Five Months On

Can you believe that on 31 March I’ve been living my nomadic life for five months? No, well neither can I!

Where have those months gone?

I’ve now travelled approximately 2,800 kilometres and seen so much of my country that I’ve never seen before.

I know it doesn’t seem I’ve gotten that far from Brisbane and most people would be quick to say that 2,800 kms isn’t very far in five months but I remind you that as I’m still working full-time — four ten-hour days a week — that I don’t travel on those long days. Therefore, I usually stop for at least a week in each place to allow for the days I work.

Plus, I’m not in any hurry and I’ve nowhere I NEED to be; so I’m free to wander at my leisure.

To top things off, the weather has been my biggest obstacle and the cause of many changed plans and alternate directions.

First, it was Tropical Cyclone Alfred that caused me to stay put a few additional weeks. Then, it was the year’s worth of rain that fell in parts of Queensland — most of Queensland actually — and parts of New South Wales. This excessive rain has caused wide-spread flooding that, weeks later, is still a major issue in western Queensland and north-west New South Wales.

My last update was of my time spent in Inverell as it was time to get my car serviced.

From Inverell, it had been my plan to head north, back over the Queensland / NSW border and then west into the desert, foolishly believing I’d be safe from the weather in the middle of Australia.

But……the rain said NO!

I’m only thankful that the rain hit before I headed that way and not while I was in the middle of nowhere, with no where to run or hide.

For that reason, I consider myself lucky. Plus, I was forced to change direction and see more of this beautiful country that I’d not experienced before.

So, where did I go?

I know you’re wondering where it was that I travelled; up steep hills, down steep inclines, through two floodways with running water — all the while my caravan keys were perched loosely on the caravan step, which lay exposed under the caravan and yet, when I arrived at my destination, they were still sitting there on the step where I accidentally left them. Pure luck……..and good driving hahaha.

Well, I was at the beautiful and stunning Copeton Dam. This turned out to be one of my favourite camps to date.

There’s not much at the dam, so it was strictly a time to relax, unwind, hike, fish and just enjoy the gorgeous scenery.

It was here that I wet my fishing line for the first time since I started my travels and over the week I spent at the dam, I caught a dozen fish all up. However, they were all too small to eat, so I released each and every one. I still enjoyed catching them all the same.

I did intend to keep one fish destined to treat Grizabella with her very own fresh dinner, but I’d put it in a takeaway container, without a lid, and it jumped out and made for the water. I could have caught it again but figured it’d worked hard at its escape and therefore deserved to survive another day. Grizabella was none the wiser!

I loved this camping ground so much I would have stayed a second week but unfortunately they were closing the park for a day to complete tree maintenance, making it time to move along.

As I couldn’t head north or west and didn’t want to head east towards the coast, that only left south, to a little town called Bingara.

Apple Maps took me on a bypass road of 7 kms of gravel, signposted with an 80 kph speed limit, except because of all the rain experienced, I battled to get over 30 kph and even that was pushing things. My poor old bones were heavily shook up as I traversed severe corrugations and deep potholes by the end of that 7 kms but my car and caravan were just fine; albeit absolutely filthy!

But we arrived in one piece, although my head was thumping and I was happy to unhitch and set up.

Bingara is situated right on the Gwydir River and is a town steeped in history around the gold rush era.

After setting up in the Bingara Riverside Caravan Park, I got talking to another traveller who knew the area extremely well and he was telling me about the sights to see around Upper Bingara, approximately 36 kms south of the township of Bingara.

I don’t know whether he was pulling my leg or I misunderstood but I decided to go exploring and check out the old historical town of Upper Bingara. This traveller explained that the town was a ghost town, made up of old abandoned houses. In fact, he went as far as to mention that the last house on the left still sported outdoor furniture on the verandah and an old Austin motor vehicle in the back yard.

He piqued my interest so off I went.

I found the turn off 34 kms south of Bingara and travelled a gravel road for miles, however when Apple Maps announced I was at Upper Bingara, I found I was actually on someone’s farmland and not in some abandoned ghost town.

I returned to the gravel road and followed it further thinking Apple Maps had gotten it wrong. I drove another ten odd kilometres, only to arrive at a cattle grid that showed a sign saying private property, no trespassing.

I was a tad frustrated by then.

No choice but to turn around and hike it back to the highway, where I decided to turn right instead of left back to Bingara, believing that maybe I needed to travel an additional two kilometres down the highway as the traveller had said it was 36 kms to the turnoff, whereby the turnoff I took was only 34 kms.

No, there was no additional turn off two kilometres down the road. I kept trying but knew once I hit the town of Barraba, that I’d definitely gone too far.

So, I turned around to head the sixty odd kilometres back to Bingara, extremely disappointed.

I was 14 kms south of Bingara when another sign mentioned Upper Bingara off to the right, so I tried again. Took the right turn and found myself on another gravel road. Drove for what felt like forever, only to discover I was back on someone’s private farm….the exact same farm I found earlier that day, only I’d approached it from the opposite direction.

I turned around, back-tracked to the highway and gave up on Upper Bingara…..convinced the town did not exist.

After arriving back at my caravan, I caught up with the guy that gave me the directions and he advised there is no ‘actual’ townsite, but all those farms I’d passed where actually all Upper Bingara and there were little off-shoots that you could travel down to the creek to find the old mining holes but you needed to know where they were.

Good on him! All up I travelled 190 kms that day trying to find a ghost town that never existed. Still, I got to see some beautiful back country that I’d not have seen if I hadn’t travelled that desolate gravel road, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

I also took a journey out to a town called Warialda, where I discovered a large statue of R2D2 from Star Wars, which was pretty cool and travelled a further 7 kms east of Warialda to a place called Cranky Rock.

I had originally planned to camp at Cranky Rock but as I had to change direction due to the weather and knew I wouldn’t pass that way after all, I decided to take a drive and spend a few hours exploring this point of interest.

I’m so glad I did as it was a beautiful spot and I enjoyed the hike and pristine countryside, which included a beautiful creek; although it consisted of brown muddy water, due to the floodwaters merging from further north.

That was the extent of my exploration of Bingara and surrounds, as my work week was upon me and at the end of those days, I hitched the caravan and continued my travels; heading south once more as the floods still stopped me heading north.

Where to next?

Well, you’ll need to come back for my next update to discover where I am currently camped while I write up this episode of my travels.

Thank you for journeying along with me. Until next time…..au revoir.