Finally….

Well, you may have noticed that our countdown clock to our departure for Adelaide has stopped ticking….hooray….for that means we are on our way. We left home yesterday morning, relatively on time, excepting the slight delay due to our concern for our puppy that is being left at home. Poor Bella cannot make this trip, as our destination does not allow dogs at their facility. She is too spend time between being home with Boy the Cat, playing with Biscuit from next door and having sleep overs at Grandma and Grandad’s place. In hindsight, we should have done things differently, though I don’t know that there is much that could have been done to prevent her from knowing that this was not our usual morning departure.

So, after the brief delay, we were on our way. Now, I have never driven to Adelaide before, but know there are several ways of getting somewhere (that is actually a game we like to play “all roads lead to Rome”) and this morning as we left we decided to take the more Western route, via Goondiwindi to Moree and on toward Dubbo. We had not booked an accommodation for the night, preferring to enjoy the journey rather than rushing to our destination, we would stop when we felt we needed to and when we saw something we wanted to look at. The Navman is coming with us, and though we entered Moree as our initial directional point, we then promptly ignored the Navman for some time until it decided to go the way we wanted to go.

Taking the backroads from Toowoomba to Inglewood (rather than the highway via Warwick) proved to be worthwhile, as we encountered a flock of sheep being herded down the road with a couple of hardworking sheep dogs heeding every call and whistle of their master. We also, on 2 occassions saw emus. The first time was a surprise and we didn’t have time to pull over quick enough. The second time we saw emus we were able to stop, however by the time I got out of the car and took the lens cap off (silly me, why was it still on?!?!) the camera shy emu had realised what was going on and bolted for the horizon. I managed to snap a photo of their tailends, and even after taking a couple of other photos of the wind turbine on the other side of the road, we could still making them out running and running toward the trees on the horizon.

After a quick stop for lunch in Inglewood (a slightly bland but otherwise satisfying chicken and salad sandwich), we kept moving toward Goondiwindi and on to Moree. Highway driving doesn’t require you to pass through many small towns out this way, so we filled out time with playing games and listening to music. Due to a previous incident, the girls access to technology is currently on a ‘needs basis’ only, therefore watching a movie as they had desired was not an option. We played some of the classic car games, such as “I spy with my little eye”, “I went to the market”, “Animal, Mineral, Vegetable” and “Jeopardy”.

Our stop at Narrabri allowed us all to stretch our legs and the girls to have a play on an enormous rocket ship playground slide. It also allowed us to make a quick stop in at Tait Toyota where I am very appreciative of the assistance we received from the Service Manager (sorry, I have forgotten his name) who climbed under our car to identify the cause of a scrapping sound I could hear and make makeshift repair to a broken plastic engine guard which had done it’s job protecting the engine from damage when we ran over what was left of animal on the road that was a bit higher than the front spoiler. Memories flooded back of a previous trip which had involved driving over a dead echidna and having one of it’s spines pierce the fuel tank…..thankfully not trip stopping, but an inconvenience all the same.

So….by the end of the day I am pleased to report that we arrived safely in Dubbo. Found lodgings at the Cattlemans Motor Inn where the rooms are clean, the beds comfortable, showers strong and hot and the staff very friendly and helpful…and willing to negotiate on price (thanks to Dave).

nb..I will add some photos to this post shortly