After Narrandera it was off to Hay, the half-way point between Sydney and Adelaide and the start of the Hay Plain. Despite the weather being generally hot and dry… it rained heavily and steadily for a large portion of the drive from Narrandera to Hay. It was a good chance to get some wet weather towing experience and also learning how to let big trucks overtake.

Hay

Hay is smaller than Narrandera but seems to be thriving town with three or so pubs and a long strip of shops that seem to be doing OK. We stopped into the Home Hardware store (twice) to buy some smaller tent pegs and a BBQ brush. This shop had everything…and I mean everything.

Caravan Park

The caravan park (there’s two plus a free camp) is on the edge of town and is very spacious with good, clean amenities, friendly manager and equally friendly park dog (Lola).

Plenty of green grass underfoot and a good sized pool that we gratefully cooled off in on the second day. The park wasn’t full by an stretch but had a steady flow of travellers coming and going each day.

The park is close to the highway so gets a bit of traffic noise but not so bad as to be annoying. On two nights though there was a constant wailing of what sounded like ‘car alarms’ that I can only assume was being used to scare birds or bats away from a farm.

Van Life at Hay

We took the opportunity set up the Weber BabyQ for the first time after visiting the Hay Butcher. We had brought, from home, a stack of carrots, zucchinis and apples from our vege garden and apple trees. So our first meal from the BabyQ was pork chops, carrots, zucchini, potato and apple sauce. I was a little skeptical of the BabyQ at first but I have to say that it was absolutely brilliant and so good that we had the same again the next night with porterhouse steaks instead of pork chops.

After the meals it was very pleasant sitting out under the stars sipping on a Bulleit Rye bourbon (Kahlua for Jo). The Bulleit Rye is a very smooth bourbon that’s a little naturally sweeter than other bourbons I have tried. Kahlua is, well, Kahlua.

The weather forecast for our last day said it would be gusty with possible rain on our last night so we took this as an opportunity to have a pub meal at one of Hay’s pubs. We were originally going to try the South Hay Hotel because it was just down the road but when we arrived it looked as though it was packed out with a function so we went in the Riverina Hotel in town. When we got there there was a 60th birthday going on but we managed to grab a table there. We both had a ‘Veal Parmi’, which was massive, thick and just simply a bloody good value pub meal.

Shearers Hall of Fame

Hay is home to the Shearers Hall of Fame (Shear Outback). It’s a well presented attraction that commemorates the great Australian shearers and showcases the history of shearing over the years. We went to shearing demonstration and had a good chat with the shearer who told us all about the life of shearer and how it is becoming a dying art in Australia with most of the shearing teams, these days, flying in from New Zealand. He was genuinely nice bloke who loved his lifestyle but you could see that it was costing a toll on his body.

Water Tower Art

As you enter the township you can see the Hay water towers that are painted with mural depicting Hay’s contribution to the second world war effort. They are striking and emblematic of the town. They’re well worth walking too for a closer look if only to admire the skill and effort required to produce such large scale art work.

River Walk

Hay also has walking loop that follows the banks of the Murrumbidgee, which includes a number of fitness stations and sculptures. It’s a really pleasant walk that provided us with a bit much needed exercise and takes you to the edge of town where you can go off track a little bit and grab a coffee at the Black Sheep Cafe. The coffee was good and you can sit in the shade in the front garden, relax and chill for a while.

So… a nice easy tow from Jugiong to Narrandera.

Rob’s Link With Narrandera

Narrandera is Rob’s father’s birth place where his Dad owned a tailor’s shop and also ran the local picture theatre back in the day. On our last morning we caught up with Jo’s pseudo-cousin, passing through from Wagga to Griffith, at the Narrandera Bakery for a coffee. After that we went on a quest to find my Grandfather’s Tailor Shop. At the Tourist Information Centre they suggested we go to the library and there we were greeted by a stereotypical, grey-haired, elderly librarian, with a nice smile, who dug out some historical volumes for us.

We discovered that there were four shops listed as tailors between 1930 and 1960. We walked to all four but I had a vague recollection of Dad saying that it was just around the corner from the theatre. So after inspecting all four I decided that the most likely candidate was the shop shown in this picture.

Narrandera

Narrandera is on the Murrumbidgee River and is considered to be the gateway to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. At this time of year (March) it is still hot (around 30°C) and very dry. Everywhere is still quite green though.

The town centre is a typical country town strip and there’s at least three pubs, maybe more, in operation so it’s certainly a living breathing place. Some of the shops though are only open from Wednesday to Friday so that speaks to a quiet economy.

The big find was the Narrandera Bakery in the center of town. We both enjoyed an extremely good meat pie, however the masterpiece was their Bacon/Chilie/Cheese loaf. A beautiful, cloud-soft, crusty white loaf permeated with, yep, bacon, chilie and cheese. So good…

Our Stay

Narrandera Caravan Park is a cosy little park near, but not on, the Murrumbidgee River just outside the town.  It uses bore water to keep the grass from dying off and it’s nice to have a level site with concrete strips for the van and plenty of grass to set the chairs out on. The entire caravan park is surrounded by a three metre man-made levee that is designed to keep the park safe from floods, which can get pretty deep when the Murrumbidgee breaks its banks.

A testament to this is a life size poster of a bikini-clad ‘Mandy Smith‘ in the men’s showers. It’s not a completely sexist act but rather a homage to her resilience for wading waist-deep through flood waters for ‘three days’ when she stayed in Narrandera during the 2012 flood (8.9m). The little placard in the bottom left explains this.

Nearby Leeton

On our second day we took a drive over to Leeton, only thirty km’s away. This is where Jo’s grandparents (Mum’s side) lived. We did a quick drive to the address where they lived. The old house has since been demolished and replaced by a new residence. The original shed can be seen out the back though. (It wasn’t at all creepy parking in front of the house and taking a photo,,,😟)

Leeton is a fruit growing town and also the headquarters for SunRice. It’s another typical country town and has a larger shopping center than Narrandera with an art-deco architectural vibe. It also has the typical main street country town Chinese restaurants, two of them side-by-side (only in a town like Leeton…).

On the way into town we noticed a sign for ‘fresh figs’ so on the way out we stopped down a side-street on the edge of town and bought some fresh figs and peaches. It was so nice to taste fresh fruit that is left to ripen on the tree instead of the gas-ripened rocks that masquerade as fresh fruit in the supermarkets.

Narrandera Wetlands

On our last afternoon we enjoyed a bee-sting from the Narrandera Bakery and then worked it off by taking a walk from the Caravan Park to the nearby Narrandera Wetlands project. The round trip took a bit over an hour and crossed the Murrumbidgee River before arriving at the Charles Sturt Memorial.

We followed a loop track around the wetland area, which was man-made and incorporated some flood mitigation controls to allow water in and out of the wetlands. There were a number ‘hides’ around the track that provided a viewing window into the wetlands and identified the various birds that inhabit it. We observed Yellow Spoonbills, Ibis and various other native species… and a lone Pelican. Near the wetlands there was also a Koala Reserve although we didn’t spot any.

Packing Up

Although the weather was hot and dry in Narrandera the last morning brought a good downpour, which I am sure was much welcomed by the locals. As expected though… the rain started as soon as we started our pack-up… and ended as soon as we finished packing up. It did start again on the drive to Hay, which gave us some good practice at towing in the rain and on wet roads.

So… finally we’re away on our five week shakedown trip to Mungo National Park. Accordingly… in the days before we left our septic system kept tripping its circuit breaker and our kitchen sink blocked up requiring continual plunging to keep clearing it. Problems deferred for the time being… Mungo awaits.

First stop, an overnighter at Jugiong Showground. Jugiong is a perfect little country village just off the highway  between Yass and Gundgai.

The showground is a no booking, donation camp site with a huge amount of space where you choose your own site. When we arrived there were probably fifty camps already set up and it still looked relatively empty. We snaffled a nice grassy area by the Murrumbidgee  River.

There followed a relaxing afternoon with a quick nap prior to happy hour and a raucous chorus of sulphur crested cockatoos. Happy hour at 5:00 to celebrate the first day and many days to come…

The next morning was breakfast at the Long Track Pantry just across the road. We both had the Brekkie Roll, which was your basic bacon, egg and cheese roll but with a sweeter bun and pancetta instead of bacon. Very, very nice and the coffee was very good… smooth, good temp. and not bitter (no sugar required).

After a satisfying brekkie… a quick pack up and off to Narrandera.