Saturday morning, 20/6/15, we left Winterwood and made our way onto the Hume highway. The Navara towed beautifully and we did not even feel we were towing a caravan most of the time. We headed towards Albury – Wodonga with the target for the day being Wagga Wagga. We were quite exited on the start of this 3 months trip, as was our dog Lexi who stuck her head out the back window to sniff out any places of interest lying ahead.
We left Victoria because of the cold and arrived in a cold Wagga; no credit for the 480km north. Still cold! Stayed at the local caravan park on the Murrumbidgee river. The river was flowing high due to the recent rains.
The next morning we were on our way again to Gilgandra north of Dubbo. Things were pretty ok until poor Dawnie started feeling ever more uncomfortable. She continued to worsen until we decided to cut the trip of the day short at Orange. We spent the night in a cold Orange, that sounds weird somehow. The next morning the car windscreen was frozen over. I threw a bucket of water over the screen to dissolve the ice. Dissolve the ice it did, but within 10 seconds the new water had frozen onto the windscreen . So much for our heat and sun seeking trip to the north.
Dawn’s health deteriorated to the point where it became clear that there would be no travel for the day. She was in a terrible amount of pain. It was clear that I had to take her to the hospital. The short of it was, after a raft of tests, that Dawn had passed a kidney stone. I need to mention that the regional hospital at Orange is a very modern hospital staffed with expert professionals who deliver an excellent medical service. The next day she was very brave and chose to continue with our trip rather than return back to Victoria. Travel day three took us to Tamworth where we stayed at a caravan park just out of town. The next day we travelled on to Byron Bay. Along the way, near Mallanganee, we came across a rest area with the greatest totem poles I have ever seen in Australia.
