Petford Road, Irvinebank to Chillagoe

We stayed one nite at Irvinebank near the creek (which had not a drop of water in it). Someone took the time to do her nails.

We visited the local pub in Irvinebank was interesting to say the least. We are finding that the owners of businesses just dont like tourists in their shops out of tourist season for some reason - they seem to have shocking service and are actually often rude. We cant really figure this out.

From Irvinebank to Chillagoe we towed our offroad van on what was to be our first serious "not suitable for caravans road" - it was not too bad, we are very well set up off road, and took it easy. Some of the creek crossings (dry) had to be approached at angles due to the dips.

We stopped by a few historical markers along that way.

The most part of the trip was dusty . we stopped in Almaden train station and made up a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

We are finding that our trips are taking approx twice the length of time that google maps indicates. But thats fine, we are taking it really easy and safe.

We are using the app Australian Topographical Maps to find our way and its working quite well for us.

One of the highlights on this road (and partly because we departed so early) was the volume of wildlife we saw.

Later we arrived in Chillagoe. In the next blog we'll show you some Chillagoe things. Here is Camp Chillagoe (the Eco Campground) ... under the only shady tree in about 300kms :-).

We are finding it very dry as we are here just before the wet season. Very few tourists about so we always have the pick of the best camps etc. A few things have been closed, but nothing that has really disappointed us thus far. We have found that due to the heat we tend to sit around more than we would like. But we are taking advantage of that to have a rest.

We are having an awesome time, being quite healthy and making the trip a huge amount of fun.