ON THE ROAD AGAIN

You may be wondering why you haven’t seen a blog for a while?

Murray River at Tocumwal - rail bridge - centre can open to allow
 boats through. Last opened 1995

Well, we spent the summer at home but we’re back on the road, heading north slowly through New South Wales and up into Queensland. So far we have only got as far as West Wyalong, a township in wheat country in the southern part of inland NSW. You can drive from here to Melbourne in 6 hours, but we’ve taken two weeks, stopping in Tocumwal by the Murray River for 4 days where we camped beside the river, walking distance from the town.

 We then moved about 190km north to Nurrandera on the Murrumbidgee River for another  4 days using it as a base to explore some of the smaller towns in the area. Lockhart was particularly interesting as they hold a “Spirit of the Land” festival each year which includes a sculpture contest using old scrap iron from round the farm and some of the items are on display around the town.  At the local museum there are portraits done in natural wool by a local lady Doris Golder but no photos are allowed however this link shows a few and also the metal sculptures  http://www.demotix.com/news/477865/lockhart-festivalthe-true-aussie-spirit-lies-heart-land#media-477794

Swag man & his dog - Artist:Andrew Whitehead

From Nurrandera we moved to Griffith and got lovely fresh veges at the Sunday market and a new foam mattress for our bus which we folded in half long-ways and carried back to camp poking out each side of the Moke (roof on, sides off) but forgot to take a photo.  Griffith grew out of the work camp for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation project and was originally known as Bagtown as the workers built huts out of the discarded cement bags. Today there are over 3700km of canals allowing the area to grow oranges, grapes, rice and a wide range of other produce.

That brings us up to date in West Wyalong where it was time to do some basics like shopping and laundry while staying at the local showgrounds. We are out of the irrigation area and into dry country desperately in need of rain – such a huge contrast.