16 July 2019 – Gunnedah to Lightning Ridge NSW

Wanting to be on the road by 8:00am, we set our alarm for 6:00am.  That was a great idea, but “He” had to reluctantly get up and out of the warm bed to turn the alarm off.

Today started with a frost and our car was covered in ice.  “He” attempted to remove the ice with tap water and the result from that initiative was thicker ice on the windows.  The windows were eventually cleared, and we departed Gunnedah at 8:15am.

“He” had planned to head to Narrabri, then onto Moree for fuel and then through to Lightning Ridge. That would have been a great plan had he taken the time to look at a map.

The run through to Narrabri was relatively quick with the Nissan demonstrating the fuel consumption we have expected with the lighter van.

As we left Narrabri, the GPS told us to turn left and head towards Wee Waa and not to Moree.  Moree had been the intended fuel stop and “He” decided to proceed as indicated by the GPS and not return to Narrabri for fuel. The trip from Gunnedah to Lightning Ridge would normally be about the maximum range of the Navara hence a fuel stop mid way.

Considering the fact that the caravan was lighter and the fuel consumption better, it was considered that we should have enough fuel to reach our destination with a  small reserve.  However, any strong wind experienced would be a factor in achieving this goal.

We stopped at Wee Waa for morning tea and a comfort stop.

After leaving Wee Waa, the wind started to increase and soon we found ourselves heading into a strong headwind.  Fortunately, the wind was not as bad as the day we left Sydney, but our fuel consumption increased to about 3 litres per 100k’s beyond what we expected.

A plan was hatched to refuel at Burren Junction or at the worst case, Walgett.  There was no roadhouse at Burren Junction, just an unmanned 24 hour fuel dispenser, so we continued on.

Further calculations revealed that we should have sufficient fuel to reach our destination, so we turned right before Walgett for the final 80k’s to Lightning Ridge.

The road from Walgett to Lightning Ridge has to be one of the worse roads in Australia as it has been subjected to heavy vehicles over the years and that has resulted in a very rough surface.

We arrived in Lightning Ridge at 1:00pm with probably another 100k’s of fuel remaining in the tank.

We met our friends who had arrived just before us and also another coupe we know from our ACC caravan club.

After setting up, we have an ensuite so that will make our water issues a little more bearable, the car was refuelled, we had lunch and finally spent time talking with our friends.

We had an early happy hour with all of our friends before moving to the camp kitchen.

The remainder of our happy hour was spent the the camp kitchen where we were entertained by locals, Mel & Susie.  We met Mel & Susie several years ago at Winton in QLD and renewed our acquaintance with them at the Stone the Crows festival at Wagga Wagga.

After our evening meal we spent a little time talking to our friends before returning for showers and an early night in bed.

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