31 Mar 2023

Heading back home to Melbourne this morning and there has been no set plan of route or of planned stops, so we'll see what happens and how long it takes...

Didn't do a leave at o'stupid hours so a relaxed start to the morning. Decided that the coast rout will have to do as technically it is the quickest route and it is actually the only route, out of the three main "Highways", Newell highway, New England highway and the Pacific highway, north and south that the Count has not yet been on through New South Wales. That said though the Count has been of part of the Pacific highway before as the New England highway ends at part of the Pacific near (relatively) to Sydney.

Along the way are some of Australia's "Big Things", so will drop by some of these and other places along the way and see how far we get...

The Big Pineapple, Nambour Queensland.

The Big Banana, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales.

Had a brief stop along the way at Grafton to visit with some very good friends and overnighted at Grafton, so not too many kilometres done today in total, only 503.7 kilometres (312 miles), though a lot of roadworks along the way...

17 Mar 2023

 Basically today is just a run through a few towns and getting to the destination with few stops. There would have been other stops along the way, though any water tanks and Silo art are few and far between in the area I am travelling now. So today is heading for the Queensland border and specifically through Texas and on to the water tank at Millmerran before heading to a finish at Gympie. Just a long day of driving with few photo stops.

Texas, Queensland

More of the nightmare traffic, will it never end!

Millmerran water tank

16 Mar 2023

 After a night at Parkes due to no booking having been made anywhere else and limited options, it's back on the road to continue on with the trip up north. Now the plan was to go through Manildra and Molong and on to Dunedoo by the shortest route, though the roads were closed due to flood damage and thus a 66 kilometre diversion out to Wellington and then 112 Kilometres back to where I had planned to go, oh well can't help flood damage. From Dunedoo I wanted to get to a Silo art location in Barraba, again by the shortest route and Google maps highlighted a good and direct route through Boggabri. Well it would have been a good route if the road was sealed or if it even resembled a road. that section sure gave the suspension a good work out and some sections were so bad it was done in second gear at 20 kilometres an hour. I actually could have lost the car in a few of the pot holes in the "road". 

I did drive out to Manildra and Molong but Manildra was hard to get to and see clearly as there wear cars and trucks parked everywhere, so gave that up as a lost cause. Molong on the other hand, the water tank was easy enough to locate at the entrance to the town, but it was impossible to get the car anywhere near enough to get a pic unfortunately. Silo pictures improved as the day progressed though.

The traffic was a nightmare heading for Dunedoo

Silo art at Dunedoo

As it says on the sign...

"Prepare" as the traffic was so bad on the cattle track called a road

Barraba silo art, The Water Diviner by Fintan Mcgee

Bingara the stop for tonight, had hoped to get further, but...

15 Mar 2023

Following on from fixing the car after the little up close and personal from the neighbour I decided to take it for a drive. I need to go to Queensland for a visit, so why not take the Count for a bit of exercise. So with some plotting and planning decided that on the way up may as well visit some of the Silo and Water tank art on the way. Well actually none of it is technically on the way and some of the locations are well out of the way to get to. To get to most of the ones I want to see it involves quite a lot of extra kilometres that wouldn't be necessary if going direct and it would take less time too, though that isn't the point of a road trip is it.

First day plan is Melbourne to Goorambat Silo art, then into the Winton Wetlands for the CFA water tank art. It is then onwards to Chiltern for s look as I haven't been before and then over the Victoria/New South Wales border and off to Walla Walla, then through Wagga Wagga and Junee to Harden for more Silo art and on to Grenfell for yet more Silo art.

That was the plan anyway and mostly followed that path, though it went off track there due to lack of accommodation options and fuel, the plan was amended to head out to Forbes and Parkes for somewhere to sleep. Had hoped to get further, though all the back tracking between art sites and travelling at 80k's tends to slow thing down a bit.

On to the photo progression of the trip:

Out on the highway ready for the early departure

First brief stop at Benalla

Silo and shed art at Goorambat

CFA water tank art in the Winton Wetlands

Water tower at Walla Walla

Water Tower at Yerong Creek

Silo art at Murrumburrah-Harden

Magnificent Grenfell silo art

Day one ends...