Dubbo to Dunedoo to Coolah

Dubbo to Dunedoo = 92km

Cummulative total = 1605km

It has been a long day and we decided to go to Dunedoo (pronounced Dunny-doo). The local maps said it was 84km away and the road signs said it was 90km ... I guess the road signs were correct!

We woke to a frost again this morning and it wasn't long before the sun began to shine through and warm things up ... but not long after that a southerly wind blew right through and that made it very cold for us on the bikes! We started around 8.30am and we had to content with Dubbos' peak hour traffic and like alot of towns they have roundabouts so it gets a bit hectic on these things and since the bikes are so heavy I am a little slow at starting off on the bike! We had cross winds to start with and eventually the road switched to a direction where the wind was behind us but then again further on the road would turn and the wind would be either in front or on our sides ... can't win can we!

We followed the Golden Highway which was busy with trucks but eventually the bulk of them turned off at the Wellington-Mudgee turnoff so there was less traffic. The highway had a shoulder most of the time - generally when you needed the shoulder it wasn't there and when you didn't need it it was the size of another lane!

So not much happened to us today in fact it was quite uneventful! But we did come across a Pistachio nut farm and they were selling bags of seasoned Pistachio nuts for ... listen to this ... $5.00 for a 200g bag ... that is $25.00 a kilo!!! What rip off! What the hell is this farmer thinking you can pick them up at Woolies for $16.00 a kilo why the hell would you want to pay $25 per kilo! well I am guessing their honesty box is empty!

The road today was pretty much up, down and along, up, down and along and it was like that for the entire 90km and we got to Dunedoo around 3.30pm. The campground is great and there are quite a few campers here for the night. Facilities are excellent - free bbq, fridge, microwave, sink, table and kettle but what they didn't have was a toaster! In the campground they had this little art deco arrangement that I thought was quite humourous!

The sign reads "will this dunny doo" - a play on the pronounciation of Dunedoo. Below are a few photos of things in and around town.

With most country NSW towns the local pubs are in all the oldest buildings - I suppose it goes to show that the pub business is the one thing that will survive any economic depression!

And again in most towns they will have some sort of ANZAC memorial and what caught my eye was this pine tree that was planted from a pine seed from Gallipoli.

Dunedoo to Coolah = 48km

Cummulative total = 1653km

We woke this morning but not to our usual alarm of "drip, drip, drip" from the condensation under the tent fly as it drips onto our front mat ... why? ... because the condensation was frozen!!! Can you imagine that it definitely got below zero last night and I reckon at least minus 2 degrees! This is the first time the condensation has frozen up into sheets of ice and even Koutas water in his drinking bowl began to freeze! Lucky he didn't get his tongue stuck to the ice floating in it LOL wouldn't that be hilarious! You never really know just how could it is outside the tent as the inside of the tent is relatively warm (around 5 degrees which is warm by our standards!) and it is even warmer under the sleeping bags! Neil keeps reminding me that I was only going to bring a light polar fleece blanket for this trip as I thought it would be warmer ... lucky I didn't listen to myself and bought the down sleeping bag along! But despite the cold start to the day it quickly turns into a warm sunny day (like most autumn days up here).

Last night we had 2 freight trains come through at 1.30am and 5.00am and boy were they loud - considering the railway tracks are about 50m away from the tent ... but there are caravans that are even closer than us!

The ride to Coolah was nice and relatively flat (we expected undulations) and we took the Golden Highway again for 11km and then we turned off on to the Black Stump way. At the junction there is a lovely rest area but no camping as Dunedoo campground is just down the road but I would imagine that it would get quite noisy there at nights with the truck traffic from both roads. The black stump way meanders its way through an open valley floor with ranges either side.

Although the scenery through this valley was lovely the road as per usual was crap! We got to Coolah early afternoon and the campground is really quiet we are under a poplar tree that will hopefully keep the frost off the tent. The sun is setting and once it goes down it drops in temperature really quickly. The town of Coolah reminds me a bit of Maldon in Victorial but maybe not as old. The town is very English looking with heaps of Willow and Poplar trees that look stunning in their autumn colouring.

While getting a few food supplies at the local IGA we walked past one of the town pubs and saw this bike towing 2 home made trailers behind it. What do you think Dad? ... don't even think about trying to build this and travel with it!

Neil couldn't get over just how heavy the bike would be and that you couldn't tour with it (I think he thought that someone is touring with it) but I thought that it would be a local ... and I was right the guy lived in the caravan park and looked to be very 'eccentric'

Frosty!

Well it is a rest day here at Dubbo and we haven't really done much except take a walk into town to pick up a few food items. Dubbo is a big town and generally these size towns we try to avoid but we have to go through one every now and then to restock.
We did decide to buy kouta a small polar fleece blanket - I am hoping to put it in his basket and he will stay in his basket at night as it is cold for him and he has figured out that the sleeping bags are alot warmer than in his basket, but Neil has the idea that it will be spread over part of my sleeping bag (where Kouta mostly sleeps!) and he can sleep there ... I think I will try in his basket first as sometimes Kouta can move onto my mat (and kick me off!) during the night and so I am half on my mat and half on the cold floor!
Below are photos I took from where the tent fly was had frozen droplets on it and my gel seat was covered with a frost.

Yes that really does say 3 degrees!

and no I did not ride with the frost on the gel seat ... it had defrosted by the time we started riding!

Parkes to Yeoval to Dubbo

Parkes to Yeoval = 72km

Cummulative total = 1440km

The first 19km out of Parkes via the Renshaw-Mc Girr way is a gentle climb towards the ranges in Boogang National Park after that it is climbing to the top of one range at approximately 35km. We sort of resided to ourselves that we wouldn't get to see the dish but we had hoped we might see it from the top of the range but luckily for us we saw it just before we began climbing the range so we stopped for some photos!

Here is me with my finger on the dish!

And here is Neil with his typical photo pose!

We were quite chuffed that we got these photos and as we were there it moved constantly - not sure what alien they were tracking!
At the top of the first range we stopped for lunch and then I was expecting a downhill but there was no great downhill just up and down over the next set of ranges! And it was like that all the way to Yeoval. But funny enough in the middle of NO WHERE there is this telephone box!

I forgot to mention that just after lunch Neil saw a 1m red belly black snake but it was about 3m off the road so I missed it completely we did to a U turn to go back and see it but it slithered off.

And I also missed seeing the shingle back lizard that was on the side of the road but it stayed there for me to go back and have a look and take a photo!

Missing all the wildlife - I must have had my eyes closed all day!

But after the snake I was on edge and every stick that was near the road was looked at and any movement in the grass (which at times was long and ride beside the road!) made me very nervous!

Yeoval is a nice small town with a population of under 200. And it boasts as the first home of Banjo Patterson (the famous Australian poet who is the author of man from snow river and waltzing matilda i think!). It also has a thing about bikes!

Attached to the sign is a small bike

above the general store is a horse riding a bike (man they are weird in country NSW!)

and then there was this with bikes attached to the wall ... but funny enough we didn't see anyone riding bikes!

We found the showgrounds and this was to be our campspot - not as good as Tullibigeal but it had a rain water tank and toilets (which were really antiquated! and had no toilet paper!) they do ask that you donate $5 but I think not since we didn't use any facilities and used our own toilet paper!

this is the campspot and we were the only ones here for the night - not too sure if they get many passerbys!

Yeoval to Dubbo = 73km

Cummulative total = 1513km

We woke this morning to a frozen tent! we are not joking! although we were very warm in the sleeping bags we were very surprised to see the drips on the outside of the tent were frozen and the seats and neils front panniers were covered with frost. I will post up photos tomorrow of this as I forgot to add them to this posting.

Neil said at 3am his thermometer said 3 degrees and that was in the tent! I would imagine that outside it would be around 0 or less!

We left a little later this morning and for the first 25km it was just up and down with some big undulations. After that it was up and down with a little more of the down than up. So you could say we had a day of undulations which actually wasn't that bad ... it actually was the condition of the road that really made things tough. For some strange reason the roads are really terrible up here - I mean the actual making of the roads are more slap dash without levelling and blending in with the existing road ... basically we have ridden on unsealed roads with bad corrugations that are smoother than the road we rode today! I think being on a bike we are a bit more susceptible to the conditions of the road!

We are staying here tomorrow but will not be visiting the zoo as I don't think they will allow Kouta in! The road we came on today passed the zoo but we couldn't see any animals. So tomorrow we may just look around Dubbo.

Rest day @ Parkes

Well we really didn't do much today here at Parkes - the Dish I found out is 15km north of Parkes in a place called Alectown which is on the Newell highway so we won't be passing that since we are heading on another quieter road to Dubbo rather than the Newell highway - it is not that important to see the dish that I would risk all our lives on the Newell Highway!
This morning Neil went shopping for a temperature guage and picked one up in Woolworths along with the groceries! he is very happy with it and can't wait until the morning to just see how cold it is in the tent and then how cold it is while we eat brekkie!
Then in the afternoon I went to get a haircut which I didn't like how she did it - it made me look old! so I asked her to take a little more off and do a few things and in the end I couldn't wait to get out of there! But now I have had a shower and washed out the ridiculous style she gave me I think it is okay ... nothing a helmet won't hide!!! That is the problem when going to the hairdresser I can't see what they are doing as I don't have my glasses on and it is not until I put them on do I see what they have done!
After that I rang my crazy family in NZ to wish Mum a happy mothers day for tomorrow as I don't think we will get reception at Yeoval.
At the back of this caravan park is a footy field and it is full of galahs that do nothing but eat the seeds from the grass, at times there must be at least 200 of them but in this photo I reckon there is about 100 ... you can count if you like!

After the phone call to NZ we took a walk up to the Memorial Lookout which is not far from the park and you get to see the surrounding area and where we have been and going.

This is looking South East towards Canberra

This is looking more South towards Melbourne (sort off!)

Tomorrow we climb up and over the ranges but I don't think the climbing is too difficult as it is spread over 30km at least and then it is mainly down (with the odd up) to Yeoval (pronounced Yow-val) where our camp is in the local showgrounds. Should reach Dubbo Monday.

27km West of Forbes to Parkes

27km West of Forbes to Parkes = 79km

Cummulative total = 1368km

Here is a photo of our bush camp (I forgot to put it on the previous post). There was even a tree stump that I could use as a little table. This is our first bush camp for this trip and as per usual I managed to spook myself out by convincing myself that we were going to by attacked and murdered ... so much that I had nightmares last night of being knifed and so I have been awake since 3am this morning! Before going to bed I had to see the sky as I always thought that you could see more stars in the sky in an environment that is lacking light ... and I was right there are some many stars in the sky when you don't have town/city lights around you! But man it is pitch black when you turn your torch off ... scary!!!

Before we started this morning I wanted to try and get a group photo of the 3 off us - that tree stump really came in handy for this photo!

Even Kouta looked at the camera!

It was an easy ride to meet up with the Newell Highway 6km south of Forbes but once on there the traffic was horrendous and the shoulder was narrow. We had a cuppa in Forbes and decided to take a longer and back road to Parkes. We had to seek out the information center just to check to see if the road was sealed.

It was sealed but they sort of forgot to tell us about the major road works that is going on. They had ripped up at least 2-3km of the road and at times the way was quite rough! But otherwise it was great riding except of the last 24km where the road turned east towards Parkes - the road was terrible! ... Neil and I have a theory and it goes something like this ...

... Parkes is probably most famous for 'the dish' which was responsible for the world seeing the first man on the moon images ... now Neil and I both think that the reason why Parkes was chosen as a key factor in showing the man landing on the moon was because it was the closest to this road that we were cycling on, I know you are asking yourself what am I talking about?! ... the road we were cycling on looked exactly like the surface on the moon (full of pot holes and craters) so we think that Neil Armstrong and Co. were actually staying in Parkes and they came out to this road in a bubble suit and with special effects and a stary night backdrop they pranced around on this particular road!!!! meanwhile every living room in the world were seeing the images from Parkes thinking it was the moon but it wasn't it was really this road (Brolgan road I think was the name!) ... do you like our theory!!! We have another one ...

... They didn't actually use the Brolgan road we were on but they used ALL the streets that are in Parkes as they ALL are full of pot holes and craters!!! crikey I have never been in a town with such crappy roads!

Nevertheless Parkes looks like a nice town and we will be staying here tomorrow so Mum if you could turn your computer on when you get home from work I will give you a skype call around 6pm NZ time as I am not too sure if Yeoval (sundays destination) will get internet reception!

Condobolin to Bushcamp 27km West of Forbes

Condobolin to Bushcamp 27km West of Forbes = 74km
Cummulative total = 1289km

Well it wasn't as cold last night as what it was forecasted (forecast was a low of 4 degrees!) but we find that the first 2 hours after sunset are alot colder than 6.30am in the morning!
We had a latish start this morning, we headed in a south east direction towards Forbes, we knew we would have to bushcamp tonight and the Camp 5 book said Straneys Bridge (63km away). The Lachlan Valley Way is the road to Forbes and it is flat but we had cross to headwinds most of the way. To make matters worst the road was really crappy - chunky gravel road the is very bumpy and towing the trailers makes it even harder!
Kouta doesn't like that sort of road (and neither do we!) we think it has something to do with the constant minor vibrations that you can feel coming up the bike as we have to constantly shake and move our hands more than normal or else they get pins and needles! Even when we crossed over the shire boundary the road did not improve!
Looking along the way there wasn't much opportunity for bush camping as there are alot of farms right up and along the river and road frontage.
We didn't encounter the Lachlan River until around Warroo but we did find a bridge that crossed over a creek and we stopped there for a cuppa.

If you are wondering what I am doing I am actually running on the spot - it was a damn cold wind and the clouds began to build up so it hid the sun most of the day!

Not too sure if this creek is used for the irrigation of the surrounding farms - more than likely it is as it wasn't really flowing at all.

Knowing that we were bush camping tonight we had a full load of water with us except the bladder as we were hoping to full the bladder up along the way at some local halls rain tank! No towns along the way just 2 localities and the first one Fairholme had nothing but there was a hall at Warroo that had a rain tank with a tap so we filled up the bladder.

Just before Warroo we took a rest break and the gate at the driveway was opened and there was sheep close to the gate (couldn't get through as there was a grate across the gate) so Kouta was on one side and the sheep on the other and all Kouta could do was look longingly!!!

At 63km we reached Straneys Bridge rest area which was suppose to be our campspot along the river but decided it wasn't suited for tents as it was very exposed.

We decided to continue and search for an ideal spot which as we went was looking less and less likely! 10km later we found a dirt track and followed it and voila! we found the perfect campsite. Obviously someone had been there before as there was the remains of a camp fire. The spot was secluded and well of the road and beside the river but to get to the river there is a steep bank so we couldn't really dip our toes in to see how cold it was!

I was rather relieved to get to a spot as Kouta constantly threw himself from one side of the trailer to the other ... for 74km he did this! and it makes it very hard to control the bike!

Tullibigeal to Condobolin

Tullibigeal to Condobolin = 68km
Cummulative total = 1215km

We arrived in Condobolin in good time today and it was a relief as we cycled into the town that we could see a communication tower which meant that we will get internet connection and catch up from yesterday!
So we woke this morning and new the wind had swung around to the south west west direction as there was lightening and thunder and rain last night and this must have frightened Kouta as he decided to go up and sleep near Neils head last night!
It was a grey cloudy beginning to the day and this quickly blew away to bright clear skies! While packing up this morning I came across a huge moth on one of my front panniers.

They are harmless and this one is quite small, I have seen a bigger one at Port Campbell a few years ago and that was huge!
Below is a close up of it!

I would say it was around 8cm long but it didn't spread its' wings - now that would have been a sight!
So we left Tullibigeal and the road was fabulous until it became a one lane road with patches of gravel between sealed parts of the road! But it wasn't bad and it was a change from the sealed road. We joined the Lachlin Way road and went east towards the main road the runs from West Wylong and Condobolin.
It is lovely riding around this area and the first half of the ride you can feel you a climbing gently and then around half way you go over a small range and then down and along to Condobolin!
Not long after lunch we were just climbing up the last small hill of the range and Neil spotted a dead snake along the side of the road (it was about 1m in on the gravel part) and I had missed it so we went back to have a look and it was at least 1.5m long and Neil thought it looked like a Brown snake (so it was a poisonous one!) and by the way it was lying we think something ran over it and broke its' back. From then on I had my eyes glued to the stony part of the side of the road! I must have had a temporary lapse in concentration to miss that one!
The second half of the ride went through alot of pastoral land and all along the side of the roads are the very old telephone lines which are no longer connected up but the poles are about 2.5m tall so they are quite short.

Just before we got to Condobolin we came across a rest area about 15km before the town and it would have been a lovely campspot for the night but I think it is too close to the road!

Neil liked the billabong that was at the rest area but really it was connected to a creek. I would imagine the mossies at night would be thick!
We got to Condobolin around 1pm and the campground is another council one, in fact it is run by the same council as Lake Cargelligo, but the Lake Cargelligo campground is by far better!
The town is big and has a population of around 3000 and the IGA is huge! It has everything in that IGA - even a very small craft aisle!!!
Tomorrow we follow the Lachlin river and head towards Forbes but will be camping in a rest area somewhere along the Lachlin river.