Originally we believed we had three days to travel from Bylong to Khancoban but we were surprised when we received the event guide for the WRVC Grampians Safari with a start date one day earlier than expected. This meant we had a distance of about 620 kilometres to travel in a day and a half and probably after a late departure from Bylong.
We always knew it would be difficult to leave Bylong at a reasonable hour and we also knew that we had to travel about 500 kilometres on the first day to ensure we would be in Khancoban by midday which was the time the safari was due to start.
We had decided that Cootamundra was the destination we had to make and a minimum or our ideal location of Tumut if time permitted.
We left Bylong at 8:30am and by the time we finished dumping our toilet, it was close to 9:00am. We estimated a two hour drive to Bathurst (via Sofala) with plans to stop at Bathurst to purchase fresh food to cover the next 6 days. We were not going to risk not being able to purchase food of our choice at Corryong due to the number of people visiting for the festival.
We made Bathurst by 11:00am, were able to purchase fresh food with relatively long “use by” dates and were back on the road by midday.
We intended to purchase fuel at Cowra but kept going and refuelled at Young.
Once again we experienced low fuel warnings before Young but we continued knowing that if necessary, we were carrying 10 litres of fuel in a jerry can. That was not needed and we added 80 litres to our 90 litre tank.
We elected to follow the GPS from Young to Tumut which we knew was achievable by 4:00pm. What we did not realise is that the GPS is set to calculate the shortest route and we soon found ourselves travelling on narrow rural roads that only the local would know existed.
This provided us with the opportunity to see some magnificent landscapes that you don’t see from the Hume Highway. At times the road was only marginally wider than the motorhome but due to excellent forward visibility, we were able to maintain a reasonable speed. In fact, the only time we touched the Hume Highway was at Gundagai when the GPS chose the highway to travel from Gundagai to South Gundagai where we would find the road to take us through to Tumut. One must remember to match common sense with the route that a GPS indicates.
Whilst we chose to follow the GPS today, we chose NOT to follow the GPS when heading from Newcastle to Bylong when we now know that a route that it suggested at Denman that we ignored was actually quicker than the route we chose.
We arrived in Tumut at 4:10pm and booked into the local caravan park which is located adjacent to the Tumut River. Water was being released into the river from the nearby dam and the running water and the general location made for a very pleasant stop.
The Riverglade Caravan Park is an excellent place and this was our third visit.
We cooked hamburgers for tea and caught up on the news through our satellite television receiver.
Much to our surprise, there was no fatigue from the drive today and it goes to show the level of fatigue added to a day when negotiating the traffic to either arrive or depart from Sydney.