Send an e-mail to Ron.
Back to Rons home page.
I note our last part of our travels as relayed to the group ended at our arrival at Cobram and at Ed, VK3BG's place.
We initially planned to stay just a few days, but as Easter was approaching, it was thought that Ed's place provided us with
a good opportunity to be off the road around Easter. I managed to catch up on a lot of work on the computer, helped Ed with a
couple of aerials and also with a small garden shed, both of which he was building. We also visited Ed's brother in law,
Darryl, VK3KL and came away with a satellite dish which I proceeded to mount on the trailer "A" frame.
So, after a couple of weeks we left Ed and travelled back into Cobram where we did some shopping. We then travelled
east along the south side of the Murray via Tarrawonga, Rutherglen to Wadonga. We overnighted in a large camp area along side
the Owens River which is east of Bundalong. Wadonga was larger than I envisaged and it was quite a complex route getting
through the city and re-established on the Murray Valley Highway travelling on eastwards. The road passes through a large
army area then essentially follows part of the shore of Lake Hume. This is the lake formed by the Hume Weir, the principal
dam on the Murray River.
We checked out a couple of campspots between the Highway and the Lake. The water level was extremely low with one
report of 4% capacity. It is interesting to note how many times the boat ramps have had to be extended in order to reach
down to the ever receding water level. Travelling on through Tallangatta and Bullioh, we took the C546 north over a
mountain range through Granya to link up with the C542. The C546 continues on following the southern side of the Murray River
further east.
Victoria has, in my opinion, a good system of identifying roads. "A" class roads are the principal highways, "B"
class are major secondary roads and "C" class being the more minor interconnecting roads. Each particular road is then given
a specific number, as for example, C546 above.
That C546 is interesting as one gets good views of the upper reaches of the Hume Weir to where it transitions into
the actual Murray River and then lots of views and access to the river. We stayed overnight at a nice campspot right beside
the river about 26 km east of Granya. There is only one spot available for large rigs beside the river.
The next day we continued further along the river, pausing at Walwa to look at the servo, but deciding it was too
small for us to access. I did note, however, a large and modern looking vehicle repair business next door .. something we
were going to need in a couple of days! We continued on via Tintaldra to near Towong, where we crossed the river into NSW and
a nice, large grassy campspot along side the river.
Our plan was to travel, via sealed road, to Tumbarumba. We got about half way to the vicinity of the Tooma area when
we head noises from the rear of the motorhome. Initially, there was no place to pull off the road. When we managed to do so,
and investigated, we were amazed to see the towbar in the process of "parting company" with where it is attached to the
vehicle chassis. I started work jacking it up and back into place not being really sure how I could effect a repair. The
road is fairly quiet but initially a caravan stopped but we worked out there was nothing much he could assist with, so he
continued on. Later, a Tumbarumba Council employee stopped and he gave us some insight as to what repair facilities were
available in the area. He confirmed there were were steep hills between us and Tumbarumba and I got the impression that the
repair facilities there were somewhat limited anyway. I suggested the place at Walwa that I had noticed a couple of days
previously and he agreed that, indeed, they may be the best to assist us.
I eventually effected a repair to the best of my ability with the facilities available. Part of this involved using
the two rear bolts which were now effectively hanging in mid air on a cracked out section of the vehicle chassis. They were
used to replace the two centre bolts which were completely missing. My conclusion, as far as the missing bolts were concerned,
is that they must have broken under the added tension caused by the rear bolts being ineffective. The bulk of the vertical
load on the towbar is taken by the rear most bolts. I added some "number 8" (8 gauge fence wire), but couldn'd see it adding
all that much to the needed strength.
We set off back to Walwa via Tintaldra, a total distance of some 35 km, at a maximun speed of about 25 to 30 kph. A
number of stops were made to check that everything was holding together. Fortunately, it did, and we arrived back at Walwa
mid afternoon on a Friday. Together with Col, who appeared to be in charge, we looked at job made a couple of decisions and
ordered some steel to arrive on Monday morning. Some discussion took place as where we could park over the weekend with the
final outcome being almost in front of Col's house which is across the road at the rear of the workshop.
I got busy over the weekend, removing the towbar completely together with the bumper bar and some other odds and ends
so as to gain the best access to the broken section of the chassis. I made a close examination of two rectangular steel
gussets that were welded inside, one on each side, of the channel shaped chassis extension. To my amazement, where each was
supposedly welded to the bottom flange of the above mentioned channel, the weld had "taken" to the each gusset but NOT to the
bottom flange. That lousy weld was to the sections of the chassis which had cracked out and through which the rear most tow
bar attachment bolts were fitted. I think, if those welds had been intact, we may well have not had the problem.
Part of the repair was to fit some steel angle inside the chassis extension. This meant cutting off a few mm of the
bottom of those gusset plates which I did over the weekend. I have kept those two pieces of metal which illustrate the lousy
welding.
Monday morning we drove the motorhome around to the front of the workshop where work commenced on the repair. I won't
go into all the details, but the job was finished mid afternoon. We went back to park near the front of Col's place in order
that I could refit those odds and ends, including the HF antenna tuner, which I had removed.
Leaving the next morning, we retraced our route to where we had the tow bar problem and on towards Tumbarumba.
However, we stopped for the night at Henry Angel Flat which is on the restored Hume and Hovell walking Trail from Lake George
(near Canberra) to near Melbourne. I am not sure if the whole distance has been restored, but quite a number of bush walkers
appeared towards sunset. The restored section around here seemed to be well used.
The next day we passed through Tumbarumba, after doing some shopping, and on through Batlow and the well known apple
producing area. We were intending to overnight at a rest area just out of town, but when we arrived there we discovered it
was just a small area adjacent to the road. So we pressed on to Adelong and the Snowy Mountain Highway which we planned to
follow to Tathra on the coast near Bega. We continued as far as Tumut where we stopped for lunch in a large off road parking
area near the old railway station.
I should mention that a few days prior to this we discovered our fresh water tank to be leaking. Fearing the worst,
that it had cracked or something, I was somewhat relieved to find the leaks were at small rubber fittings somehow pressed and
glued into the side of the tank. These fittings, at various heights in the tank, have a metallic end moulded into them which
contacts with the water in the tank when the water is at, or above, the particular fitting. The metal ends are wired into the
motorhome electrical system to indicate the quantity of water in the tank. I figured I should be able to reglue the fittings,
but it was necessary to drain the tank completely, as the worst offending fitting was the very bottom one. So, as it appeared
possible to get drinking water at Tumut, I drained the tank and reglued the fittings with contact cement over that lunch
period.
It took us a bit of searching, but we eventually found the water and refilled the tank. While we were doing this,
another couple of motorhomes stopped to discuss overnight camping possibilities. They indicated that they would check out the
area on the opposite side of the sportsground and alongside the river. So when we finished we went to find them. Even though
there were a couple of potential spots in the area, we couldn't find them. Never the less, we stayed ourselves at a rather
nice quiet spot right beside the fast flowing Tumut River.
Checking the water tank in the morning indicated that the glue job was satisfactory. So we were off along the more
interesting section of the Snowy Mountains Highway. After climbing a fair bit in elevation the highway runs parallel to
Blowering Resevoir. This, and other waterways ahead of us are all part of the Snowy River Scheme. It was somewhat sad to see
that the water levels were extremely low in all these waterways. There are numerous camp spots along this section of the
highway overlooking the reservoir. However, there are no signs along the highway, giving advance warning that the camp spots
exist. Thus, one is often level with them before one becomes aware of their existence.
Immediately past the turn off to Talbingo, the highway narrows and begins a long steep climb. We measured 5.6 km to
the top of the main section, but one climbs for a further 3.5 km to an elevation, according to our GPS, of 1,055 metres.
Further ahead one passes over Cumberland Range, signed at 1,183 (we measured 1,170) metres. We continued onto Yarrangobilly,
where we pleased to find a large level grassy camping area beside a running creek .. actually Yarrangobilly River. We awoke
in the morning to note our thermometer reading minus 2.5 degrees. This is the coldest night we have ever experienced in the
motorhome.
The next day, we continued on through this picturesque alpine scenery as far as Adaminaby. We did a little shopping
and as there appeared to be no suitable camp spots we decided to take a look out towards Old Adaminaby, Lake Euchumbene area.
However, as one approaches there are signs saying "no camping" in the vicinity of the almost empty lake. Further ahead there
is a sign giving directions to the two caravan parks in the area with a suffix "these are the only legal camp spots". Not
wanting to be dictated to in this fashion, despite there being heaps of suitable (though somewhat barren) spots available
that would suit a self contained vehicle, we drove about half way back to the highway where I had noted a possible spot just
adjacent to the road. Hopefully, we exhibited our independence to those residents who travelled to and fro during our stay!
From there, we went back through Adaminaby and on through the larger than expected town (? city) of Cooma. From there
the highway passes through more open undulating country as far as the top of Brown Mountain. There are so called "truck
coupling bays" adjacent to both sides of the highway. However, there is extra parking space at the rear of the west bound one
where we parked for the night.
It was raining the next morning as we started our 10 km decent down the range. Also, just as we started the decent,
our visibility was reduced to just a few metres by what I thought was fog. I also thought it wasn't going to be a very
pleasant trip with that poor visibility. However, after a short period of time, visibility became normal and I figured we had
simply passed through cloud sitting on top of the range. Some distance past the bottom of the range and just through the town
of Bemboka we suddenly came across a sports field/rest area. This was handy, as we were low on water and it was available
there. We continued on to the Princes Highway junction, turned south for a short distance and entered the lookout overlooking
Bega. Two nights were spent there in rainy weather before we continued on to the coast at Tathra.
From Tathra we turned north to follow the coastal road to just south of Narooma. At Bermagui we stopped for fuel at
one servo, the pump ran delivering about $2 worth of fuel, then stoped. The woman investigated, dipped their tank and said it
was empty. We got a whole $2 worth of fuel for free! We purchased fish and chips from the co-op on the wharf .. we opted for
flathead which was, we figured, the best fish we have had since having barramundi in the northern Territory.
Further north we investigated Mystery Bay Primitive Camp Area (to give it its official name). We were not impressed
with the $12 per night charge to camp on the side of a hill in the (still) wet weather. We continued on, but learnt later
that we should have driven in to the north through a belt of trees to a nice large camp area overlooking the ocean. Also,
that the fee was greatly reduced for seniors/pensioners to ? $7-50. It pays to have this sort of info! (see Ramblin Rons
camp spot notes). So, we continued on through Narooma as far as Bodalla Forest rest area where we eventually stopped for the
night.
After a wet night, we continued on to Moruya where we found a good parking spot outside the, closed for winter,
swimming pool. This spot was in walking distance of the shops, and more importantly, the Post office where we picked up our
mail. About 7 km to the north of Moruya is a rest area where we ended up staying 3 nights. Sue did the washing and we met up
with a caravan couple who had previously lived in the Batemans Bay area. They kindly gave us a map of the area which later
proved invaluable. They also provided us with other local information including the name and phone number of a doctor they
see. This info was later used as sue was due to have her regular blood tests.
Send an e-mail to Ron.
Back to Rons home page.