The Long Road home - Wallumbilla, Goondiwindi, Myall Springs at the Carters and back to Tamworth at Weemala to visit the Rogers - Sat 23rd June to Thr 28th June

Sat 23rd
Janene got up early to do a 7km walk / run up to Boolimba Bluff which gave amazing views of the whole valley system that makes up Carnavon Gorge. The climb is really steep for 300m metres as you walk up stairs and rock stones to scale the 150m high cliffs. Janene came back pumped and suggested I get up there, so I drove back into the National Park and had a great mornings run / walk up to the top of the bluff.

We packed up and headed back out onto the highway passing a number of large wetland birds again and a family of wild pigs (boo!). The birds were about a metre tall, grey with red markings on their face. We had to use our 20L jerry can for the first time to refuel on our way south to Injune. A quick bbq chook for lunch and a game of chase for the kids and we got back into drive mode. I got chocolate freckles as a treat for everyone and Janene presented the kids with a new magazine each to keep them occupied for the afternoon shift. Tas was pretty excited with the latest edition of Bacon Busters – a Pig hunting magazine.

I listened to the Wallabies vs Wales on ABC Grandstand and soon enough we made it to Roma our scheduled destination. Tas and Ella were out to it so we punched out another 50km, heading east and stopped in Wallumbilla at the local showgrounds which turned out to be a free camp site complete with power and even basic toilet and shower facilities. An early night with a bit of blogging, as we have another big drive tomorrow to Goondiwindi, just near the NSW border.

Sun 24th

It turned out to be  freezing cold night and I mean real cold, somewhere around -2 degrees, enough for ice to from on the windscreen. The Van has been amazing but a heater would have been very handy last night to keep the Meldrum 5 a little more cosy. Amazingly none of the kids woke during the night due to being cold.

We hit the road by 8.30am keen to put in some miles early. Our first stop in Miles was the bakery  and then we turned south again stopping at Moore's crossing for lunch. Barnaby Joyce rocked up for the occasion, I didn't know my trip blog was getting some much airtime :-). The real story, however, was that the roadhouse holds Australia's largest collection of Feral Pigs. Check out the fangs on the massive unit below, just the thing to put up in the pool room, NOT! Anyway we saw a few emu's and then came into cotton country, a first for the kids so off we went t explore and pick  bit of cotton. We must be getting bored of driving home as we started our own dance session on the Leichhardt Highway.

We reached Gundy in the afternoon and loved our drive through site (a bit of caravan jargon) and then hit the spa and heated pool before eating out at one of the Pubs. We returnedto base to sharing some QT round the campfire. Check out Ella being a ghost in the photo below.

Mon 25th & Tue 26th

We travelled down through Moree and Narabri and Bogabri and cut east to Myall Springs to see Matt and Mel Carter and their 4 beutiful children. We became friends with the Carters through the passing of Chris Wild and last year spent the October long weekend on the farm 40km north of Gunadah which is 1 hr north east of Tamworth in the New England region.

The Carters are just salt of the earth, fantatsic people and lovely to hang out with. We had a wonderful family meal with mel cooking a supberb Lamb roast followed up by a Sticky Date Pudding, yum, yum!

It was a real pleasure to spend time with Matt an organic beef adnd lamb farmer on the property moving some cattle around as part of his rotation policy. He aims ot get the right balance between mananing the environment, making it easier on himself and most importantly keeping the cattle happy and heathy. If you are after some high quality meat please place an order online at www.myallsprings.com.au, you will not be disapointed.

Wed 27th to Fri 28th

We left the Carters in the afteroon and made our way to Tamworth for our final stop with the Rogers. Sally and James just had their third beuatiful boy, Digby Roger, some 6 weeks ago and it was great to meet him and share time with the Roger clan. We managed to test out the new Yabby trp and caught a few big ones which Tas sampled for lunch.