2026 - Winter Escape to QLD

Thu 13 Aug  26 - Mildura to Narrandera (460km) 6 Deg, cloudy with light drizzle to 14 Deg and cloudy. We were on the move before 0900 stopping a few times along the way, Balranald for a brew and then Hay for lunch. Traffic was quite busy with lots of heavy transport, mostly heading towards us, and from Balranald to Hay, a ridiculous amount of caravans also heading west, we suspect towards Mildura then north to Broken Hill for the Mundi Mundi festival. Not for us thanks - we couldn't think of anything worse after all the rain in the region. We've driven the stretch between Mildura and Narrandera several times over the years, and we've never seen it greener. There is still a lot of water pooled along the roadside, evidence of the recent rain event. We arrived at our designated overnight stop, the Brewery Flat Reserve free camp at Narrandera by 1530, and there were already plenty of caravans and motorhomes parked for the night. The extent of the recent heavy rains was also evi...

Wed 12 Aug  26 - Mildura 7 to 15 Deg feeling much colder, cloudy with some light drizzle and SW winds - overall a  miserable day. Today was a day of rest and recovery, nothing more. We simply weren't in the mood to venture out in the damp and cold, so I have very little to report today. The only excitement was Noel drove into the pet shop and bought Olli a new water-proof jacket, which we tested in the afternoon with several walks, so Olli should sleep well tonight. I refuelled in the afternoon, and then we had dinner and an early night inside with the heater on.  My only photo of Mildura Sunset on the river at the caravan park Sunset on the river at the caravan park

Tue 11 Aug  26 - Spalding to Mildura (382km) 4 to 16 Deg, cloudy all day and light winds - thankfully a nice tail wind today. Apart from one hot wheel that just won't behave, we had an uneventful day of driving more long km's, arriving safely at Mildura, our destination for the next 2 nights. The drive from Spalding just north of the Clare Valley in the SA Mid North was picturesque - stunning green with lots of healthy looking Canola crops about to blossom.  We had a couple of stops along the way today, and the roads were mostly very quiet, until the last stretch from Renmark to Mildura which had a lot of road trains heading in the same direction. It's such a small world - when we arrived at our site at the Discovery Parks Mildura caravan park, we noticed we would be parked directly opposite another Red Centre Caravan. We quickly discovered that it belonged to a couple, Frank and Pam, who we met at Cooktown in June 2022. We subsequently saw them again another 4 times (unpla...

Mon 10 Aug  26 - Roxby Downs to Spalding (415km)  The strong continued at least until about 0300 then it seems to settle by daybreak, still blowing madly, just not as bad.  We drove away from Roxby Downs at 0830, and enjoyed the green countryside with clumps of of bright Sturt Desert Pea close to the roadside. 83 km later, we stopped at Woomera on the way back to the Stuart Highway before heading southward to Port Augusta. When we arrived, I checked the heat of the rear passenger side wheel again only to find it was much hotter than it should be. It wasn't as hot as it had been previously, so I thought I would just drive on and monitor it. We had a look around the Rocket Park and through the Heritage Centre at Woomera for about 45 minutes, grabbed a coffee and muffin to take away, and were on our way again by 1030. Woomera is a very interesting place, but sadly in decline, and nothing else here to see or do - not even a caravan park or free camp to stopover. The exposed o...