We had a wonderful week with my parents-in-law.  As usual (when we are in Grafton) Mum organised a lovely BBQ for the family and some of their friends, it’s so much fun catching up and seeing the kids grow up.  Ron’s sister Suanne had to work but we caught up with her in Ballina twice between dropping off the Karavan and picking it up.  We also managed lunch at the Crown Hotel with our good friend Karl.  As all good things must come to an end these two Grey Nomads (only one of us is grey) had to move on.

We left Grafton on Friday (9^th July) a lot later than we had hoped.  It took all morning to repack the Karavan after the Ballina factory fit out, packing our clothes in the drawers, repacking the fridge, changing things around.  All packed and then remembered the big water tank needed filling, 130 litres later, finally ready to go.  We farewelled mum & dad at 12.30pm & then stopped at Coles to stock the larder with some fresh food where we ran into an old friend & had another chat.  Finally, after a quick bite to eat we hit the road westward & onto the Gwydir Hwy.  We stopped at the top of the Gibralter Range after 14km of constant climbing for a view back over the Mann River valley & the way we had come.  Onwards & westwards through a chilly Glen Innes & Inverell where we came to an eventual stop for the night around 25km east of Warialda at the Gragin Rd Rest Area.  Meatballs from Coles on the outside BBQ, Tereza whipped up a great salad and on with the diesel heater inside the van as it was quite chilly.  We soon warmed up & read until about 8.30pm.

The Karavan is nice and compact, most things are very well thought out.   The bed was comfortable too so soon we were warm like two bugs in a cocoon.

I woke up early and was very reluctant to go out to the toilet, but nature calls.  We will have to re organise our things so that we can get easier access to our inside loo.

Up before sunrise at around 6.30 & heard the kookaburras start the day, then followed by the chorus of other birds starting to wake.  A golden sunrise through the trees with a sliver of moon still clinging to life & the BBQ again swung into life to cook the bacon & eggs for breakfast.  On the road by 7.30 am with a long day ahead as we had planned to be at Roma by nightfall.  We were soon in & through a sleepy Warialda & arrived in Moree around 9am were we refuelled at the Caltex before heading for Mungindi & St George, were we had lunch at the park near the river in town.  A bit of a breeze had come up, with a few clouds starting to mar the clean blue skies we had all morning.  The head winds slowly picked up as we headed towards Surat & then Roma, were we passed through & turned onto the Carnarvon Hwy looking for a place to camp for the night.  About 20km north of Roma we stopped around 4pm at Bungil Ck rest area near the other caravan already set up there.  We set up camp & settled in with some cheese & wine as the birds started to settle in for the night.  A long day travelling & certainly very nice to relax, we were both tired from the drive.

Ron is still into getting from A to B, we will have to relax and make those A to B’s shorter, then again I only had to take one photo on the way to remember the whole of A to B.  On arrival at our campsite we went for a lovely walk along the creek.  Our neighbours were settled in with a nice camp fire, I thought that it would be polite to say hello but Ron said NO.  Later they invited us to sit around the fire with them.  We had a pleasant hour or so sipping our drink and chatting, they were heading the opposite way back to Victoria from Townsville.  We found out that we met the criteria – no children or dog.  Apparently the etiquette for camp fires is that you have to be invited.  I have a lot to learn!!!