Our trips seem to be further apart as years go buy as the last time we had used the caravan was in April when we visited Wagga for the stone the Crows Festivals and then Victoria for a short time. It has also been many years since we have spent the entire winter period at home.
We plan to head north in October, we had planned to spend a week away in August with friends but had difficulty in finding a week that suited us all. So, we had to wait until the middle of September for this trip and in making that decision, we believed that the coldest part of the year would be behind us as we have no heating in the caravan unless we are connected to power. This trip was planned to be mostly free camping.
On a beautiful sunny Sydney morning when the temperature was expected to rise into the low 30’s (yes, Sydney is experiencing higher than normal temperatures), we pulled the caravan from our driveway without any problems and started our journey west. A decision was made to use the M4 and pay the recently introduced toll as the alternative route on Parramatta Road has become congested with vehicles attempting to avoid paying the toll. This proved to be a wise move as we had a trouble-free run.
Passing through Penrith (outside temperature was 32c), we started our climb over the Blue Mountains. The traffic was light and soon we had reached Mount Victoria and commenced our decent down Victoria Pass and then the climb into Lithgow. With the exception of the Great Western Highway just short of Mount Victoria and the same road just short of Lithgow, the major roadworks over the mountains have been completed and the road is a delight to drive.
After refuelling just short of Bathurst, we arrived in Central Bathurst around midday and stopped to do some shopping in Coles. We decided to purchase a chicken for our evening meal. Being lazy, we had a quick lunch at Maccas and then continued our journey towards Orange and the delightful recreation area called Macquarie Woods at Vittoria.
Our intended camping site was occupied by other vehicles but we managed to find a relatively level site in the same general area. He had intended to fly the quad copter but the wind was too excessive. The temperature had reduced significantly and the weather looked threatening.
Our friends arrived later in the afternoon and we settled into our chairs for a chat and happy hour. We experienced several drops of rain and thunder and lightning passed to the west of us. The temperature continued to drop but we closed the van to preserve what heat was trapped from the earlier high temperatures.
We decided to have an early night. We had a television signal so we watched television for a short time after tea. With the temperature dropping further, we decided to head to bed and were actually under the covers just after 8:30pm.
We were aware of both wind and rain during the night but the caravan didn’t move at all as “He” had dropped the stabilisers earlier in the afternoon. We had a good night’s sleep.