Thursday 12th October 2023

Note: I’ll include several links in this post and leave it to the reader’s discretion to click through or not.

I didn’t finish blogging about our road trip to Temora last February, and here we are now on a different trip in a different part of New South Wales. We are ultimately headed for Broken Hill, which I have written about extensively in the past, starting here. Granddaughter #3 moved there in January of this year, and she will be 21 in a week. Her sister (#1 granddaughter) is marrying in Sydney in at the beginning of November – Melbourne Cup Day actually, which is something of a sacrilege – and #3 is in the bridal party. She knows her official Big Bash Birthday will take place later that week on account oh being in Sydney, what she doesn’t know is that some of us are headed her way to celebrate on the day with the spotlight firmly on her. So I don’t dare publish for another week as I can’t risk her reading any of my social media.

For context, I am writing this in real time – this day being Thursday 12th October 2023, and now I’ve had my morning driving stint Bill is at the wheel while I attempt typing on my laptop in spite of road bumps. Right now, we are on the 2-lane New England Highway which runs 883-kilometres (549 mi) from Yarraman, north of Toowoomba, Queensland to Hexham at Newcastle, New South Wales – a few hours north of Sydney. The New England Highway receives a lot of heavy transport traffic which plays havoc with the bitumen surface. But at least it is tarred – there is a plethora of dirt roads where we are headed.

So where is that – I hear you ask? After having spent last night (Wednesday 11^th October 2023) visiting friends near Newcastle, a mere three-and-half hour doddle up the road from our Wollongong home, we are now on the way to our niece who runs a horse and agistment property outside of Tamworth (the home of the Golden Guitar). Her day job as a firefighter underwrites this passion. It’s around a four-hour run from Newcastle area, and we’ll have a night with her, co-incidentally celebrating her birthday.

Our niece has poured a lot of heart and planning into this enterprise, which she named Blue Top Farm, and it is an amazing undertaking for a young woman to do on her own. Take a peek here.

Then we’re off to the outback: Moree, Lightning Ridge, Walgett, Bourke, and Cobar, before pulling into Broken Hill for four nights. Then we head south, following part of the Darling River – once ploughed by paddle steamers – to Wentworth and Mildura. From there it gets a bit hazy, but most likely we’ll cross the Hay Plains on the direct route between Adelaide and Sydney. I’ve done that route many times in my early youth, and Hay has only ever been a motel stop. This time we’ll allocate two nights. Apparently, there are lots of hidden tourist gems in the town. Watch this space.

Then it’s either a long dash for home, or more probably one more overnight stop. Either way, the deadline is midday Saturday 28^th October to be back at home to help a neighbour with a book launch of her poetry.

Many of you will be saying – oh yeah! I know that place and you should do … xyz while you’re in town … and we’ll look back and say, crikey! How did we miss that? But I must, must, must resist hitting that “publish” button too soon. Others who are following from further afield might be getting out their Google Maps to see where the heck that place is. As for us, we also have the “real deal” paper maps on hand – just in case.

Just passing a paddock of recently shorn sheep, reminding us that we are in spring. The outside temperature is 30’c (86’f). The fire hazard rating today is extreme and there is a total fire ban. This is going to be a long, hot summer.

And now a few horses with foals – naaaw – and then through Wallabadah, famous for having a First Fleet Park. We’ll pass through Garoo, Goonoo Goonoo and Timbumburi. Mercifully, those Anglo-Saxon white settlers didn’t manage to name every place after dear Mother England 🙂 . Having said that, in 1818 the explorer John Oxley passed through this area on his exploration mission so plenty of obsequiousness abounds. Tamworth, for example, lies on the Peel River, so named for Robert Peel, the British Prime Minister in Oxley’s time.

In a win for the existing residents, Wikipedia informs me the Kamilaroi people who inhabited the area before European contact, have gifted us the word “budgerigar“.

And here is an old post of mine about Tamworth – The Country Music Capital of Australia, just to keep you going.

Footnote: It is now the 20th October and our darling granddaughter was suitably surprised and grateful that her parents, two lots of grandparents, and an aunt had all made the trek from various parts of the New South Wales east coast to celebrate with her, her partner and others of his family. The smile on her face was worth every minute of our drives.

That also means I can catch up with blog posts about this latest road trip 🙂

Source: Facebook, Blue Top Farm, February 2018