Day 6 Will we ever leave Nyngan?

Another day in Nyngan dawns. We go for a morning walk along the river and come back to do our washing.  The rest of the day was spent the usual way -lying on the bed, reading and surfing the net. We did actually get to see the mechanic today and he promises us that he will do the repairs early tomorrow so we can get going. YAY We joined a small independent church this afternoon and it was a good service with friendly people. We then had some Chinese food for dinner and came back for another evening in our motel cell. Oops I mean room. 

Day 5. Soooo Bored

We might be relaxed but we are totally bored. Well, actually I'm OK but Geoff is not a 'happy chappie'  We went for a long walk this morning like yesterday before it got too hot and then had a long breakfast and read, tidied the room and then Looked at the time -it was 8.30. Oh dear.  The mechanic is not answering his phone and there is no one at the workshop so all we can assume is that Monday will be the earliest we will be back on the road I decided to start using up the vegetables in anticipation for the South Australian border by making a Vegetable Korma in my dreampot. The van is so hot and I feel like I am in a little mobile curry shop. Any moment now I am sure someone is going to come along and order something!    

 

Before tea we had a swim in the motel pool. 

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The Dream pot came up trumps and we enjoyed the Vegetable Korma. Needing something sweet after the washing up I toddled off over the rail line to IGA and bought some almond Magnums which I managed to get back before melting. 

 

Day 4. Can't plan for this

What a long day it has been today. Very hot again. Glad we have an airconditioned room instead of the van. The motel manager is being very motherly and is letting us use the kitchen to cook and wash up etc so we have the van set up in the car park and we are coming and going from it.     

 We spent a couple of hours slowly looking at the local museum which is reminiscent of nearly every country museum I have been in. It did have some very interesting stuff on Sir Thomas Mitchell though. It had the top layer of a wedding cake which was 108 years old    . The bridegroom died before the first anniversary which was the customary time for this layer to be eaten. Sad. 

      We came back and defrosted sme meatloaf for lunch. Sleepy afternoon for one of our party      

     

Day 3. Enforced rest

 

 

 

What's wrong with this picture? Yes there is no car. Diagnosis by RMA was a blown turbo hose and it would be probably Monday before a new one arrived from Sydney. 

 

Our relaxed morning anticipating getting a long distance achieved today took a sudden dive. It got worse when the NRMA told us we had no Cover for this car despite this being confirmed by phone a month ago. 

 

Thankfully after a tense 2 hour discussion with NRMA roadside assist they agreed to pay for our motel accommodation until it was fixed as it is too hot to spend the days in the van. 

 We retreated out of the sun for the afternoon to lick our wounds and we thought we would treat ourselves to tea at the local RSL. Bad idea. It was very expensive and not nice food. Not our best day! 

Day 2. Are we there yet?

We had a good night's sleep despite some road noise and Geoff got into trying to find a solution to the car fridge battery issues. Our 'neighbours' left nice and early -something we will need to be able to do in future if we are going to do the amount of travelling planned.       

   We set off, calling into an auto electrician at Merriwa. He was such a lovely helpful guy and he sorted the electric brake issue as well as confirming the fridge battery was working OK.    We then travelled into an area that a few days ago had out of control bushfires along the Golden Highway. Coolah in particular was quite devastated and we saw homes that had been destroyed. Some trees were still smoking.         

 

 

    We stopped and popped the top and had lunch by the banks of the Macquarie River. Very hot.         

    By mid afternoon we were struggling with the driving. We are such hopeless travellers over long distances. I drove for an hour and was falling asleep.    Then we started hearing a strange noise which got worse as we went on. We managed to get to Nyngan and as the mechanics were closed we thought we would sort it in the morning. We stayed overnight in Nyngan Leisure and Caravan Park. It was really hot and oppressive.  We had our first conversation with fellow grey nomads. This couple a bit older than us were in this massive RV towing a small car. They had been on the road for 20 months and just loved it but it wasn't long before you really got the impression they were so focussed on living the Dream they didn't seem at all concerned about family left behind of anything much else other than enjoying themselves. Hope we don't end up like this.  We tried sitting outside the van where it was a bit cooler but the ants and flies were quite vicious. It didn't put us off our meal though and we enjoyed pulled pork and beans with salad and avocado and corn chips. Yum!          

     

 

 

    We had stopped at Dubbo for fuel and bread earlier and had bought a few DVDs. After tea we watched Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot about a reporter in Afghanistan which was great. The heat prevented a good sleep.

Finally Away

Oh my goodness it seems like we have been preparing for our trip for soooo long. Our early getaway today was put back because when we connected the car to the laden van the tow ball wasn't the right height. So the car was back on the driveway while Geoff modified it. But finally we were waved off by our wonderful neighbours to start our three month adventure. Must admit I did feel sad at leaving our wonderful newly renovated house! We couldn't resist calling in for an hour to see Matt and Mel and the kids on our way past.

 

    Seeing it was so late we stopped for the night at Jerry's Plain at a free recreation park. It was lovely and flat and there were only 2 other vans there. Warmed up some leftovers from last night and had a comfy night's sleep.