The Red Centre "Boys Own Trek"

Day 1 - Watch your head…

Day one started with me rising at about 6 .30 to a chilly morning. Temp on þe back deck was about 5 degrees. I enjoyed the last seriously good shower we'd likely have for a while (a sentiment echoed by GG when he had the same experience about an hour later.

It’s an unusual experience to hear a chipmunk singing falsetto in the shower – some unintelligible tune, later followed by music coming from the loo. Did I mention GG is never far from his phone? Oh well, it was never going to be an average trip! Apparently this is a good time to catch up on the news!

So after brekky and throwing the rest of the stuff into the van (after last night’s manic van cramming episode) it was time to show G how to fold the van down. Picture a well trained cattle dog eager to please, trying to herd cats when they’re used to sheep. As long as I kept him on a tight leash we were fine. It only took about ten minutes to put the van down.

Fitting the weight distribution hitch shouldn’t have been an issue but my instructions mustn’t have been clear enough because G managed to fit it with a bit left over and a bit pushed too far on so we had to dig around in the boot of the van to find something to lever it off because it was then too tight to remove by hand . Then, even though I’d mentioned that we couldn’t get to the toolkit in the back of the car, G opened the rear hatch as he said “watch your head” and as I was simultaneously bobbing up! Ouch!

Once the stars had cleared my head we managed to refit the hitch properly, locked up and hit the road. Stopping to fill the jerry can and check the tyre pressures proved to be a good idea. My mechanic told me he’d checked the van tyre pressures but they were far too low (28lbs/sq in) - could have led to some pain!

His nibs needed some “specialty” supplies (Chippies!) and special painkillers (it was MY head that was clobbered tho) so we paid a flying visit to Coles on the way out of town.

Amongst the specialty supplies was of course some smoked salmon which the galloping gourmet devoured on breadrolls after our brief pitstop in sunny and busy Kyogle. A passer by in Kyogle bailed us up asking about the van and its specifications, must have been thinking about buying a similar unit. Today was a bloody beautiful day, hardly a cloud in a beautiful blue sky and we passed through some lovely country.

We even passed through Sherwood Forest, something I may well not have noted had it not been for G asking me if I could keep a lookout for Little John and Friar Tuck.

Losing interest in spotting highwaymen, he then started ferreting through maps looking for our campsite for the night. We settled on Bowenville Reserve just shy of Derby. We ultimately passed through some beautiful black soil plains south and west of Toowoomba, these were very reminiscent of areas near Inverell and Gunnedah.

Passing through Warwick was interesting as we had a fuel stop and driver change and the battle of the competing gps’s on the way out of town!

Of course, with G driving we ran into a speed camera straight away! Subsequently, having convinced him that my gps was in fact pointing us in the right direction, it decided that we should…turn left onto a rural backroad maze. Ok, a quick check of some larger scale maps showed us the logic (well purported logic) and throwing caution to the wind, we trusted it.

Eventually we arrived at Bowenville reserve around 4.30pm, set up in a few minutes (surprisingly) and found that one of the stabilisers on the van had broken. Oh well, we didn’t really need it! Just a split pin and a nut and we should be able to fix it later on (if we can get to it!)

Listening to the strains of the music telling the tale of some lonesome cowboy and the distant rattle of a generator, I type this, aware that G said the overnight temperature here is predicted to be zero, thinking that it may well be accurate and hoping that my bladder can hold out till morning!

No piccies yet, I was driving most of the day, but his lordship took several which he’s kindly consented to send me.

Stay tuned!