7 days into the adventure - An update - Part 2

So my last post ended at a caravan park in Parkes. Parkes was, well, hot and didn't capture our imaginations. I thought the connection to Elvis was a bit weird and rather tenuous as a tourist draw card, but obviously it works for thousands of people each year. Thankfully, after a bit of scouring we found a funky hole-in-the-wall coffee shop with rice paper rolls for lunch that improved our moods after a hot morning walking around.

A quiet and relaxing afternoon with water play and picnic blankets under a big shady tree cooled us all down and provided an opportunity for reflection, journal writing and planning our next moves. Dylan found a lovely old willow which he climbed and spent an hour hiding in and watching passers by. Lukas got stuck half way up but we won't mention that.........

As an aside, on the planning front, we're trying deliberately not to do too much of it! We like the idea of being able to stop for a few days at a place we find and love and keep moving past places that we don't. Most planning happens in the passenger seat during the day of travel and the beauty of this is that if we see a sign we like the look of we can just stop or change our route accordingly.

Having said that, we have booked in 5 nights at a Victorian beachside holiday park over Christmas (otherwise we figured they'd all be booked out) and will be heading over to Tassie on New Years Day for a few weeks.

Right, back to the update.....we gave Parkes a cursory wave goodbye and headed to Temora. Temora might sound like a strange choice but we knew it from our Pa as the site of the Aviation Museum. Dylan and Lukas were really looking forward to it, and it is an excellent museum run by people passionate about and dedicated to preserving a bit of airforce history. We had a personal guide through the museum who loved having the boys' undivided attention and letting them 'jump the ropes' a couple of times to see things on the aircraft he just couldn't help but show them. The planes are beautifully restored and looked after and we look forward to going back on one of their show days to see them fly. Lukas even purchased with his own money a copy of the Museum's DVD narrated by none other than Charles 'Bud' Tingwell so he can watch it all over and over and over again (not cheap for a 7 year old at $40!).

Following Temora, we decided that we had waited long enough to find an out-of-the-way riverside campsite and so, again on the advice of WikiCamps, headed towards Oura, east of Wagga Wagga.

I love this sign!

And what a site we found, right on the banks of the Murrumbidgee. We parked Suzy Q (as the van has now been named following our visit to Temora - Suzy Q was a CA-13 Boomerang if that means anything to anyone) so that as we looked out the door we were facing straight onto the river and spent two blissful days fishing, playing in the river, exploring and enjoying the cacophony of bird life each morning. Bliss!

This is living!

Our favourite friend who liked sitting near Suzy Q and singing to us.

Spectacular old River Red Gum