilots and navigators for service overseas. Tiger Moth. Narrandera NSW July 2026 Jerilderie is a tiny town with a nice enough caravan park. Drove to petrol station. Drove back. Fixed TV aerial, well temporarily anyway. Went to a really nice restaurant for dinner at the Colony Inn Hotel. The restaurant is attached to the hotels, but quite separate except for a single door.  Nothing much else. There is however, an army Leopard tank parked in the main street.... Leopard Tank. Jerilderie NSW July 2026

  West Wyalong NSW 26 July 2026 West Wyalong NSW July 2026 Journeyed south from Gilgandra, stopping at Peak Hill to have a look through the old shop on the corner that happens to have the town’s collection of historic records. Apart from a hand made collection of notes and names and photos, they have this awesome set of Town Rates Ledgers from 1911. Absolutely fascinating to read down the columns looking at the names. You are struck straight away by the names that appear to own most of the district. You cant help but wonder what happened to those mini-empires. I am reliably informed that my great-grandmother lived in the Peak Hill area, unfortunately we don't have the time to sit and read through the whole collection. Passed by / through Dubbo, which looks like its finally getting a Newel Highway bypass. Then on and on towards Parkes, which surprisingly, does have a brand new bypass complete with Golden Arches. Just a bit short on signage to tell you its there, or how to get in a...

  Gilgandra NSW 15 July 2026 Fairly easy run down from Moree. Stopped at Coonabarabran for a sandwich in the park. Made it into the van park early enough, went into town to the one (1) open shop that sold coffee, a ‘greasy spoon’, but decked out in a car motif so not all bad. Grabbed some food at the only other shop open, the IGA, and headed back to the van via the Info centre and the cemetery. Pleased to report all the Mortimers are still in their allotted places. The van battery indicates that it’s charged but with the temperature sensor plugged in it wont run the load and seems to go awry with it plugged in. I suspect that the ‘new’ battery is kaput, thanks in no small way to my mistreatment of it. Turned the battery charger back into Power Supply mode and we’ll just leave it like that. Right back where we started at Day 1.

Moree NSW 24 July 2026 Left Stanthorpe and headed to Moree. Took a backroad, a ‘C’ road at best. Tedious, bumpy, rough, slow. 80-85 was about it. Stopped at Texas to settle down for a half hour. Coffee and scone.  Texas. Queensland. July 2026 Back out onto the road and picked up the Bruxner Highway. Who are they kidding? Heaps better than the last goat track, but not fantastic. Turned left and headed to Warialda, another ‘C’ road and worse than the last. It was a toss-up what would break first, me or the van. Finally we arrived at Warialda and we just had to stop again. Found a little park and had a sandwich by the side of the van. From Warialda we picked up the Newell Highway and had an easy run across into Moree. Now, we have stayed at Moree once before and I swore i’d never come back, but here we are. Fortunately we are in a different park, The G’day park just out of town on the Newell Highway and it's reasonably pleasant. They have a little hot spring so we had a soak. Lov...

Stanthorpe Qld 23 July 2026 Left Tewantin at 845 as planned, traffic was relatively calm down the Mighty Bruce, over the Gateway bridge ($6.57), down onto the Logan Motorway ($4.10) and out and around Ipswich, then Warwick, over the mountains via The Gap and lots of road work, to Stanthorpe. Big deserted van park. We were allocated the “best spot in the park” mostly because it was one of two Ensuite sites and at the top of the hill. TV is laying up, wont find channels. FWAW finale is coming up soon and I'm under the gun to get it fixed. Basically we had a relaxed day doing not much. Spend a heap of cash! Bought new running shoes and a new headlamp for the car. Took the TV to the recreation room and plugged it into the TV aerial there. It works fine. Junk aerial I bought from junk shop doesn’t appear to work at all, so a waste of $10 as far as a diagnostic tool was concerned. it certainly wasn't a waste having coffee and later, lunch, at the   Groove 'n' Grill Diner, dow...

  Tewantin, Qld 15-21 July 2026 Oh my, that drive for 2hours 45 minutes from Tweed to Tewantin. Just full on. Motorbikes seemed intent on committing kamikaze under or front wheels, one truck literally fell apart in front of us… A van and car on their sides in a ditch… Glad to be here. Exhausted. Stressed. Why do we do it? Already been down to Perigean Beach, Coolum, Maroochydore or Mooloolaba or wherever.  Windy, rainy, unpleasant. Perigian Beach Qld Car made a particularly weird noise when we pulled out pf the carpark. Not a grinding noise, sounded like cardboard box dragging or something. Odd. Stopped and looked all around. The noise started again as we left but not heard it since. Assume it was something stuck under the car / in the engine? Who knows. Does make you wonder just what you would do if…. Doesn’t bear thinking about. Saturday. Up early and down to Coolum for a 7am start at Parkrun. Reasonably pleasant trail run around some duck ponds near the industrial ...

 Tweed Heads NSW, July 7 - 14 2026 Moved up from Yamba to Tweed Heads, to the council owned and run park in Dry Dock Road. Probably in our Top 3.  We forsook the mighty M1 for the more sedate and certainly for us, nostalgic A1, aka Pacifc Highway. Just a pleasant dawdle the 160 of kilometres, mostly because we had to be out of Yamba at 10 and couldn't get into Tweed before 2! Anyhow, stopped at Mooball for lunch. Who wouldn't want to stop at a place called Mooball? Mooball was a bright spot on a one-time tedious journey. It's a tiny place, a fleabite actually, but in its day everything was cow-themed. Telegraph poles, garbage bins, street signs the few buildings. After it was bypassed it could have easily died but by a stroke of luck, the government chose to turn the abandoned railway line that runs right beside it, into a Bike Trail. The clever folk of Mooball turned themselves into Bike hire, Bike picnic, Bike outfitters etc etc. The place is alive and doing well i...

Yamba NSW. July 3rd-7th 2026 We are back in Yamba again and surprised to find ourselves down the other end of the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park, rather than our 'usual' place right up the other end. It's an ensuite site in their unique style which is s block of six, one each for six adjacent sites rather than one ensuite on each site.  Our van is backed right onto one of the pools, but probably because they don't heat this pool, it's pretty quiet. The kids come and go to have a ride on the water slide but then disappear again back to the other heated pool. Or their scooter, or bikes or wherever. So far so good.  Went out for a bit of a drive around today, first stop was Angourie to look at the 'world famous' beach. Well it's world famous if you are in the surfing world. Angourie Beach. Yamba NSW 2026 Around the corner are the "Blue and Green pools". I've been here a few times and they just look like dark forbidding pools of cold inky water. As ...