Shaws Five State Adventure

  Monday - 24th March. You are probably asking, “where is Riddells Creek?” It is a small town on the Bendigo line about 50 mins out of Melbourne. It has a resident flock of geese who wander wherever they please and frequently stop the traffic on the main road.  We are visiting our son Ben and his family for a few days. We arrived on Thursday 20th March and were very pleased to stop driving for a few days. On Saturday 22nd Bob, Ben and Lhasa went to the MCG to see Essendon play the Adelaide Crows. Lhasa supports Essendon so was very unhappy about them losing the game. I took Tui into the city and we went to a great playground and a child’s art experience. Paea stayed home and did Uni work. The next morning we went to the Riddells Creek oval and watched Lhasa play his first AFL game in the under elevens for the Riddells Bombers.They played well but unfortunately lost their game. We also met up with Bob’s cousin Grant and his wife Lucy for lunch at a local cafe. Tomorrow (25/3) w...

Tuesday - 18/3/25 Overnight we stayed with Barb’s friend Dot at her small acreage at Budgee Budgee about 10 klms from Mudgee. We had another early morning visitor. Andrew (peacock) Dot and Barb have been friends since year one! We left Mudgee this morning after having a look around the town. We also went past the farm where Barb grew up and also checked out the house in Lawson St where her parents moved to after selling the farm. We drove to Bathurst via Sofala where we had lunch. Then we continued down the Olympic way through Blayney, Cowra, Young and stopped for the night in the Wallendbeen recreation reserve for the night. The trucks were loud on the highway but we didn’t hear them as we were pretty tired. In the morning we packed up and travelled to Henty for lunch and arrived in Beechworth about 3.30pm.  We had a lovely evening with our friend Nick Henry, treating ourselves to a pub dinner. It was a beautiful barmy evening. Next stop Riddells Creek.

  Sunday- 16/3/25. This morning we had an unexpected visitor as we were packing up to leave camp. This morning we continued on our drive down the New England Highway. We stopped in Guyra for morning tea and almost opposite the park was the Guyra Motor Museum. So in we went. There was quite a range of cars from a Cadillac to a Volkswagen Beetle, Holdens, Toranas and Valiant Chargers just to name a few. Some were in excellent condition and others were works in progress. Unfortunately we both forgot to take some photos. After lunch we drove on, stopping in Bendemeer for lunch and arriving in Wallabadah at about 3.30 ish. This is the third time we have stopped here for the night as it is a short run the next day through to Mudgee. We always camp down near the creek on lovely green grass. Nearby is a memorial to all the people who arrived on the first fleet. Each ship has its own section with the names of those on board.. There is a picnic area under shade sails. We went for a walk afte...

  Kookaburra Camping - 15/3/25 Today we were ready by 8.30 am as Amy and the boys were coming over to say goodbye. At 9.00am Ros our lovely house and dog sitter arrived to meet Amy and also Karen who is one of our neighbours. We left home about 9.30am and travelled west to Toowoomba to have lunch with Barb’s cousin Joan and her daughter Rachel. After lunch we travelled down the New England Highway and between Tenterfield and Deepwater we stopped at Kookaburra camping. We have stopped here before as it is a lovely farm stay. Tomorrow we head for Wallabadah unless we find somewhere better.

  Friday 14th March 2025. Packing the camper. Our plan is to  - drive to Victoria to see family and then attend a reunion with all our Alice Springs Friends.  - drive to South Australia to visit Bob’s family and see more friends. - drive across the Nullarbor and around the coast to Perth. - drive to Geraldton and then east to Laverton where we will meet up with our travel companions, Rhonda and Keith Brett . - drive to Uluṟu via The Great Central Road. - drive to Boulia via Alice Springs and the Plenty Highway. - drive home to Brisbane. Sounds ambitious? Yes it is and who knows whether we can do all of this but that is what makes it an adventure! We have been preparing for this trip for a while but it didn’t help having to pack up for a cyclone and then unpack afterwards. Still we didn’t have any damage so we need to be thankful for that.