17/7/07 Completely Frozen Coonabarabran to the Sleety Nation’s Capital

Well, unfortunately for us, the forecasted minimum temperature of MINUS 6 was achieved! We were OK though, with the heater on full all night. It was only when we discovered icicles along the roof line inside the van and we had to pull the pillows off the canvas ends because they were stuck with ice that we really appreciated how cold it had actually been!!!

We felt sorry for the couple of people in tents, including one bloke who turned up at 3am with a broken head gasket and pitched his tent then. The ice on the ground was thick and people who had bothered to connect their hoses up (which we didn’t because we couldn’t find one in the dark) found their water pipes were frozen solid.

We were slow to get off the mark and became even more delayed when the Jackaroo decided she didn’t want to start. Luckily, the poor bloke in the tent with the blown head gasket was visited by the NRMA, so we hijacked him to take a look at our car. Turns out it was only because of the cold that the car didn’t want to turn over, so he jumpstarted us and we were as right as could be! We finally hit the road at 10am – a very late start for a long day.

We followed the Oxley Highway back to Dubbo and then turned onto the Mitchell Highway, stopping at Wellington for lunch. At this terrific country town, we found a fantastic bakery/café with great homemade soup and friendly staff and locals having lunch. We met a lady who was out with a group of friends for her birthday, who’s daughter had lived in Launceston for 5 years and 2 grandchildren had been born there, but had now moved to Tamworth (people love to tell you there connection, no matter how remote, with Tassie!).

I went and did a bit of grocery shopping while Gary took the kids the fab local park. I met the butcher who’s son had spent 20 days driving around Tassie in a $16999 Kia, and then continued around the mainland for 4 months, but had got a job yesterday washing out the dump trays of trucks for a multi-millionaire who owns a trucking company. You learn so much in these small towns! This is why we have enjoyed travelling inland and meeting the locals of these rural towns, rather than stopping at the big service centres on the coastal highway.

We left the Mitchell Highway and travelled via some ‘country’ roads to Cowra. We were so impressed with the minor roads – very similar to the Midlands Highway it was uncanny! The landscape had now greened up dramatically compared to the dry areas in central NSW.

A stop in Cowra for fuel – both for the car and the kids (yes, we relented with more McDonalds chips – no salt!!). As we joined the Lachlan Valley Way, for the journey to Yass, the sun set and the nasty clouds threatened overhead. Listening to the local ABC radio station, we were unimpressed to hear that snow was forecast in Canberra as well as many of the central NSW towns that had last seen snow about 20 years ago!!!

As we joined the Hume Highway for a short stint, then the Barton Highway into Canberra, the heavy rain and sleet began to fall heavily. It was a very stressful drive in the conditions and it was difficult to see the road most of the time – Gary did a fantastic job. This was the worst driving we have had the whole trip – and was only about 55km.

Tom Tom did another sterling job and we “reached our destination” about 7pm. We were all pretty frazzled and the couple of wines (for Gary and I only!) were very welcome.

A late tea and a pretty late night for two very well-behaved boys (again!). A 550km day and (again) not one “are we there yet?” between them.

Another very cold night, but a relatively mild 0 degrees forecasted