2 Oct 2016

Off to Canberra by 0700 this morning to get the journey done, quite a nice morning so all good for the water levels to have dropped a bit and all the roads I needed to be clear. Bonus that there was not much traffic travelling early and it was a good easy run. Quite a few of the pot holes had already been filled, so there were not too many crashed or too much ducking and weaving to miss them, there were still some shockers though.
It was a non eventful trip, so was give time to ponder the fact it on this trip I have seen almost every farm dams and most small creeks and large rivers full, overflowing and running, some of them I have never, in all the years of driving through these areas, even seen with water in them! It really is an amazing country.
Random happening of the day would have to be being followed out of Boorawa and all the way to the Hume Highway by and MGTC, very cool, even though he did have the roof up. Managed to make it from Parkes to the center of Canberra on 1 tank of petrol, 295.6 kilometres on 20 litres according to how much it took to fill it from past the E point on the fuel guage, so that is something like 6.77 litres per 100 kilometres, not too shabby for a 1955 car.

Canberra was as it usually is, Canberra, though I was surprised by the bad state of some of the roads and how the city centre is mostly deserted, a lot of empty shops in there and not many people anywhere. A lot of other things to see though...

1 Oct 2016

The day started out nice and sunny and then went very grey and then sunny, such was the process of the whole day. The gates opened at 8 and everyone was supposed to be in place by 9am, so I was there at 8 and only the organizers were there as well, bit light on for punters at that hour. a whole group more cars started to roll in ans line up and it was looking promising.

Some really very nice cars turned up and from Queensland, Western Australia as well as New South Wales, some very nice ones ans almost every one driven there too, rather than trailered, which is always the best thing. To say I was surprised that only a couple of the cars from the Canberra club turned up, one being an organiser, and not a single other Victorian club car was there other than mine! i though that the Vic club were coming on mass and had coordinated a meeting point for their drive up and all, but something obviously happened, not a single one. Both surprised and very disappointed with that from Canberra and Vic, oh well I guess the weather and flooding had them all too worried.

After the show I wandered about town, it certainly doesn't take long to get around anywhere here, it's quite a small place. It's not surprising to see a lot of closed shops about, though there are sure a lot of pubs in town. I haven't been out to The Dish, as I went out there last time I passed through here on the trip around Australia (5 Jun 2014 if you missed it)

Today is all about the cars though...

and some more from walking around town

 Off to Canberra in the morning...

30 Sep 2016

Well it sure has been a while between travels, though here we go a long weekend and a Morris Minor car show in Parkes, regional New South Wales.

It's been a bit of a mystery as to whether the show would happen given the state of flooding and cut roads only 25 kilometres down the road from Parkes, but there was a clear road still open and so off on a road trip.

What should have been a 10 hour drive with stops along the way to stretch, fuel and eat, turned into a twelve hour drive from 0545 to 1830, including a few fuel stops and one stretch meal break. twisting and turning along roads through central NSW was somewhat interesting. the condition of the roads has been quite terrible once away from the main highways as all of the big trucks that usually stick to the main highways have had to divert off through the small towns and back country roads and they are just tearing the surface up as they are far to heavy. Some sections of the roads were down to 40 kilometres per hour so you could try to avoid the worst of the pot holes that have opened up and that was an effort to achieve I assure you. It rained most of the way up, well off and on, though more on than off so it wasn't a great run, though still interesting. The Count ran faultlessly, as usual, perhaps a tiny bit heavy on fuel, though not really a problem.

It turns out that some of the organizers of the show are staying at the same place as I am, next room actually and I heard them mention to someone on the phone not long after I arrived that "there was a little Morrie with Victorian registration, so you have no excuse", so it will be interesting to see how many people turn up tomorrow. If you listen to the news the whole place is underwater and everyone is trapped, so a lot of people have been scared off I bet. We'll see I guess...

Crossing the boarder from Victoria to New South Wales at Wodonga / Albury

The Murray flowing high and very well along the boarder

Boarder art. there were brief moments of sunny blue sky

Lots of water and paddocks under it out west 

canola always makes for a bright image even in poor weather, though bit of sun here again

Parkes main street on a Friday night 9bad phone pic), Sir Henry on his corner