October cycle tour map

October cycle tour map

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Friday, May 28, 2010

Goondiwindi to Bungunya


Goondiwindi to Bungunya = 72km
Cummulative total = 2231km

Where do I begin for our experiences in Goondiwindi? Well listen to this ....
It rained a fair bit the night we arrived in Goondiwindi and in the morning there was just one heavy shower otherwise the day was mostly cloudy with a breeze - enough to do the handwashing and get it dry before the evening rain.
Like I said on the last post the campground we were at (gundy by the river or something like that) is really weird and the owners are really weird .. to the point that I felt quite uncomfortable there with the close proximity to where they actually live. But like Neil said I 'need to get over it' and I did ... for the day! So during the day we stocked up on food and things and in the evening I thought it would be the best time to do the blog and I went into the laundry ... now the following are 2 unrelated occurances but they both happened at the same time so I hope I can explain this!
While in the laundry there is a really feral awful smell like something is rotting and there has been something really potent used to cover it up ... so I bear with it and start with the blog, about 10mins in there I start to feel funny and bit light headed and queasy (but not feeling like I am going to throw up just churning!) and I think it must have been dinner or something I ate, so I continued on. Now here is where it gets confusing - when I was in the laundry I could hear foot steps approaching the laundry and then I hear them stop (the lighting in the park was not great ... in fact there was none!) so I just continue in the laundry and then I look up at the door and see the owner (guy) there (and this guy is weird even Neil thought so) and I just said hello and continued on then I sense he is still there and I look up again and he is still there watching me ... meanwhile I am still having somersaults in my stomach and I am beginning to feel really light headed ... so since he is standing there I ask if there is something wrong and his reply was very threatening, very uncomfortable (he replied ..."I am just wondering what you are doing here") and I thought that that was strange to say that so I just replied that I was on the computer and he just looked at me and that really made me uncomfortable so I looked away and heard him turn around to say something to someone. Meanwhile I realise that he probably doesn't like me using the electricity in the laundry! and as I thought that my tummy did an almighty somersault and I felt so light headed that I thought I was going to faint ... and I did ... next thing I know is I am on the floor in the laundry feeling really comfortable and relaxed! ... when I realised what had happened I got up and unplugged everything and went back to the tent to Neil and I told Neil what had happened and then just broke down and cried! So I assume it was the fumes in the laundry that made me light headed and faint ... and as for the owner well I just felt so sick with the way how he looked at me and thought his people skills were useless especially in the service industry!
So it rained for most of the night with thunder and lightening which freaked Kouta out so much that he had to sleep between our heads and he wouldn't sleep anywhere else! In the morning we got up and packed up everything and was out of the park by 7.15am and had brekky by the river around the corner ... I couldn't bear to be in the park for a minute longer than necessary!

As you can see from the photo below we didn't get much sleep last night due to Kouta freaking out with the storm and me being too scared to sleep because of the weird owner!



So we had finished brekky by 8.15am and began riding towards St George which is 200km away. We knew that we would have head winds for today and tomorrow. Since it is very flat open country the headwinds were very strong (at least 20kph). So the scenery for me was just the white line on the road (head down alot today!) and I relied on Neil to inform me if there was anything interesting to look at!
We did see lots of cotton alongside of the road and it wasn't long until we saw some plants just growing alongside the highway (but still no fields - I think the picking has finished and the fields have been prepared for next year!)
Here is a photo of an individual plant

and below is a series of them lined up alongside the road

We we travelling along quite nicely at around 16kph for the first 40km and then the road turned to face the full force of the headwind and so we dropped to 12-13kph and stopped every 10km for a break ... we even had a ute pull up alongside of us and offered us a lift! but we declined!
We saw plenty of road trains today and they were very good to us and gave us plenty of room and even the Barwon highway itself is really good - not exactly wide but the condition of it is good and there are lots of 'floodways' and so the sides of the road become a bit broken but it is alot better than the NSW roads!
About 6km before Bungunya we came across this sign and off course Neil wanted his photo taken next to it

You will notice on the bottom sign that it says 'NEILO' not we are not quite sure what NEILO is - I am assuming it is a town as they are usually in green.
Bungunya is a small town with about 10 houses and really is just a 'siding' for the grain train that comes through. We are camped at the rest area that has toilets, hot shower and tank water and there was 4 other caravans here with us. And I forgot to take a photo of our campspot! As we were setting up the tent we came across this local.

It took us a while to choose our campspot as since the clouds begun to build up and become very grey in the afternoon we weren't quite sure if it was going to rain or not so we didn't want to pitch the tent in a dip where water would run down if it did pour down with rain.
Tomorrow is another rest area camp spot at Weengallon or if that is not suited a bush camp.

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