Heading south to Deniliquin

We finally left Wollongong for our trip south eventually to Tasmania back on the 5th. (I am not keeping up, even with myself. We've been either having too much fun or relaxing to keep up with posting blog updates!) We normally would head out in the morning but we had to delay our leaving until the afternoon as I was unwell and so desperately needed a good sleep after the last minute packing before moving out.

Lake George Area

We still wanted to get a couple of hours driving under way and so our first night was spent at a rest stop called Edmondson VC Rest Area, just north of Lake George before heading to visit Michelle's aunt in Canberra for morning tea/lunch the next day. There's not much to recommend Edmondson Rest Area really but it was convenient, it is clean and it does have a decent toilet. There is an adjourning reedy wetlands but nothing to really look at in my opinion.

Jugiong

From Canberra we travelled onto Jugiong which is a new favorite rest stop. Rob had originally planned just to use the dump spot there, however I suggested that we stay the night there. It was a lovely relaxing time and it was here that I first started to really feel like we were finally on our way.

Relaxing at Jugiong

 Corrugated iron sculpture of sheep stock on the northern entry into Urana

Billabong Creek
Moving on after Jugiong, we pass through Wagga Wagga, and Urana before stopping at Billabong Creek (981) less than a kilometre from the centre of Jerildere. The free camp spot as been mostly closed off to campers because of bad soil erosion during frequent floods. Still it will fit maybe 6 campers no problems. It also has a nice little waterfall that drops maybe 45cm, just enough to give a relaxing tinkle of sound. There is plenty of evidence around that this innocent little creek metamorphosizes into a raging torrent at times. It might have been nice to spend a few days here but we were on a tight schedule to get to Melbourne and we really wanted to spend 4 or 5 days with friends in Deni with some sight seeing thrown in.

Watching the Billabong Creek lazily flow by

By the way, the number is brackets refer to camp spot numbers as referenced by the Camps Australia 6 book at least until such a time we buy a later edition or move onto WikiCamps.

Morning tea at Conargo

After just one night at Billabong Creek we move on and stop for morning tea at Conargo which has to have the most modern rest stop we've come across yet. It also has an awesome playground for the kids with a picnic and BBQ right next to it.

It is after the event that I write this and sadly the historic Conargo Pub burnt down two days later.

Modern public toilet block at Conargo

The historic Conargo Pub burns down 2 days after we were there.