Motor home diaries - 22nd January

ODO reading 533kms.

We’ve decided we are going to be more sensible in our approach to the trip. This will be our last detour.

Sean at the campsite had said it would be good to go up to Dargo as it was a nice drive. Duly, we put Dargo into Daisy and she told us to drive for 90kms.

When we arrived at Dargo, which is up in the high country, we called into the General Store for a coffee and information. The owner, a man the same age as us, was very helpful. His first thought was to send us on an adventure along a 50km dirt road high into the mountains on the other side of the valley. I explained we had no insurance for dirt roads so he told us to go to a place called Grant, which was the first goldmine in the area. This involved driving from 600ft above sea level to 3300ft in 30kms. The smell of eucalyptus was nauseating, like having a bottle of Vicks up your nose. It was so steep part of the journey was in 1st and 2nd gears. On the way up the van overheated and on the way back down, the brakes nearly caught fire! It’s the scariest trip we’ve ever done. Everything was tinder dry, there was a Catastrophic Fire Warning (most severe) in place and I was driving about with white-hot brakes!

We turned at Grant, which was actually a shack at the side of the road and a signpost saying ruined goldmine 6kms away. We decided to go and have lunch in Dargo, which was very nice, but we avoided the man who sent us up the mountain.

When we got back to Stratford we tried to have a siesta but it was too warm, apparently it was 38 degs.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that David and Barbara (the expats) were ardent Aussies. He had done military service and their son and daughter are presently in the military.

Sean was telling us there were bushfires between Mallacoota and us our next stop. He advised keeping an ear out on ABC radio (BBC) to get fire-warning updates to make sure we could continue travelling.
Final night at Stratford campsite, in bed for 10.00pm – up early in the morning.