Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Dubbo, NSW - 24Jul2022 - 410km Our first day out after 3 years of covid lockdowns and generally being fiddled about. We are on our way to Cairns to pick up our twice delayed (originally overseas trips, now transferred to Outback Spirit) Outback Spirit tour of CapeYork. Mind you it was a close run thing: Covid is spreading seemingly unchecked through the Canberra Community. Our children had had it, our friends were down with it and it seemed almost inevitable that we too should succumb. Which we did and ‘luckily’ for us it was three weeks out from our start date so we feel confident that we should be able to get to Cairns without going down again. We have both been left weakened and lacking in get-up-and-go, which seems to have done just that. I have a dreadful choking cough and Judith has bronchitis, but apart from that wer'e fighting fit! So this, our first day out was a 6 hour run from Canberra up through Booroowa, Cowra and on to Dubbo, with a stop in Molong for lunch. Mol...

It can get a bit chilly in Dubbo, -2 overnight, but lovely during the day with a top of 17 and bright clear skies and glorious warm sunshine. Mind you, laying in bed in a thin metal caravan with a doona and 3 blankets it still felt like -15.  Undaunted, I was up and around to the start of Parkrun by the allotted time of 8am, and managed a reasonable walking time despite the cold, The walk starts on one side of the Macquarie river, then crosses over and heads back along the other bank until you reach the turn around point under the bridge. The parklands near the start were a white sheet of ice and totally deserted when we left. An hour later and there are 10,000 kids playing soccer, the ice has gone and the temperature is already climbing. After a long hot shower and breakfast, we headed out to do one of the Heritage Trails. The first and main point of interest was Dundullimal Station, dating from the early 1800's. We had actually been here before many years ago and it was qu...

Dubbo, NSW, 21 July 2017  Well, its been nearly a year since our last trip, and it’s a relief to be on the road again and heading toward somewhere warmer.  We drove through thick fog from Murrumbateman out past Yass and halfway to Boorowa. The temperature hovered between 1 and six and back again. Finally we broke into some clear sunny conditions and we had a pleasant run through to Cowra, where we stopped at the info place and Maccas for a break and a nice cup of coffee. After our rest stop, and ignoring the temptation to wander around the Japanese Gardens, we drove up to Wellington where we found a single cafe open, well almost, they were putting their signs away right on 2 o’clock, but were happy to feed us anyway. Wellington the town looks even deader than when we were there last a few years ago. From Wellington it’s a 100km or so run up to Dubbo where we found the Big 4, despite our GPS having not heard of it - and it’s being right next to the zoo. The most anxious par...