We left home at about 9.45 the same time as last year, we waited for Matt (my nephew our housesitter) to arrive, but he was running late, so stiff, we left. The weather was crappy, light rain, we went along Nepean Hwy and Western Ring Rd, to Hume Hwy and stopped at a new Service centre, about 20kms before Seymour. As we went over the hills, the clouds parted and it was sunny. Of course, we were dressed in jeans and t shirt, so getting quite warm. The traffic was considerably lighter when we turned onto the Goulburn Valley hwy, we left most of the trucks to continue on the Hume.

Our lunch stop was a rest stop about 20kms before Shepparton. We boiled the kettle to make coffee and made sandwiches and sat in the van to eat. Our first diesel stop was at Jerilderie. Between Jerilderie and Narrandera, I sat behind a Sundance 5th Wheeler, we both sat on about 95kph. I sent Narrandera CP an email this morning, saying we would be arriving about 4:30pm, in reality, we pulled into the park at 4:40pm, close. We had a drive through, it is a small park, but very neat and tidy, the amenities were spotlessly clean. There were about 5 other vans here.

Tomorrow, we head for Leighton's Peak Hill CP.

We left Narrandera about 8:30am.
Our first stop of the morning was at West Wyalong at the park where the plane is, just opposite Aces Caravan Park. Next stop was for diesel at Forbes and then on the way out of Forbes, we stopped at Mountain Industries, which has a public weighbridge, I was going to weigh our rig, but there were 3 semis waiting and I couldn't be stuffed waiting, so we kept going. About 1km north of Forbes, we stopped at a Rest Area for lunch. Nice salad sandwiches. yumma.

With only 80kms to Leighton's CP, we arrived about 1:30pm. Pat and Cheryl were already here and setup, so Leighton directed me into our site. After Marg and I setup camp, the four of us (Pat, Cheryl, Marg and I) had a quite happy hour for the rest of the afternoon, and then wandered off to the Peak Hill RSL for dinner and a few more beers. After dinner, back at camp, we had a few more beers, then it was time for bed. Needless to say, I was feeling a bit shabby. At 4pm, Leighton arrived with the scones, jam and cream, cooked beautifully by Pauline.

Tomorrow, we plan for Pat and I to have a haircut at Cec's, Cecil is 90 next birthday and has been a hairdresser for 75 years. Unbelieveable.

Woke up. I was still feeling pretty second rate, I naturally blame Pat for making me drink that amber liquid (VB). Time to test Leighton's heated floors in the shower cubicles, not bad.
Late morning Pat, Cheryl, Marg and I walked down to do some shopping and Pat and I planned to have a haircut. We stopped at all the shops that took our fancy, finally choose a shop to have coffee, it reminded Pat of the Soup Nazi episode in Seinfeld, the lady wasn't that bad but was funny, in her own way, anyway my coffee was good. Pat and I went over to Cec's hairdressers, I was first, followed by Pat. Cec is a real character, he and his wife have lived in Peak Hill for most of their life. What a great character.
Back at camp for lunch, and then we walked over to the Peak Hill Open Cut gold mine. Marg took her metal detector, that she borrowed from Phil, our brother in law. We had only just got onto the path at the mine before Marg was digging holes, probably all illegal, so we left Marg to her metal detecting.
I hope my photos do the mine justice, the colours were beautiful. After about 90 minutes, we meet up with Marg again, after we have walked the rim of the open cut, a decent walk. Alas we are still poor, she didn't find any gold, but she did find a metal bolt, we think it was one of Paddy's bolts, because she found it, very close to Paddy's display.

Naturally, after all this exercise, Pat and I had a beer, I think that we may have had another one or two.
Time for dinner, Marg and I had chicken and advocado sandwiches, we bought a chook in the morning, the smell of cooked chook, really won us over when we went shopping, so we bought one.
During the day, Leighton told us that another 5th Wheeler was expected for the night. While Pat and I were relaxing with a chilled refresher, Ken and Jan arrived with brand new 5th Wheeler, that Ken has designed and had built. What a bloody ripper.
I think Jan managed to get out of their car, just before the 4 of us descended upon them. The 6 of us had a very pleasant evening sitting around Ken and Jan's semi circular couch, it fitted us with ease plus the dog. Their rig is beautiful. As usual, at 4pm, Leighton arrived with the scones, jam and cream, cooked beautifully by Pauline.

Tomorrow, Ken and Jan are heading for Moree, the fabulous foursome plan to do the 4WD track in the hills, which Leighton tells us that the views are to die for. We will see. Big call, Leighton.

Woke up, which is a good start at my age.
The fab four had decided to be ready to leave at 10am for our 4WD trek. Marg and I were feeling a little tired, and just wanted an easy day, so a quick change of plans. The 4WD trek is postponed until Sunday when the weather is meant to be fine and sunny. Pat and Cheryl are off to the Irish Festival about 50kms west of here. Marg and I had a slack day, doing bugger all. I am doing the website.
Current time is approx 2:30pm and there are a couple of drops of rain on the roof. I have connected my iPod to the fiver's stereo system and I am listening to my favourite 50s and 60s, eg Billy Kramer's Little Children. Pat and Cheryl will be rapt with my choice of music. Lucky them.

Newsflash: Pat and Cheryl have just returned, and have already commented about my music. Gee, they must be lucky, my iPod has nearly 5,000 classic songs to listen too. How lucky are they, that they wanted to spend Easter with us. The Irish Festival was a bit of an anticlimax. As usual, at 4pm, Leighton arrived with the scones, jam and cream, cooked beautifully by Pauline.

Tomorrow, at this point in time, nothing has been planned, but that could change without warning.

The weather was a bit shabby. Pat and Cheryl went into Parkes for shopping and touristy things. Marg and I went into Dubbo for the same reason, it rained both ways and while we were there. We went into Telstra, as we are looking at upgrading our Bigpond wireless modem to the new Gateway, anyway Telstra couldn't help us. We also had to buy a leg of lamb, as we are cooking a roast on our Cobb cookers this afternoon.
About 2pm, the fab four were all back at camp, so we started preparing the Cobb cookers, we were going to cook the roast and Pat and Cheryl were going to cook the vegies and make bread. Dinner was ready about 6pm and it was bloody brilliant. The bread worked out well. We all sat under Pat and Cheryls' awning for dinner. Cheryl make desert which was pears, soaked in caramel and chocolate and ice cream, purely non fattening. Yeah right..
Leighton was 10 minutes early today with the scones, but as we were home, we didn't care and still ate them.
During the afternoon, we got new neighbours, Grant and Julie, as it turns out they were co-founders of the ACC(Australian Caravan Club).
It rained for most of the day, but not very heavy.

Tomorrow, we have decided to go to the Dubbo Zoo and hire and ride bikes around the zoo. Should be good.

The weather was still a bit shabby, so the 4WD trekking was dropped and the fab four decided to go to the Zoo. I packed my Mountain Bike in the back of the Navara and off to Dubbo, we went, in 2 cars. We arrived at the zoo at approx 11am and as it was still drizzling, we gave the bikes a miss and hired a 4 seater golf cart, and away we went with Pat driving with Cheryl beside him, and Marg and I in the back. The cart has a roof but no sides and as it turned out the rain stopped just after we started the tour. The zoo is brilliant and well worth the expense $35 per person and $70 for 3 hour cart hire, so it cost $105 per couple. As we were preparing to leave, I set TomTom for Leightons, our estimated time of arrival was 4:01pm, so I told Pat that we would have to drive closer to the 110kph limit, we arrived just in time for scones. Yummy as usual.
A few beers later relaxing under the awning and remincising about a lovely day and also a great time together over Easter. We plan to call in and annoy Pat and Cheryl on our way home about the end of Sept.

All good things have to come to an end and tomorrow, Pat and Cheryl will be leaving and taking a few days to get home.

Tomorrow, Marg and I may go into Parkes. We will see.

The weather was mild with drizzly rain.
We watched Pat and Cheryl pack up and leave us, it was a sad moment, as we had a great time with them over easter.
Late morning Marg and I drove into Parkes for some shopping and a coffee. It rained most of the way in and out of Parkes. I met Barry and Joan who drive a nice motorhome, and Barry gave me a few places to stay and see along the way to Darwin.

At a little after 4pm, through rather heavy rain, Leighton appears with the 'dry' scones and they were yumma as usual.
Thank you Pauline. Another sad note, that was the last scones until we visit Leighton and Pauline again.

Tomorrow, Marg and I plan to leave Peak Hill and goto Cobar CP.