Really good to be on the road again,decided to travel through the hinterland and visit all the small country towns between Q/land and Melbourne.So we left Stanthorpe on the20/1/04 and headed for Glen Inness about 200kms down the road,booked into a motel and stayed 2 nights,was able to do some fossicking for saphires and rubys here so the locals told us,we found nothing!
Headed for Armadale on the 22/1/04,stopping at a little place called Guyra on the way here they had their lamb and potatoe festival gping on so we looked thru the craft fair on the side of the road and I bought a hat.
Got to Armadale in the arvo and booked into a camp ground,only $14 per night for the tent.The weather was so good here we stayed 4 nights,also plenty to do and see. After 4 nights here we carried on to Tamworth the country music capital of Aus,only 1 night was spent here, nice place but we wanted to get on to the Warrambungle national park in Coonabarabran,this was a must see according to old Mick the guy I worked with at Stanthorpe,he was right it is a beautiful place with huge rock formations etc,we went for a 3km trek up to one of the highest points and visited the observatory there.
Next stop was Dubbo,we saw the old Dubbo jail and stayed one night here.Then on to Forbes ,we stayed at a pub here,alot of history here to do with Cobb and Co stage coaches etc.
Westwyalong was next on the road,we found a good camp ground here,the locals decided to hold a church meeting in the camp kitchen not 20 metres from our tent,we almost got converted!!!??
We arrived in Griffith on the 2/2/04,as we had been told there was plenty of work here we decided to stay awhile,went to the employment agency and had a job within 5 minutes pickin oranges in Leeton just 70kms further down the road,decided to stay 1 night and then go and check the job the next day.
It turned out the job was pickin oranges on contract at $24 per bin (1 cub mt) with free accomadation aircon and all so decided to give it a go.It just so happened that we arrived at the same time as a heat wave,the temp was around 42degrees most days which made pickin oranges quite unpleasent to say the least,we had to start at day break every day and work till it got too hot usually around 10am,then spend the rest of the day in by the aging aircon unit!