Wagga Wagga to Swan Hill

 It looks like Sydney weather has tracked us down. After leaving Wagga a bit after 9 am this morning we soon started to experience some light rain which seemed to get heavier as we progressed toward Swan Hill. 

Our trip to Swan Hill was a bit of a roundabout trip, but we saw some interesting country and a few unpaved roads,. We turned off the Sturt Highway before Darlington Point ono Main Canal Road, and followed the Colleambally Canal for some time, passing a lot of farmland including quite a few cotton farms. One of the benefits of selecting the fastest route from the car sat nav is that you get to see a lot of places you may otherwise never see. Sadly, it was not the fastest route.


Cotton Farm along the Colleambally Canal

Finally we turned off the Main Canal Road onto Morundah road to take us to connect up with Kidman Way. It follows a side channel of the Colleambally Canal called the Yamma Channel. It was all a bit of an off the beaten track adventure and certainly not the fastest route, but it was interesting. Once back of the Kidman Way, we had a coffee stop in Jerilderie. Finding a place to get coffee was a bit hit and miss, but we soon found the bakery (below) which was packed with customers, as was full all of the time we were there enjoying our coffee.





We parked the Everest in front of the Jerilderie Hotel which was closed in the middle of the day !

Soon back on the road we stopped at Deniliquin for lunch, which was at another bakery, claiming like all country bakeries do, to have the best pies in the region. The pies were quite good, but this bakery was nowhere near as busy as the one in Jerilderie.


The rain was now more consistent, although not that heavy, but it endured pretty much all of the way to Swan Hill, where we settled in to our room at Murray Downs Resort where we will be for the next 2 nights. We plan to play golf tomorrow on what is the best golf course on the Murray River. Let's hope the rain is gone by then. We changed our tee time from tomorrow morning to tomorrow afternoon in the hope it may fine up.

An umbrella was needed to get to dinner and the rain looks set in. Let's see what tomorrow is like.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Streaky Bay to Port Lincoln via Point Labatt and Coffin Bay

Image
 With another reasonable days driving ahead of us, and a desire to not miss much along the way, we leave Streaky Bay at 8.30 am, heading for Point Labatt ( not the shortest way to Port Lincoln but we want to see the sea lion colony). Initially we are on good bitumen roads, but to get to the best places, you have to take on the unpaved roads. There are lots of carwashes down here. The road to Point Labatt is not too bad, and as we approach the conservation area where the sea lion community hide, it is very windy. From the car park, there is a walkway to the lookout where we hope to see the sea lions It is a pretty wild part of the coast and the wind today is blowing hard, however, the sea lions are pretty smart, and there is a beach just below the lookout where they seem to be resting in relative shelter, A far view showing the ring of sea lions on the sand, and the harshness of the surrounding seas From here we backtracked a little on the unpaved road until we found the turnoff tha...
Read more

William Creek to Coober Pedy

Image
Our final unpaved stretch for a while is a  bit more of the Oodnadatta track, before turning left to Coober Pedy on William Creek Road. It is about 165 km of more corrugations, some wheel ruts and bull dust holes, which haven't had much of up till now. Overall, the road quality is quite good if you drive to the conditions. The worst pat of the road was the last km into Coober Pedy where there was a bull dust hole that could swallow a small car. Willam Creek Road We had our usual standoff with two black angus bulls who stood in the middle of the road until we came to a complete stop, only then did they choose to move on.    The scenery started to change as we approached Coober Pedy We made remarkably good time and traversed the distance in 2.25  hrs. It was far to early to check in to our hotel, so we had a bit of a look around the main street first, checking out the Home Hardware store and The IGA Supermarket, picking up a few things at each. They were both very good...
Read more

Blinman, Glass Gorge, Parachilna Gorge and loop back Willow Springs

Image
  A more relaxed day is the plan for today. We decided not to do the Skytrek as it takes all day, so the plan is to drive to Blinman, across to Parachilna through the Glass and Parachilna Gorges and then turn south till the turnoff for Moralana Scenic Route, then back to Willow Springs.     There are a few things to see along the way, so we turned off to see the Great Wall of China  and we may look at a few ruins tomorrow as we will be on the same road to Blinman then.   We were in Blinman by 10.20am, had a quick look around town and clearly the points of interest are the North Blinman Hotel (known as the pub in the scrub) and the Miners Café, which is a bakery/coffee shop and despite the BP sign, does not sell fuel (nor does anyone else in Blinman).  North Blinman Hotel   Miners Cafe The must do tourist attraction in Blinman is to do the guided tour of the old copper mine  which runs hourly. We were lucky enough to get two of the last 3 tick...
Read more