Van tour - April 2019

We went on a trip in our van for eight nights (nine days) from April 13 - April 21. Here’s the distance we covered:
Sydney - Wingen (297km, 1 night)
Wingen - Bellata (277km, 1 night)
Bellata - Mungindi (174km, 2 nights)
Mungindi - Moree (123km, 1 night)
Moree - Uralla (266km, 2 nights)
Uralla - Tibbuc (169km, 1 night)
Tibbuc - Sydney (292km, HOME)

Highlights

Sunsets in Bellata. There wasn’t much in Bellata but there was a great free camping spot on their ‘golf course’ (didn’t look like much golf was played there!). Most of the people staying there seemed to be fossicking for fossils and precious rocks. It was the off-season for the farmers so they don’t mind folks roaming their fields fossicking.

Bellata sunsets (above and below)

Lazy days in Mungindi (pronounced mung[like lung]-n-dye). This town was right on the border of NSW and Queensland (the only town that lies on both sides of the border of these two states). We had a nice spot by the river (although the birdies were terrible!), and walked into town both days we were there to relax in the hot artesian bore bath.

Collie enjoying some lazy days in Mungindi (above and below)

The artesian baths in Moree. This is the jewel in the crown of the artesian bore bath trail. It’s a lot more commercial than the others we’ve visited but we enjoyed every minute of it. We also paid to stay in one of the caravan parks in town as there was no sign of any free camp spots. It only cost $20 and they had their own hot and cold thermal baths so we maximised that, together with the showers and kitchen with electric kettle!

Moree town centre (above)

Camping by the river at the fossicking site near Uralla. We were only planning to stay one night here but we got such a great spot that we had to stay for two. We went for a nice walk hopping between rocks on the river and kept our eyes peeled for gold!

Camping by the river (above)

Rock-hopping (above and below)

Lowlights

We were going to visit the town of Boomi on the way back to Moree from Mungindi to experience their hot baths but we found out in Moree that the road is unsealed. Our old van shakes and rattles a lot on unsealed roads which we find unnerving so we try to avoid them. Also, last time we took Collie down on one he got sick so we didn’t want to go through that again. We spoke to a lady staying at our camp site in Mungindi who said the road to Boomi was pretty smooth. Also, the lady working at the pool in Mungindi told us about an alternative route but that was going to add at least another 100km so we decided to give it a miss.

On the second last day we went up and down the side of some steep mountains en route to our camp site. The van didn’t handle the heavy braking too well so it caused some stress for a little while. We took our time and stopped a couple of times to give the brakes a rest and fortunately managed to arrive safely.

Going down this hill caused some stress (above)

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