Moama to Jerilderie.....less than 200 kms.....170 to be precise. This is my sort of travelling day, distance wise, but as I noted in my last the weather outlook was grim. A storm front, with very cold and strong winds, was forecast to inflict meteorological misery on Victoria and the Riverina throughout the day. And where were we heading? Into the Riverina!
It all began well enough. The River Murray Holiday Park kookaburras bade us farewell as we drove out past the park office (they were actually waiting to be fed!)
and made our way out through a sleepy Sunday Moama onto the Cobb Highway, the first of three major Australian Highways on which today's journey would take us. This was to be new 'blacktop' for us, which still brings those feelings of expectation after all these years. Deniliquin was to be our first major landmark where we had planned to stop and have a look around....that didn't happen for reasons which will soon become clear.
As we hauled out away from the River Murray valley into the flat and open hay cropping country to the north-east of Echuca/Moama, where more huge stacks of bales lined the roadsides, the skies were already beginning to darken.
From here things continued to deteriorate above us and around us as the predicted winds began to lash the paddocks.
We knew it would not be long, and sure enough, about twenty minutes into our trip for today, we hit the first of the dust clouds......flying topsoil being ripped off the prematurely ploughed paddocks where farmers had punted on an early break to the season.
To make matters worse, for the remainder of the 50 kms or so to Deniliquin, where we would change direction, this howling gale was directly on our beam. Despite the fact that our van weighs in at nearly three tonnes, there were times when we could feel it attempting to sashay to and fro across the road behind us. Talk about the 'tail trying to wag the dog.' Speed down...concentration levels way up! For much of the leg I was reduced to a maximum of 70 kph to maintain effective control of the rig. This is not fun, believe me.
As we officially crossed into The Riverina I was hoping that we might be starting to outrun the system.
If ever there had been a case of wishful thinking, this was it!
By the time we had reached Deniliquin, all thoughts of a quick stroll around the centre of the town before moving on were quashed. We just pushed ahead hoping for improvement.
Here we left the Cobb, which goes on up to Hay, and joined the Riverina Highway, our second major road for the day. And here too, as we turned to travel in an easterly direction for the 60 kilometres to Finley, we gained some respite as the wind was now on our quarter. Whilst we were still shimmying about a little, at least we were gaining a fuel saving....some compensation at least.
But for the life of us we could not outrun this damned front which seemed to be constantly closing out the sky in front of us.
The entire outlook was just uninviting....dry paddocks and grey skies.
By the time we had passed through the oddly named highway hamlet of Blighty (a couple of houses and a roadside pub!)
and reached Finley where we joined our third highway for the day, the familiar Newell, we thought the conditions were beginning to moderate.
Wrong....and now we had spitting rain as well! This was just one of those 'heads down...push on' days.
And so we did, north-east out of Finley for the last 35 kms of this challenging trip. What a welcome sign this was.
And this, even more so. Jerilderie, the town made famous by the infamous Kelly gang, and the beginning of the legendary Kidman Way. We were more than glad to be here.
Through the town shopping centre we went
and on out along the main road through the town (which is the highway itself)
to the Jerilderie Motel and Caravan Park on the northern extremity of this modest sized country town.
When we had rung ahead the previous day to book our site, the manageress had told us that we would have no trouble with either the size of our rig or the availability of a spot in the park behind the motel complex.
She was right on both counts! What a pleasure it was to be able to easily pull onto a drive-thru' site in such lovely surrounds after the morning we had just endured.
And what a delightful park this is. We were close to the small but adequate camp kitchen and its charming little garden,
and but a stone's throw from the very well designed and maintained amenities block (which you can see on the left of this shot)
where we came across a 'first' in all our travels......a caravan park with dedicated bathrooms.
As you can see, we had these delightful grounds to ourselves (apart from a few long term residents set up along the back fence). The folk who own and manage this motel and park could not have been more friendly (we had quite a chat to them as we left later to do our town toddle) and here there are additional benefits to entice the weary traveller to tarry.
The large and well set up Jerilderie Sports Club is immediately next door on one side of the park,
and on the other, but a short hop across the lawns (where you can see the blue shelter behind us)
is the more than adequate town swimming pool.
Not that it had any appeal to us today....we had actually set up in drizzling, freezing cold rain. But it did clear (as these photos demonstrate), and we were determined to make the most of our overnight stay with a good look around the town which the Kelly gang put on the map so many years ago.
But there was a job to be done first.....dig out some winter woolies!
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