Plans are made to be changed

Monday 7 March 2022

In our first post of this series (To and Fro: 1 Feb 2022), we said “With a move-in date now likely to be months away, we collected the kayak and a few other camping bits from the shed, and will tour south for up to 4 months.” Rather than 4 months, just 4 weeks elapsed before we decided that we were only wasting time, and couldn’t fully enjoy our touring, as what we really wanted to do was move in to our house at Taree. Though we can’t move in before June, our tenants (the previous owners) agreed to our request that we live in the van on the property for the month of May to at least start sorting the shed and planning the landscaping. With a BlazeAid camp established just near Taree, we decided we could be more useful BlazeAiding until May, and be in our neighbourhood to attend to things if necessary, and take over the maintenance of the yard from mid-March to assist our tenants (and I get to play on my new ride-on mower).

So, yet again, another detailed schedule is thrown out the window, and a new plan set in its place.

Before the change of plan, we headed west from the southern NSW coastal town of Tathra, crossing the Great Divide via Cooma, Adaminaby and Kiandra towards Tumbarumba for the 25th Annual Tumbafest, stopping overnight in the Kosciuszko National Park on the way. By the time we reached Tumba, Carol had caught my cold and was too sick to attend the first day of the festival. I attended for a few hours, but we were both able to go on the Sunday. Again, the festival didn’t disappoint, with great live music, food, local wine and markets.

Tumbafest put us close to a potential venue for our 2022 Bushtracker Annual Muster in Corryong, just across the Murray in Victoria, enabling us to check out the town and camping facilities and meet with the Mayor and the President of the Towong Recreation Ground committee.

From there it was downstream along the Murray to a camp we’d enjoyed 4 years ago, at which point we decided we’d prefer to begin our journey north to return to Taree. We stopped a few nights just outside Tumbarumba on Mannus Lake, then travelled through Batlow, Tumut, Wee Jasper (oops, delete Wee Jasper. Eight km out of Tumut we had to turn back….Carol has an aversion to signs that read “ROAD UNSUITABLE FOR CARAVANS”). Then on to Bundanoon before reaching Lane Cove for a week in Sydney to catch up with family.

Due to the change in plans, this will be our final post in this series. Hopefully we’ll get to WA next year, at which time we’ll start up the Blog once again.

Thanks for following us.

Between Adaminaby and Kiandra, in the high country of the Snowy Mountains, is the beautiful Denison Campground, just upstream of Lake Eucumbene, with its local kangaroo population. As with so much of the south coast and high country, this part of the park was also subjected to the devastation of the Black Summer bushfires. After a 400m (vertical) descent along Goat Ridge Road from Kiandra, Henri and Blake were glad for a quick rest stop to cool their brakes.

We camped at the Tumbarumba racecourse for the festival, and secured a nice elevated site. Because of our colds we missed the headline acts Jessica Mauboy and The Wolf Brothers, but we saw several on Sunday including the female country rock band Southbound (pictured).

Towong Racecourse, near Corryong, might be the location of the Bushtracker Owners Group 2022 Annual Muster in September. Not a bad looking location.
Whilst stopped at the Mt Alfred Gap lookout along the Murray, a steely wedge tailed eagle swooped down and stole Carol’s hat. Further upstream at Bringenbrong Bridge, a large Murray crayfish erupted from the water in an attempt to capture Carol. More sedate and safer steelwork was the outlet gates of the Khancoban Reservoir.
The Murray boasts many beautiful camp spots, this one at Burrowye Bend, just upstream of which is the Mt Alfred Gap lookout.
Mannus Lake near Tumbarumba, absolutely perfect one day, then degenerated to squally winds and heavy rain two days later, only to clear again for our departure.
The rain started on the last 20km of our 350km drive from Mannus Lake to Bundanoon, and it didn’t let up all night. It bucketed down. Fortunately, we were able to fit onto our site at Gambells Rest in the Morton National Park at Bundanoon without having to unhitch, enabling us to remain reasonably dry. The relatively short (156km) drive from Bundanoon to Lane Cove saw us driving at times with about 20m visibility on the expressway due to extreme downpours. Slowing to under 80km/h I was fearful of someone running up our rear, however most people appeared to drive to the conditions. The sites at Lane Cove that are accessible are a quagmire. Thankfully we have a concrete slab under the awning.
Our 2022 journey (yellow)

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