The Rocky Road less traveled.
Topic: Australia
So I'm on a rocky track in the middle of nowhere, with a busted Volkswagen, no phone reception, and it's dark. What am I doing here again. Ahh I remember, supporting our poor country cousins.
Summer Twenty Twenty didn't start well for the bush. Visitors dried up after we had droughts, then major bush fires, which burnt an area one and a half times the size of England. This is normally the time when us city people flock to the bush/beach. The locals whinge about the crowds, the farmers hide, but they all make enough cash to survive another year. The media convinced us city folk that every thing past our line of sight was burnt to a crisp. Even if it wasn't, it would spontaneously combust, the moment you got there, instantly adding you and your family to the global warming problem. Fact check, Australia is big, only 0.4% got burnt. Time for Mick and I to put our super hero capes on and come to the rescue, with a beer, Pama, coffee and cake tour.
The original plan was to leave after the March school holidays 2020, splash some cash around country VIC/NSW, then return with a warm glow of knowing we had done our bit. Ah, the best laid plans, Mick got delayed by a week, then COVID hit, then the borders closed, then Melbourne, got the "Ring of Steel", then 200 days of lockdown. I sound like I'm making excuses here, but really I tried, it wasn't my fault.
Skip to April 2021, Victoria is having one of its rare Covid lockdown free days, Even better some the State borders are open. Time to hit it. We plough through the ring of steel into Gippsland visiting friends, Lunch in Barnesdale, Afternoon tea in Cain River. A couple of days later we even get through the NSW border. As per usual Mick has his spread sheet of goals and tasks to accomplish. One of these is to drive around some of the bush in the south eastern corner of NSW, so we hit the dirt tracks checking out some remote beaches and sights. Back on the main road he points out snake track. " I think that's where we want to go". OK. It's a bit rough, but we are taking it easy. there are some houses on the side of the road. After a while the houses disappear, but the tracks still ok. Then the track gets a bit worse, OK we will bail at the first intersection. Twenty clicks in the tracks off the road are way worse than the one we are on, but its only about another ten k to the main road. We stop to kick a big rock off the road, still cruising. The track here is a bit less used and has some grass in the middle of it. Bang we hit something, where did that come from. Just around the next bend the track gets way better. I think we have made it. Then this giant red oil can appears on my dash along with a loud alarm. Bugger. I stop check under the car and there is oil running out the bottom. Not Good.
It's late afternoon, there is no phone signal. Well we can't drive, and we need to get out of here. I start walking and soon see some paddocks. I can't hear any banjos, so their must be some civilisation around here. I find a house but there is no one about, so I climb the hill and get a bit of phone signal. Soon enough I'm talking to the local towie. Be an hour mate. No worries I'm going back to the car, see ya. An hour and a half later it's getting dark and I'm back on top of the hill. " Sorry got another job, be another hour" Finally It's dark, but we see a truck creeping up the track. We had got through the rough bit, and an hour later we are in town. The towie takes us to the nearest motel. It's full, so is the next, the pubs getting reno'd. The last chance has one double left. We check in and head to the pub but the kitchen is getting reno'd too, so it's the trusty Chinese. I can highly recommend the Golden ocean chinese cafe for great old fashioned chinese australian food. Tomorrows another day.
After breaky we head to the garage. The boys are busy, but say they might get a chance to look at it in the Arvo. This is the second time I have been stuck here in five years. Last one was on a yacht with three dead alternators. We do the wharf, van park, main st, coffee shops, fisherman's club, public phones, recycle bins. Bega tick. Back to the garage. The VW has a aluminium sump, light but fragile, and broken. I hear Parts, time, money, yer, yer, I'm out of here guys, ring me when it's fixed. Seven A.M we're on the bus.
Next stop Canberra, not quite the bush, but i've just spent 3 months here. My friends parents are over from Ireland, and I have a couple of little jobs I want to do. The Capital is fun but the spread sheet is calling. Monday morning back on the bus. Our mate Shergs, lives in Sydney and has a car. Train to the edge of town, Shergs finds us in the pub. By arvo we are at Wisemans ferry to check out the old convict road, then off to the pub. It's booked out, seems to be a bit of a theme going on here. We get a couple of expensive rooms at the only other place in town, the resort. Well we are here to support the economy.
The idea is to get to Armadale to see the Cuz via the Hunter Valley. I have visions of winerys, and quite little country towns. By the time we are in Singleton it's getting on. Nice place lets stay here. Great idea, but the place is booked out. Oh well there is always Muswellbrook, it's a fair size. Drive by of the Liddle power station, and some lake that will kill you if you swim in it are the highlights of this bit. The town is full of places to stay, but they are all full. The power station has a shutdown, so does the railway line. Every thing in town is full of tradies, or gray nomads who got here before us. Aberdeen, full, Scone, we try every place in town, and it's getting late. The very last pub has a last minute cancelation. It has steak and beer.
Shergs is over it, he has stuff to do back home. No worries we will get back on the bus. Nice breakfast, bus station, you guessed it, booked out. Normally there is a train but the line has a shutdown. No bus till the next day. No accomodation, we call the Cuz, he's sick, and doesn't feel like a 300 km round trip. We jump in the car with Shergs and head back to Muswellbrook. At the car rental place they just laugh, Shutdown, We give up. Back in Sydney we check into the Central hostel and have a great meal in Spice lane. This is more like it. By noon the next day we have caught a flight home.
A week later I walk to Caulfield and jump on the train. Morning tea in Barnesdale, Lunch at Cain River, It's like Deja Vu. The time table says I will be in Eden at 3.55 PM. At the Garage I chat to the Guys, I came here to support the bush, here's my two and a half grand. By four I'm blasting out of town. I may be some time before I'm back.
Posted by bondrj
at 12:01 AM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 9 September 2021 12:26 AM NZT
