What a week!!!
I've blown my own mind with the ground we've covered. 4,823km in 11 days.
I thought my first hug would be upon arrival in Byron but while having a wander around Cowell before heading out of town, I was surprised by bumping into one of my ex-sister in laws who'd spotted Beryl parked in the street & came looking for me. It was so great to catch up with her again after close to 20 years.
The drive has been amazing, taking in the ever changing landscape. Things have gotten mighty hilly after the flats of the Nullabor. The drive over the Flinders Ranges in South Australia was slow but we made & thankfully the speed limit was mostly around the same slow pace that Beryl could handle. The windy road did have Hazel feeling a little worse for wear at one point.
Our overnight stop in Peterborough was great. A nice little town with a good sized free RV park which was close to an enclosed off leash dog park. (A relief for my princess pooch who's not keen on pooping (or weeing for that matter) whilst tethered and can hold on for a frighteningly long time🙄)
We were excited to hit the New South Wales border, a little less so to hit Broken Hill. That place gave off some bad vibes so it was another quick saging of the bus to clear the bad juju before taking off another couple of hundred km's down the road to our next roadside campspot. Unfortunately it didn't offer us the best nights sleep as the truck that was sitting idling when we arrived at 5.30pm remained that way until it took off at midnight. Urgggghhhhhhh..... so noisy!!! Thankfully I had my crochet to keep me company whilst I couldn't sleep.
Cobar turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I'd expected the worst after Broken Hill but what a gorgeous little town with a friendly vibe. This was also my introduction to the reverse angle parking. (I drove round the corner to avoid it 😆)
Still no roos but this past week I've spotted 11 emus, 1 eagle and 6 million wild goats (yep, I counted & rounded down 😆)
I was maybe a tad over excited to drive past some cotton fields near Warren. I've NEVER seen cotton fields before and had spotted all this fluffy white stuff along the side of the roads and wondered what it was. The downside of being the only driver is photo opportunities are limited and I'm so disappointed I couldn't find a spot to pull over to get a pic. Especially as the light was bloody perfect.
Next overnight stop (we did stop in Coonabarabran for a wander) was in Gilgandra where we free camped at 'The Sporties'. Despite getting rained on (ironically after a full days driving with glorious sunshine) we had a really nice walk along the river and into town. I'm loving wandering through some of the little towns we're passing through.
The next leg was a bit 'exciting' as my next overnight destination was Guyra, which just so happens to be one of the highest geographical locations in New South Wales and as result meant we had one MONSTER hill to climb. Poor ole Beryl DID NOT cope and when I got to the top and stopped for lunch she boiled like a mo-fo. All ended up being OK & with time to cool down, have some lunch & a nice chat with a traffic cop who'd pulled over in the same pullover bay, we were on our merry way.
Guyra was cold but beautiful. We camped at 'Mother of ducks lagoon' which is in the crater of a now extinct volcano. (No wonder Beryl struggled, she was climbing a bloody volcano!!!)
From there we made our way to Byron (or more precisely Myocum) with a lunch spot in Tenterfield. I'd heard the song but never been and it really is a beautiful place (as was the whole trip only the New England Highway) with stunning deciduous trees along the entire route which brought this autumn loving girl so much joy.
The drive back down the mountain was just as slow but a lot less taxing and again.... so many photo ops missed being the driver although I managed a couple of 'out the window drive by snaps'. I stopped to grab some fresh strawberries from a strawberry farm & had a close call with a sign I didn't see & nearly backed into 🙃.
Arriving in Byron was both joyful & full of tears. Tears of joy, pride & a tinge of sadness (this trip wasn't meant to be a solo one). I got to hug my beautiful coach, client AND friend Callie Brown who. along with her family, has so generously opened up their land & home to me and Hazel. Hazel is in her element being loved on by Callie's children and is being spoilt with pats, walks, hugs and so much love. We caught up for dinner in Brunswick Heads with another friend (we all met 3 years ago at a retreat here in Byron) and it was so lovely to hug again in person after spending the past 3 years staying connected online.
This trip is all about the hugs for me & it's worth every km, hill and fuel bill to come collect them. And there are SOOOOOO many more to be collected.
Catch you next week from Burra.
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