Day 12 - the Day of the Dead Wombat
We left a rainy Jervis Bay this morning, and went a back way up to Oberon as per Scott's suggestion. Initially we were a bit bummed that we had to go on a main highway for all of 5 minutes, but after that we were on back roads again. We did get caught up behind a bikie gang - Wild Hogs on Postie Bikes! There was one bloke we reckon had been working on his bike for a while as he was a good 5kms an hour faster than the others!
It was funny at first to see them all going on a road trip - but our amusement soon turned to frustration when they spread out so far apart that we couldnt pass them easilly, and they were going a good 30 kms below the speed limit!
Nevertheless once we got past them it was a truly beautiful drive on our way to Goulburn! We even scouted out a few great free camp sites for next time - see pic below.
We also noticed a rapid downward spiral in temperature (according to our vehicles external temperature gauge), the higher up and further west we went the colder it got!
By the time we got to Oberon we nearly froze when we had a rest to make lunch and get fuel.
On this leg of the trip we saw numerous dead wombats, which was a sad sight (especially as they are way up in my top favourite animals). Some of these wombats were seriously HUGE, it sends chills up my spine to think of hitting one of these things at high speed!
In addition to the wombat sightings we also saw many horny cattle - and I don't mean they had horns, I mean they were quite amorous, I'm not talking one or two sightings, I'm talking at least 5 instances of cows trying to mount each other.
The plan on this trip was fairly free flowing, it wasn't until the last minute we decided to swing towards Dubbo again. It was at this time we turned to our trusted Camps Australia Wide app and found what we have decided to be one of our all time favourite camps - Ponto Falls, north west of Wellington and south of Dubbo.
We did have a stand off with a resident cow as we drove in - We WON, he moooooved aside (pardon the pun).
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| The Cow we had a stand off with...... |
We camped by an amazing creek full of snags, high up on a bank - surrounded by cockatoos, it truly was your ideal 'Western New South Wales' destination.
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| Ponto Falls Camping Area |
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| Ponto Falls Camping Area |
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| Ponto Falls Camping Area |
Shortly after dinner the rain came in - and it didn't stop, it brought along it's friend WIND. We survived the night and had our first experience of packing up in the rain, which was just as easy as it always is and before we knew it we were on the road again and on our way.
Day 13 - WTF? Was that a Bison?
After leaving Ponto Falls we headed back towards Dubbo and then in a North Easterly direction - cant remember the name of the roads because as we prefer it we were off the beat'n'track!
We had a loose plan that was based purely around the weather, which from looking at it was a wet front moving from southern NSW all the way past the QLD border. At the end of the day we were going to get wet no matter where we went, so we decided to head for Pindari Dam (near Inverell) as if we were going to get wet we wanted to at least enjoy our surroundings.
We saw so many different animals on our drive, wild pig (dead), fox (alive), rabbits (alive), Kangaroos (dead and alive), emu (alive), and Bison (alive)...................YES THAT IS WHAT I SAID, Bison!
We can only assume because of the proximity of the Dubbo Zoo that they had something to do with the zoo. Funnily enough when we went to the Dubbo Zoo the Bison were quite far away, and both Shan and I said how we wish we could have a closer look - well we did!
Once our excitement at seeing real live Bison died down we continued on our merry way.
When we got to Pindari Dam we were blown away by the amount of structure in it. We have fished a lot of dams with standing timber - but this was a whole other ballgame. The water levels were down to 16% (figure courtesy of my Water Storage App), and we were able to camp down near the water, as opposed to up in the designated camping area.
The Camps app said the camping area was small, well it was so we have made a mental note to only stay at Pindari if the water levels are below say 25%.
The coolest part of staying there was seeing the wild goats. There were some big Billy's and little kids running around. It blew us away the array of colours in each goat herd.
Day 14: Homeward Bound
We packed up relatively quickly (as usual) and hit the road for our final trek home.
We continue to try to find alternative routes, which kind of make it more of an adventure than following the main highways.
We saw the usual sighting, emus, kangaroos etc, but no Bison.
The drive was quite cruisy the whole way home and we made good time. We decided that rather than travel home via Warrwick we would go via Toowoomba as it is more scenic, and given it was our last day we wanted to enjoy the drive.
When we got home we were so excited to see our own little Bison - Jack the Staffy! He was very happy to see us, although we think he was a bit too spoilt by his Nanny Bessy (Beth), as he was reluctant to come home to stay the night!
Anyway we are home safe and sound and this journey has come to an end.
We have vowed to get away at least once or twice a month as we have enjoyed our trip so much.
Our next little adventure is to go to the Caravan and Camping show in Brisbane on Sunday - cant wait!
Cheers
The Wanderin Watsons
P.S. Just wanted to share a saying we heard on our trip, rather than say 'safe travels', you can say 'shiny side up' haha, we thought that was a corker!
P.P.S Now I am surprised I haven't vented about this sooner, because it has been an ongoing frustration....you see you get some happy travelers who will flick you a wave when they see a car and camper or caravan coming at them, so we decided we would do the same back to our fellow travelers.
Now we are not sure if we were deliberately snubbed because we have a camper as opposed to a caravan but we would have only got 3 or so waves in return out of about 50 we put out there! Come on folks - you are on holidays - get into the spirit and flick a fellow traveler a wave! I tell you we were very tempted to flick something else when we got snubbed!
Anyway enough venting!
None the less we are now considering getting one of these bad boys - maybe then we we will get more waves????
http://www.australianoffroad.com.au/models/Quantum/highlights_Quantum
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