🎼 It’s a long, long road…..🎼
Boarding the ferry is pretty quick, for a 7:30pm departure from Tasmania, we board at about 6pm after a half hour wait in line with other vans, trucks, buses and vehicles, it seems everyone is being sent to the mainland. So, dust, fire, flood, CoVid and now deportation, this is becoming a truly eventful 2020, and unlike any other journey during our 7 nomadic years. The plan, called The Plan, is once onboard the Spirit of Tasmania we go straight to our cabin and settle in, a brief walk on deck while it’s quiet, then open a bottle of wine, Evi has provided a lovely platter of meats, cheeses, pâte and crackers, finally Schnapps then to bed!
At 5:30am we dock in Port Melbourne and are on the road by 6am. The traffic is surprisingly busy for the CoVid lockdown, but probably quite moderate by normal standards, plenty of tradies with utes and trailers and then trucks to navigate through. We are soon on the M2 out of the city and then the Hume Highway heading north to the NSW border towns of Albury Wodonga. About 90 minutes out of Melbourne and the traffic has all but disappeared with the exception of those interstate trucks who had a late departure from Melbourne. We stop about this time for a toilet break and an espresso to fortify body and soul!
After three and a half hours we skirt Albury Wodonga still heading north, turning onto the Olympic Highway after about 20klm, then the Newell at Wyalong. We are thinking to stay in Forbes or at the latest Parkes as this constitutes a 9 to 10 hour day, something we don’t do! We do stop in Forbes and have a walk around the very rural town center which is a combination of old and modern. A very relaxed place with wide landscaped footpaths and streets. We find a open bakery displaying a sign “Best Pies in the West” and, being trusting, we order lunch, takeaway of course.
Unfortunately, being in CoVid paranoid NSW, we find that the caravan parks in both Forbes and then Parkes won’t accept Essential Travellers, or any other traveller, a situation that we did not forsee and do not appreciate. Next major town is Dubbo, so we call our good mates, Damien and Rachel, who invite us to once again camp on their front driveway (plenty of room) and join them for a CoVid-19 social distancing dinner. Great offer and quickly accepted. Next morning we are once more on the road north to Goondiwini, Queensland, some 600klm but thankfully no more than 7 hours drive. At the Queensland border is a very large round-about and here we encounter a line of traffic a few kilometres long moving slowly through a police checkpoint ensuring that only qualified people pass into the state of Queensland. We have paperwork stating that we are “essential travellers on our way home”, the police are super friendly and we chat amicably while the vehicle in front is checked, then we are through.
Nothing to report in Goondiwindi as we arrive late in the afternoon and everything is closed. Next day we have an easy and well known trip of no more than five hours to get home to the Gold Coast where we will wait out the CoVid restrictions for however long that takes. So…untill our next trip! Farewell and good luck to all!
Australia. Dust, Fire, Flood & Pandemic 