NSW Outback Tour - Days 9-11

Saturday 29 August

It was hard to get up this morning! With the noise of the bar downstairs Barbara had not slept well. I had my earplugs so at least I didn't find it quite as bad. Anyway, we did get our bags to the bus on time and went bleary-eyed to breakfast.

Soon we were on our way heading east towards Griffith.

Our morning tea stop was at Balranald where the usual toilet queue formed. Luckily this time I was first!

We saw a few emus this morning and drove through lush green ground cover over the flat Hay plain. It is always amazing to drive for such distances being able to see 360 degrees of flat horizon.

At Hay we pulled into a riverside park and met the BCA workers from the Hay area, Peter and Lee Caspersonn. The park had some awesome river red gums, a lovely sandy beach and thick green grass.

From Hay we drove north to Booligal to have a drink at the pub. I do not remember being to Booligal before and it was good to see the tiny remote village. As the roads east towards Griffith were all closed with the recent rains we had to retrace our steps to Hay and rejoin the highway. During the afternoon the emus were replaced by galahs, rice, cotton and sheep.

Because we'd had to backtrack we got into the motel just in time for dinner. We had excellent food but by the time dessert came we were all very tired and sick of waiting.

After dinner Barbara had the idea to see if there was a laundry so while she organised that I wrote up the diary and contacted Geoff and Leslie to see if we could meet up tomorrow evening. Eventually we got to bed well after 10pm.

Sunday 30 August

This morning we headed to Hillston to attend church there with BCA workers Lindsay and Carolyn Whybrow. As the congregation numbered five we inundated the place with our 48 people. We arrived to our own morning tea in the “hall” and followed the service by providing lunch for the rest of the congregation, not hard considering the numbers.

After a short question and answer session with the lay minister Lindsay and his wife Carolyn they joined us on the bus for a quick tour of Hillston.

On the way back to Griffith we had a short stop at Merriwagga for a group photo then up to a lookout over Griffith.

We were home again in time to ring Geoff and Leslie to plan to meet up at dinner then spent an hour or so catching up on charging various batteries and typing up the diary.

Tonight we had dinner at the Leagues Club, a short walk from the motel, where we were served a delicious meal. Geoff and Leslie came so I spent a while out in the lounge with them chatting about life, old times, kids and the state of the environment. It was great to have a little time to catch up as I hadn't seen them for quite a few years.

After a walk home again we busied ourselves sorting and packing ready to move on again tomorrow.

Monday 31 August

On the road again today heading south then east. Our morning tea stop was at Jerilderie (Ned Kelly country) where we parked by a large lake. It was quite cold so a cuppa was most welcome. We are all getting quite cynical about all the toilet blocks as we travel that have only one mens and one ladies toilet. We've started making the men queue up and are treating all toilets as unisex. As long as someone stands guard for incoming locals it works reasonably well. It really does take a long time to get 40-odd women through a toilet break if there is only one!

On again to have our lunch with Cheryl and Michael Hallinan in their beautiful home on 100 acres of irrigated land - “Lynwood”. Cheryl is a quilter but as her BCA job takes her travelling for 3 out of 4 weeks each month she no longer belongs to the Deniliquin Quilter's Group so does not know Heather who belongs to our Rainbow group. I had not taken Heather's contact details as Deniliquin was not on the original itinerary.

After a lazy lunch we continued on with a tiny tour of Deni township then east towards Albury.

We stopped for another single toilet stop at Berrigan. On wandering past the few shops I was impressed by the work of a local artist – Jan Barnett – a beautiful dead gum tree with three crimson rosellas on it.

East of Berrigan there was a lot of standing water beside the road and in the paddocks. They must have had quite a bit of rain in the last few days.

On then to Albury where we booked into our motel for the night – a palacial room with two double beds and a single bed as well as separate kitchenette, toilet and bathroom - Econolodge Pallesteamer Motel.