Understanding Australia.....or Not ?

G'Day Readers, Shazzzaaaaa here ; now we've established we are those 'Ladies in a Van', it's back to tales of travel!

So, Australia is currently throwing all manner of weather at us but, in true Briwi (British Kiwis) tradition, we are sailoring on (not permitted to use soldiering for obvious reasons apparently). Having travelled through horrendous drought ravaged areas, and also fire aftermath and destruction, we have just endured what feels like days of rain and, thus, flood. Whilst it certainly is time to celebrate the rain in a number of areas, in others it has now caused further problems. Coronavirus is providing pestilence but thankfully Australia doesn't appear to have run out of food yet? That said, as I write, the birds here in Kangaroo Valley are sounding positively joyful and the ground is greening almost before my eyes. Nature is a wondrous thing.

We bid a temporary farewell to Jenny and Ronni in Elanora, Gold Coast on the 5th February just as the heavy rains started in that area (is it us I wonder?) But not before one of the downpours provided me with an opportunity to clean Cilla, an advantage of a warmth and rain combination.

Hopefully we will catch up with the girls and dogs again on our route around this BIG country.

Our eventual destination was to Dennis' new chum Ted who we first met on our arrival in Oz. He has a beach house in Culburra on the NSW South Coast so the plan was to have a few days with him (oh, and Sam and Jan, his servants).

Back in December, we'd had to come away from that area of NSW with the fires bearing down so good to reconnect before our onward trip, returning to where we started in Kangaroo Valley. A rainy stormy few days with much evidence of the fires being washed up on their local beach. The upside of the all the rain has meant all the fires are now officially OUT. We did our little bit to collect litter along the beach but not much can be done with all the charred trees, branches and ash that is continually washing up. 

In order to achieve the visit to Culburra it did mean we had to thrash down the country over three days; no mean feat but managed to keep ourselves amused along the way pondering a number of interesting phenomenons that have presented themselves to us along the route. 

The 3 day (1,438km) route for those following maps and Atlases was from Elanora, Gold Coast with an overnight at Armidale, and then Gulgong both Showgrounds. And then a lovely driveway in Orange where we hosted by Lauren (friend of Sam & Jans) who royally hosted us by taking us wine tasting.....she gets 5 stars (!),  and if anyone finds themselves in Orange she owns a fabulous holiday cottage with her partner Libby, and she can also host bespoke wine tours. (https://caseystreetaccomodation.com.au) .My 'Rymanian' Fine Wine Fund meant a Wine purchase at Philip Shaw Vineyard. An exceptional easy drinking Shiraz called 'The Idiot' !

So back to the Australian Observations thus far, we are building up quite a collection of things we must stop for, which then raise good thought provoking conversation as we trundle along. 

1. SIGNS : We have come to the conclusion that Australia loves telling you what you can NOT do. And have now found ourselves compiling a photo collection of prohibitory signage. 

As can be seen from the attached photos some locations we were struggling to see what we could do without getting into trouble. Which raised the thought that maybe the signs are full of what NOT to do with the acceptance that most Aussies will ignore them anyway - early convict heritage maybe 

😂 ?? 

                          

 

Doesn't seem very cost effective, but I'm glad they told me I had to be careful on the kids 'See-Saw' , and to be very wary of the Ornamental Fountain. Not to mention NO shooting in the park which was a little disappointing. As to the dog restrictions, we've just about worked them all out and happily put Dennis on-leash only to see dogs then swimming past him on a NO Dog beach ? So this clearly is a work in progress on our part and maybe we have to channel our inner Australian and just crack on (whilst avoiding any hefty fines). 

2. PLAQUES ON ROCKS : Now here's a thing that we really love to stop the van for. Along most routes sooner or later we come across a large rock with a plaque displayed. So clearly we have to disembark in order to educate ourselves.

Three particular favourites thus far have been in :-

Leyburn,Queensland - 

This showed the site of the first Queensland Grand Prix in 1949 - apparently the 14th Australian GP and the first massed start. The rock commemorated the site of the Start Line and 50 years of Motorsport in Australia. We actually searched for this up a dirt track in the middle of nowhere ! (Especially for you Mike Holmes).

Jimbour East,Queensland - 

This one showed the start of a section of Dingo Fence that runs from Queensland all the way to South Australia . I'm not sure what we were expecting but yes it was just a high fence that a dingo couldn't jump?! The Rabbit (apologies on behalf of the UK) proof fence as you might imagine isn't as high but is dug into the ground to stop them going underneath.

Montefiores,NewSouthWales - 

  

This is one of my favourites so far as this marked the site of the last Pistol duel in Australia! Not sure how they know this but apparently no one died as they were too inebriated !!

3. PEOPLE ON HORSEBACK STATUES : We also love stopping for random statues and some we have actually sought out ! I guess when you have plenty of time on your hands.....

Goondiwindi,Queensland - 

Not withstanding the fabulous town name ; has a statue of its famous Racehorse called 'Gunsynd'. Apparently a winning grey one.

Gunnedah,NSW - 

We did actually seek out this one as it was of Dorothy McKellar riding her horse. Dorothy crops up a lot, particularly at the moment, as she wrote the well known poem "I love a sunburnt country " and clearly very relevant at this time. For those who visited us in Sydney she is buried in Waverley Cemetery ( Maggie Bolam we walked through there in the rain with you !). Anyway, she had a family home here in Gunnedah so even though she didn't actually live here she did spend a lot of time in this area and like many small towns they have an opportunity to attract tourists. They had a very good little museum dedicated to her and her poetry much of which was written about this area.

Uralla,NSW- 

As well as relatively famous people and animals we have discovered 'infamous' individuals also get to go on a statue. This town pays tribute to a Bushranger 'Thunderbolt' which sounds like he worked for the rural conservation society when in fact he was a thief and general vagabond known for cattle rustling who was eventually shot by the local sheriff. It is somewhat baffling that he can be rewarded with a statue for being a thieving git! 

4. CONTAINER PLANTING : I realise this is a bizarre category of interest but for any budding horticulturists amongst you this could be a worthy section to read ?

It has come to my attention that anything can be used as a planter. 

A Bath tub preferably an old discarded one; a loo again discarded and disconnected ideally, 

and unwanted childrens cars which presumably make it easier to wheel them to a location of choice. 

 5. MORE BIG THINGS : Clearly we are still actively hunting down BIG Things and divert from our route often in order to find said BIG Thing. The BIG Chicken in Moonbi (yes a real place) was a little bit of a let down having already been to the BIG Guitar in Tamworth which was, as expected, VERY BIG. (In photographs perspective is everything as the guitar was far bigger than the chicken)

6. BORDER TERRIERisms : Not wanting to feel left out of this excitement, Dennis has also been hunting down anything of Border Terrier interest and so far has located two items of interest and no sign of any other Border Terriers .........UNTIL the Kangaroo Valley Show this weekend where we spied a female BT, Flo, who belonged to the local river kayak company.  Unsurprisingly they ignored each other in that BT way and I failed on the photo front!

And so after all of that excitement it continued on with the 135th Kangaroo Valley Show, which had been under threat of cancellation due to the Bush Fires but, thanks to the rain (which also brought it's own issues), the Show did go on. A number of things did have to be cancelled due to a waterlogged arena which ironically only a week or so earlier was dry as a bone. However, due to strong media attention there was a huge turnout and despite the drought, fire, and flood they had the biggest collection of entries in the Pavilion of Garden Produce which was amazing really. The sun shone and Derek and Irene both won prizes in their categories, and I got to see my favourite event of Wood Chopping. The biggest cheer/tears of the day went to the parade of Rural Fire Service and Volunteer Fire Service who undoubtedly saved a lot of the Valley from destruction. 

 I'll leave this now with a map of our route thus far and a total of 3,901 kilometres travelled. (ignore the numbers on the map as its a screenshot of WikiCamps and they depict things of interest).

It has been an extraordinary journey so far and hopefully the extreme weather events have calmed a little as it appears the UK are having their turn of it.

It is the intent to now continue with our first aim which was to complete a Lap of this  BIG Country and head south in order to circumnavigate in a clockwise direction. hopefully we can volunteer along the route with a great charity we have been following on Facebook - BlazeAid who are using volunteers to repair fencing etc in the worst affected areas.

                      Check in again soon, much love Shazzzaaaa,Von and the BIG D xxx