Suzanne & Nic Outback Caravan Trip 2025

 August 7th: woke up to a very misty morning in Gundagai and it had rained over night. We packed up early and headed into town for breakfast of eggs Benedict at the Niagara Cafe. The mist cleared so we had a good view of Burra creek. We then headed for home, reaching it at about 1 pm after stopping for diesel at Costco and being turned away by a 2 hour wait at the Hume Truck wash. The house was in great shape when we got home and the garden looked amazing thanks to Kim’s efforts. We spent the afternoon unpacking the caravan and then had Pesto for tea with. Bottle of Gibson’s “Dirtman” Shiraz which we had carried for the whole trip and not drunk! For those interested, we actually travelled 19,850 km over our 119 day trip! Burra Creek beside the camping area, Gundagai

 August 6th: Left Griffith and headed for Leeton along non busy roads through agricultural land- the continuation of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation area with citrus, grapes, rice, canola. Leeton is another town designed by Walter Burleigh Griffin but the central feature now seems to be 2 water towers with amazing crenellations around the tops of them! We had coffee and cake at Stir Expresso and then travelled on via Narrandera, Grong Grong, Martian, Ganmain, Coolamon to Junee, all agricultural towns and finally Gundagai- all on secondary rural roads with crops on either side, except for areas of the Murrumbidgee National Park. We set up in Gundagai at the free 24 hour camp near the Murrumbidgee river, or rather its Burra creek tributary, with a few other widely spaced out vans. We walked into town to the Criterion Hotel for an unexceptional meal. Leeton water towers

 August 5th: we left Hay to travel to Griffith along the Murrumbidgee Road - so much easier a road to travel on that the Sturt Highway! There was hardly any traffic and no trucks. We went through irrigated farmland- with cotton rice grape vines oranges olives and almonds-I texted Paulette for advice as to what was good to do in Griffith and she suggested the local produce restaurant called Limone so we went there for lunch after getting our bearings in Griffin. Nic had Murray cod and I had a buffalo mozzarella focaccia. We then headed for the tourist visitors centre who recommended the Griffith Caravan Village to us. We went there and got a site and unhooked the van. We headed for the Pioneer Village  and arrived at 3.30pm when it was due to close at 4, but the receptionist kindly said that she would be there until 5 pm so we could stay and have the place to ourselves! It was fascinating! We visited the Italian museum - a tribute to the hard working Italians who made Griffith ...

 August 4th: left Renmark for Hay, travelling via Mildura and the Hay plain. As we travelled through the Riverland growing districts in Victoria we passed through a number of dust storms caused by denuded agricultural land where large tracts of land were bare. I wonder if this is really the result of monoculture crops..We arrived at the Hay Caravan Park in time for a brief walk along the Murrumbidgee as the  sun was setting. Once again I cooking inside- a vegetable pasta sauce with parsley and grated Parmesan. We head for Griffith tomorrow. Renmark caravan park this morning with Murray River visible in the background Murrumbidgee at dusk near Hay Caravan Park

 August 3rd: The day dawned clear and sunny of a little cold. We designated today as a rest day so all we did was walked in to Renmark along the banks of the Murray with those amazing red river  gums and many birds to see, including cormorants drying their wings and at least 3 different types of duck. We had a coffee and a hot croissant at Arrosto then did a small shop at Woolworths before walking home.  We caught up with some life admin and I cooked us portobello mushrooms and chilli jam with tomato and kidney bean and Vegie sauce for dinner, fortunately cooked inside on our induction hot plate.

 August 2nd: we originally intended to go to Port Pirie to Northern caravans to get some work done on a number of issues with the van, BUT when we rang them, they said that their waiting list for rep was 2 months long and they couldn’t put us in front of people who had been waiting 2 months, but could spare us a few minutes some time on Monday! We decided that this really wasn’t worth pursuing!  We therefore decided to push on to Renmark. We went to the van park right on the Murray where we had stayed at the beginning of our trip. Instead of Big 4 it was not owned by G’Day Discovery Parks. We got a drive through site right hear the river. We had a lovely walk along the river as the sun was setting.  We had an omelette for dinner, cooked inside on the induction hot plate- great for cold nights rather than cooking outside. We had a bottle of 42 degrees South Pinot Noir to accompany it. We decided that an extra night here tomorrow night would be very restful, so that is what...

 1st August: packed up and left the slightly weird caravan park that was Marree-replete with its more than liberal doses of mud! We drove back to Quorn, passing through those wonderful Flinders Ranges! We stopped at Parachilna, the Prairie Hotel for a disappointing lunch- for me some grilled haloumi with Quandong sauce- not as exciting as it sounded, and Nic had an equally unappetising kangaroo schnitzel!  Because of the failure of our heating, I wanted to reach the chemist in Quorn to buy us some hot-water bottles. We arrived at 4.55pm for a 5pm close and I bought us 2 exorbitantly priced made in Germany hotties with horrible covers in pink tones which I hoped would keep us warm. We arrived at the caravan park in Quorn after it had closed but I was able to persuade the very nice owners to let us in! We had rung the makers of our diesel heater, Truma, and ascertained that the issue was the temperature sensor which has been installed at ground level instead of at mid-room heigh...