Hi again everyone now that we have settled down a bit with work and "home"
we will give some more detail of our journey from Victoria Pt on Sat 26 Nov.
We will endeavour to update the blog eachweek on a Sunday
Saturday
Left just before 8.00am, had some family present, (some mixed feeling for all at the time),
was trying to rain
Headed out to the Cunningham Hwy, mornos at Aratula, (Nano's cherry cake) then onto Warwick through the continuing roadworks through The Gap.
Arrived in Warwick, refuelled, then whilst heading for the exit from town to Goondiwindi, sign advising Newell Hwy closed at Moree due to flooding!
Pulled up and flicked to channel 40 on UHF to get some truckie news.
Got the news from the truckies there was no point heading out that way, so had to head down New England. had a look at map and it meant we had to head to Tamworth area to then head west.
Rain started as we left Warwick and continued for quite some time. We stopped at Tenterfield for lunch, very nice town, will spend some time there soon.
Because of the rain all along the hwy, we played dodge the pothole, some beauties too
Considerable rain had fallen around the area, could see constant water flow through properties.
Overnighted at Guyra at a free camp just behind the Bowls club. because of the rain we weren't too keen to get off the road, so just pulled up on gravel base near the camp area. the site is known as the "Mother of Ducks Lagoon" rest area. Basic but enough for an overnighter.
Went for a beer at the bowls club and stayed for dinner, had a great dinner, good home cooked meals.
Locals at the club very friendly as we were in shorts and thongs, we discovered later when we left why the locals were in jeans and jumpers!, bloody cold outside. In bed by 9.00, not realising what the next day would bring.
Mother of Ducks Lagoon
Sunday
Woke around 6 to a very nice day, did some checks on line for road closures.
Seems the hwy was good south but still had some doubts about heading west.
Did a check with the truckies as to fuel stops around. Was a catex on the highway next to Armidale airport. Refuelled, head through Uralla, (very nice town, will have to sepnd some time there too).
Stopped in Tamworth at Maccas for breaky, then checked with truckies again as the chatter was about the Oxley hwy closed just east of Gunnedah, which of course meant we then had to head bit further south to get around to Gunnedah via Werris Springs and some minor road flooding, plenty of B doubles on the detour roads as well.
Got to Gunnedah, and headed to Coonabarabran and some 20k's out of Coona, the first tyre shred itself and wrapped around the axle and behind the brake drum. attempted to remove the remains but no luck, called NRMA, they arrived some 60 mins later, then the guy realised he didn't have the tool box in the ute he needed, so had to return to Coona, get the tool box and return to us. He spent some time buggering around with the tyre and eventually sorted it out. This was three hours after we first stopped! We then debated whether to continue or stop at next town and get a tyre in the morning.
We decided we wouldn't have 2 blowouts in a short distance between there and Dubbo!!! :)
Weeelll, at a spot called Dusty's creek, the spare we put on the van blew out and we managed to stop quickly to save the tyre doing any other damage. This was only some 10k's out of Gilgandra on a Sunday arvo. No sooner we stopped, a young guy from Dubo had passed us and turned around to check on us. Thankfully, he called a friend who gave him a couple of numbers of a tyre place in Gilgandra who may be able to do after hours tyre repairs. Managed to get hold of one of the guys and he agreed to fit a new tyre, he was going to come out, but seeing it was so close to town, I decided to take the "spare" into town myself. Unhooked the van and left Susie with the van and the beer!
I headed into town, and by the time I dropped the tyre, went to the ATM and back the tyre had been replaced, $150, not too bad for something like 5.30ish on a Sunday arvo.
Thankfully, got back on the road, with about 70 k's to Dubbo, arrived at about 8.00 and set up van with the basics so we could get some sleep, yep been on the road for some 12 hours. Spent some time looking for something to eat.
Monday
Had an appointment with the owner of the mushroom farm at 8.00. Headed out to the farm which is located on the Nth Minore Road Minore, some 18 k's from Dubbo. Met with David Minehand, and his wife, Janelle, the farm owners. David gave us a brief run down on the farm and introduced us to Keiran, the supervisor. We then headed into the growing sheds to have a look at the set up.
certainly something different to look forward to, the sheds are all climate controlled at 18degrees, so the outside weather is not relevant. It is an organic farm, so the pickers have to wear cap or hair net and gloves for handling the mushrooms. Start for Tuesday is 6.00.
Returned to camp, met neighbours from WA, they have been travelling working for some 5 years and have been in Dubbo for three months. They left a couple of days later for a week or so of relaxing and then to Nelsons Bay to help some friends with a shop for a while.
Tuesday
Started at the farm at 6.00 the other four pickers are female and are good country girls.
All good fun though, mix of ages and one, Helen, is a local and is also a member of Workabout Australia as we are. Her and her husband will be heading off around early next year.
The other pickers are Jennifer, Lisa and Pauline and they all live in Narromine about 20 k's the other way from the farm. They were itching to get started as they start at 5.00 or earlier! so they can get the day done and go home. They gave some instruction as we went through the day and we learned heaps about the way it all works. We will get some photos of the farm and set up soon. essentially, the mushrooms are pulled from the growing beds, (three beds at different heights,), cut the stem, and size them as they are placed into the boxes. there are two types, the standard whites and smaller amount of Swiss Browns. Finished at 3.30.
After our lunch break Susan made a confession to all and sundry in the picking shed, she had been using the knife with the blade around the wrong way, wondered why it was not cutting mushroom stem cleanly??
Wednesday
Started at 5.00, by the time we arrived, the girls were already in the sheds picking, they are keen!. Unfortunatley, the early start means early rise, around 3.45.
Wednesday is pay day, so we had the Tuesday pickings to be paid for. Our pay slips were issued and as we finished for the day we had a look as they advise how many kilos of mushys we have picked. there are different rates for whites, browns and then some time we have to pick whites into punets also.
We were pleasantly surprised as we had both picked 109 kgs of mushys each, not bad.Finshed at 2.30.
Thursday
Susan found out the hard way there are resident frogs in the toilet, he!he! everyone had a laugh. Because mushys have a mind of their own, and their growth is unpredictable, the hours worked varies from day to day, finished at 10.30 as all mushys had been picked.
We returned to camp and decided to move the caravan to the site next to us as we didn't have a concrete slab for the annex, only grass. Considering we are going to be here some time, we decided a couple of hours of work would be worhtwhile. so that took us about 2.5 hours. Not bad considering we had only erected the annex three times.
had a drive around past the Western Plains Zoo, and found the Red Earth Winery, naturally, we sampled some wine.
Friday
Finished at 8.30, came home had a cooked brekki, then had nanna naps till lunch time! Drove out to Narromine to have a look around bought some meat at the local butchery and checked out the old pub, had a beer, naturally. Whilst in Dubbo CBD, we checked the Old Dubo Goal for prices,times etc. They conduct night tours during holidays so will have a look at that later.
Saturday/Sunday
Managed to have a sleep in for a while, Sat night went to the speedway, did some touristy things around the area, including checking out an antique shop, some markets, and had a look at Minore Falls. (as it turns out Minore Falls is just a locality not falls at all).
