16 April 2011 - Terramungamine Reserve, Dubbo

Slept in this morning, with no early morning dramas! We woke to a balmy 11 degrees celsius and the sound of rain on the roof. In fact it was raining every time I stirred in my sleep, and on checking the sky after breakfast, looked pretty set in. We packed up and hitched on at leisure, the vacating time of this particular camp a relaxed midday as opposed to the normal ten o’clock out-you-go.

We had debated taking the Banjo Patterson Highway, to the west of the Mitchell originally planned, however in the end decided on Plan A. The scenery was rural, picturesque and dotted with a lot more sheep than we have seen from most of our main highway runs; dirty brown sheep which I think is disgraceful with so much grass about. Certainly on the barren hills of Otago, the sheep are equally grubby, and one would expect the same of those as we head in to the outback.

We drove on to Wellington, a rural centre of about four and half thousand people. The rain was still falling however we decided to do the town walk before lunch. Saturday morning is quiet in Wellington, NSW, and I suspect it is every other day of the week. Through traffic pauses to pick up a paper, some bread, maybe a hamburger or use the loos, but otherwise it does not flash neon signs, "Stop Here at Wonderful Wellington". Many of the shops were empty, or derelict or shabby. There were however the normal tattoo parlours, hairdressers, chemists, supermarkets and service station. We checked out house prices in the Real Estate windows, as is so often our wont, and found that houses and a good piece of land are cheaper here than anywhere else we have done the same exercise, but would we want to live here? Sorry, no.

Although the rain had eased by the time we returned to the rig, I suggested we continue north and seek a more attractive resting place.

At Geurie, twenty kilometres on, we found a lovely road side park, leaped over the puddles to exit the landcruiser and another to enter the caravan, heated a can of soup and enjoyed that with some fresh rolls we had bought at the Coles supermarket in Wellington. It was just that sort of day.

The Macquarie River

The rain had not stayed off long, and still didn’t look like abating despite a contrary weather forecast. The CMCA bible suggested a free park in a wood close to the racecourse of this tiny town, so we checked it out. It was quiet, secure and pretty, however all but the sealed road in was wet and muddy, and so we decided to give it a miss, or at least a rain check until we called in on a drier day.

We set the Tomtom for this reserve here on the banks of the Macquarie River, just ten kilometres north of Dubbo, resolving to just blat on through the city and sit the bad weather out for the day. The Camp Australia Wide 5 and the CMCA bible both recommended the place, so we felt confident that it would do at least for one night.

The popular camp at Terramungamine Reserve

Prepared for rain, again

Evidence of tool sharpening in ancient times

And so we are, parked in here in the late afternoon, currently (as I write this) with three campervans and about ten caravans. The gums are just full of noisy sulphur crested cockatoos, and there is a short walk which we took before settling in for the day, to a rocky outcrop beside the river which is covered in grooves created by the Tebbagah people of the Wiradjuri nation (aborigines) as they sharpened their simple tools; spears, axes, et cetera.

It is our intention to leave the caravan here and venture back into Dubbo tomorrow and how ever many days Dubbo can entertain us for. 



There is however a limit to the number of days we can stay, three from the time anyone notices. In the meantime, I hold on to the hope that the weather will clear and certainly at this lower altitude, the nights without electric power should be quite acceptable.