If you want to really research something, you have to start off with an open mind and I certainly did that, because my experience of caravanning can be summarised on a postage stamp.
The support extended to me by Go See Australia and Jayco Nowra, who lent me a van was unsurpassed. Brendan Nelson, Leader of the Opposition and Steve Ciobo, Shadow Tourism Minister, came to Nowra to officially launch my sojourn through the middle of NSW, South Australian and Victoria before coming home once again to Nowra.
The trip from Nowra to Goulburn was relatively uneventful although I certainly appreciated the presence of the van. Graham Wallace, CEO of Go See Australia prepared a very good schedule for our assistance. It showed distances and estimated travel times between locations which proved very helpful on Day One.
We travelled through Kangaroo Valley and up onto the Hume Highway without incident. The girls at the Goulburn Tourist In formation Centre were helpful and courteous after first absorbing who I was when I introduced myself and told them what I was doing.
The first real difficulty we encountered was at Crookwell when we arrived. The whole power grid was down and without power, there was no fuel to be pumped. The Tarago in which we were travelling had only a third of a tank of fuel with no idea of how far the power outage went.
The irony of the situation was that we had stopped to admire the wind farm turbines just before you get to Crookwell. It was a breezy day and we wondered why the propellers weren’t turning. We soon found out why.
Anyway, we made the decision to press on ahead calculating our fuel consumption would get us to at least Blayney. The road ahead proved challenging with many sections being gravel. The road was narrow, winding, up and down hill and coupled with the head wind, we watched the fuel gauge needle rapidly falling to empty.
It was even more disconcerting because there were many places where there was no mobile phone coverage and very little passing traffic. After passing through Tuena, we took a very active interest in our fuel tank because adding to the anxiety was the lack of sign posts to tell us how fare we were from the next possible fuel supply.
By the time we got into Blayney, the fuel tank gauge had been on empty for about 20 kilometres and we estimated that we must have had about a thimble of petrol left. But that is part of the adventure and once refuelled (and reassured), off we went to Orange.
We actually made very good time. After stopping at the Information Centre in Orange whose staff were very good and very helpful, we found a caravan park to camp. Getting out of a warm car and into the bracing Orange air was invigorating and setting up the van for the first time was an ‘interesting experience’. One or two small items we need to buy but other wise, all the bases were covered.
Dinner was at the Orange Ex Services Club and I was delightfully surprised to run into my local sports ‘journo’, Rob Crawford from the South Coast Register. Rob was the coach of a junior hockey team that was participating in hockey matches in Orange that weekend.
Overall, a good start to our journey and I’m looking forward to the next leg to Griffith on Monday.
PHOTO: It was great to have Shadow Minister for Tourism Steven Ciobo & Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson on hand to help launch the 'road testing road tourism' campaign.
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