I was confronted by wheat as soon as I was out of the foothills. I stopped to shop in Temora and could see, just looking around, that it was a town built on wheat. After Barmedman I discovered a number of very small towns, each of which had a railway station with wheat silos beside it for loading wheat onto trains and a pub on the other side of the line, presumably to drink beer in after delivering wheat to the station. The railway was put through close to the beginning of the twentieth century. I found that while Barmedman had its mineral pool, every other town had its claim as well. Ariah Park, where I spent Night 22, claimed to be a heritage town with 1920 shop facades and old petrol bowsers in the Main Street. It obviously had decided to pull in the tourist dollar. There was cheap camping beside the football oval, carefully landscaped with trees too young to give shelter yet over every installed electricity point and tap, and garden gnomes outside the camp kitchen. In the kitchen was an exercise book for visitors to record where in town they had spent how many $$. I left Ariah Park wanting to head east to explore some pretty towns I knew lay along the B94, but I got halfway back towards Temora and felt that I couldn't go on! It seems I'd made a rule that says I can go north, south, but not east. So I did a U-turn and went west. It was already early evening and I spent Night 23 at Beckom, which had a lot of cars parked outside the pub beside the railway station (it was Australia Day) so I drove past and found another football oval to camp beside. This was uncharged and there were only trees for company. The next day I went looking for a swimming pool, the one at Ariah Park having sounded rather noisy. Ardelthan had a spanking new facility, but it was all locked up - as was the museum - and by the time I reached Narrandera it was getting late. So I drove out to Five Mile Reserve (9km E) and spent Night 24 there, beside a lagoon with a small private sandy beach to swim off and a beautiful sunset to observe. Narrandera is a wealthy town, built on the wheat trade and Victorian/Edwardian in style.
1 Comment
Ray W.
3/2/2023 03:37:33 pm
So, I am on the road with you....a year later.....not boring yet. I will move through your blog a month at each reading.
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AuthorIn mid 2018 I started recording each night I sleep in Bertha: sometimes just for myself, sometimes to share with friends and other travellers. Archives
February 2024
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