As was the case yesterday, the cloud cover kept the temperature higher than the average for this time in the year. When we got out of bed, the inside temperature in the caravan was 13 degrees.
As we were leaving today to get a day closer to home, we went through our normal pack-up scenario and were ready to leave just before 9:00am. He made an error with the television antenna not centering the antenna when it was lowered. The error was pointed out by another member of our group as the antenna was resting over the side of the caravan. A quick fix but it should not have happened. This was another example of the concentration needed in reading the caravan for travel.
We were the last to leave the caravan and we met another member of the group on the main road where we decided to wait for the third member of our little convoy. The third member was delayed whilst obtaining fuel, so we decided to depart.
Not long after leaving, a car passing us sprayed us with a couple of rocks. A check later could not find any damage.
At Ballata, we waited for our friends to catch-up so we could establish our small convoy. While we were waiting, we notice a very large oversize load exit from a parking bay and start to head in the direction we were travelling. The wide load was escorted by four escort vehicles and a police car.
Our friends finally caught up and we headed towards Narrabri. At Narrabri we started to look for coffee, but nothing was available where we could park. We were told of a roadhouse on the way out of Narrabri and just before reaching the roadhouse, we caught up with the wide load. As the wide load rounded a roundabout, three other oversized vehicles approached the roundabout from a different direction. Almost chaos. The wide load heading in our in direction pulled off the road opposite the roadhouse so we headed in.
We made a UHF radio call to one of the escort vehicles with the wide load and were told they would be departing in less than 5 minutes. One of our group had gone to purchase food and use the toilet so we spoke with her to encourage a quick return to the caravan so we could depart before the wide load got underway. The third member of our small convoy decided they didn’t want to get caught so they departed rapidly.
We left the roadhouse as the wide load started to move but we were in front of it. As the morning progressed, we learnt that the wide load was travelling at the same speed as we were, or a small amount less and we had continuous chatter on the UHF for most of the trip with cars travelling in the opposite direction being told to stop. About two thirds of the way to Coonabarabran, we finally created a little distance between ourselves and the wide load.
We arrived and checked into the John Oxley Caravan Park where a block of sites had been reserved for us. As we were the second last to arrive, we had a choice of two sites.
After our setup, we had lunch and then spoke to other members of our group about attending a night session at a public observatory. All agreed so we booked by phone eleven persons to attend the Milroy Observatory and “Donna the Astronomer”. After making the booking, we went grocery shopping and now had enough food to see us home plus some. After returning to the caravan park and disposing of the food, we visited a mineral / gemstone museum called “Crystal Kingdom” where she purchased some jewellery. We returned to the caravan park for happy hour and watched the cloud cover develop overhead. With cloud in the area, a text message would be sent to inform us if the observatory would be open. That text message arrived at 5:30pm indicating that the evening was a go.
We had to unpack the back of the car so we could transport friends and when we arrived at the observatory, we were told that the viewing was marginal. We sat and waited until a decision was made to abandon the viewing. We might try again tomorrow.
We returned to the caravan and had schnitzels for tea.
We don’t have television, so time was spent on the computer before heading to bed a little after 10pm.