We were awake just before the alarm sounded and then up quickly to prepare for our departure.
We had planned a 9:00am departure but like the rest of our group, we were ready to go just after 8:30am.
We were the last to leave adopting the role of “Tailend Charlie”. Our convoy covered a distance in length of about 5k’s from start to us at the end.
We stopped in Gunnedah for fuel and continued on toward Mallaley where we turned to head south on the Black Stump Way. We met another member of our group just after turning the corner. They had stopped to walk their dogs.
Continuing on we travelled through some wonderful country with flat country dotted with small hills. We hit a brown snake sitting on the road (later we found out that another car may have hit the snake) and checked with the vehicle following as to the fat of the snake (dead). The road was fairly rough (our ESC system activated twice between Mallaley and Gulgong and there was one massive bump that you could not see) but the countryside pretty. We passed though the small settlement of Tambar Springs and stopped at Coolah for morning tea. All the other members of our group had stopped.
Not long after leaving Coolah we lost power in the Navara with the car going into “limp” mode. We stopped, shutdown and then restarted with the problem appearing to be solved.
We continued to Mudgee (we didn’t have to stop for shopping) and stopped at the Nissan Dealer. Advising the service department of the problem, the feeling was that as we had not seen any warning lights, an error code may not have been generated. We crossed our fingers hoping that the problem was a simple computer glitch.
We attempted to purchase fuel just past the Nissan Dealer but the pumps were blocked by a vehicle facing the wrong direction. Knowing that we had sufficient fuel to reach the next major town, we continued south towards our overnight stop.
Within a kilometre of the Nissan Dealer, the problem reoccurred. We recycled the engine and continued for another short distance (two kilometres) when it happened again. At this point we rang the Nissan Dealer and made arrangements to return with the car later in the afternoon.
We had no further problems in the next 30k’s to our overnight destination at the Cudgegong Waters Park.
We booked in for three nights and once directed to our sites, we were very disappointed with what we saw. The sites were not level, there was no structure with the layout and there was no fresh water at the sites. We spoke with the park management as to where we should park and confirmed that there was fresh water available from a couple of rainwater tanks.
We quickly placed the caravan on a site and disconnected from the car.
Soon after, “He” was on his way back to Mudgee where the car was diagnosed with having a sensor issue with the temperature of the exhaust gas. A part was needed and would not be available until Friday. It was also confirmed that the stress of the climb up to Mt Victoria would probably trigger the fault and that would be far from desirable.
Whilst at the dealership, “He” had the pleasure of seeing our “Best Man” who was also at the dealership as a customer. We have not seen him for a couple of years and it was nice to catch-up.
Returning to the camp site, we enjoyed happy hour overlooking the lake. Happy hour continued until sunset when we returned to our caravan to cook our evening meal.
We setup our satellite dish and watched television until late.
Our initial disappointment has been short lived as this is a very nice place.