On the road again..........Part 3 - into Queensland

 Part 1 and 2 of this trip took us from home to Lake Cargelligo. In an effort to catch up I will abbreviate the rest of the trip and post fewer photos. (We are now into July,  2026, and this trip actually took place in April/May, 2025....so you can see I have a lot to post!!)

Next stop was at Cobar......we had intended to stay 2 nights, but extended to 3 due to rain....we had a good look around the town......

.....and the Peak Gold mine...............

and did early voting at a Polling Place.

Next stop was 2 nights at Kidman Camp park at Bourke...........

This was just after the big rains in Queensland and all the water was coming down the river system, and this was the Darling river in flood.............

There were many road closures...........

I had read about river cruises on the Jandra Paddleboat, but sadly it was not running due to the flooded river system. We will have to go back another day.

We visited the information centre and enjoyed lunch there.

From Bourke, we headed north and entered Queensland - why do people have to deface the signs, and graffiti everything?

Due to all the recent rains, the countryside looked amazing and we thought how much the farmers from home would have loved the sheep feed.

We booked in for 2 nights at Cunnamulla...........

...............and toured the area, this was the weir overflowing...........

..........there were many damaged roads...............

Of course, the main attraction to Cunnamulla was this fella..........so a great photo opportunity.

I have to say that we were disappointed in the town itself, lots of closed shops and derelict houses.... sad to see a lot of country towns go backwards......after driving around the area, we had a day to do domestic duties, and Barry had a work day and I read a book.

After 2 nights we headed east to St George,......over the bridge and another swollen river......

 

.....this mural on the side of a building told us we were in cotton growing country..........

........and we saw a lot of harvested cotton rolls in the paddocks...........

Our next stop was Dirranbandi, a small town, still in Queensland........

We visited the information centre and watched an interesting video about Cubby Station, a large cotton growing station. 

After one night at Dirrandandi, we headed further south, crossing the border at Hebel, and was back into New South Wales.....

This map shows our recent travels.......it was only a little sojourn into Queensland......so one day perhaps we might venture further??

Our next stop was at Lightening Ridge, which I will continue in the next post.

I am so glad that I write in a notebook as we travel, as I had to go back for details for this post, as well as looking back into the photo files. I think one of the reasons I stopped blogging was the time it takes to write a post and get the pics to go with it. (It was also the time I started a messenger group, called "baznjudeontheroad" again, which is so much quicker to do.) - But then I can't get that printed, so hence my effort now to 'catch up".

Blessings, From Jude

It's been 15 years.......

As I said in yesterday's post, today it is 15 years since I started NewsfromJude. I am going to attempt to catch up from where I left off last year!! That might be easier said than done, but I do like to get the books printed, and have enjoyed 'looking back' this week. Even if all my readers have given up looking, it's ok, as this is mainly for my records. I've had to go back to my notebooks from our travels to remind me where we have been.

After I wrote yesterdays post, Barry reminded me of the song by Slim Dusty, looking forward, looking back.....

Looking forward, looking back
I've come a long way down the track
Got a long way left to go
Making songs, from what I know

Making sense of what I've seen
All the love we've had between
You and I, along the track
Looking forward, looking back

There are strange days
Full of change on the way
But we'll be fine, unlike some
I'll be leaning forward, to see what's coming

I will see how I go trying to catch up 12 months???

Blessings From Jude

Looking back....

 It was 15 years ago, on July 31st, 2011 that I commenced the News from Jude blog......this week I have gone back in time and reading some of the books I've had printed.

It is more than 12 months since I have reported in, and I'm now considering whether I should resume posting??

Readers have probably given up looking for newsfromjude, but regardless its been good to have the printed books to look back on....

Perhaps I'll try to catch up again?? What do you think??

Blessings,  From Jude 

Bordertown Quilt show this weekend

 How did it happen that I haven't posted for months?? And I haven't even finished the report of our April/May trip....and there has been another one since then!!

Life has been hectic, and blogging has been down the list of things to get done.......and I have probably lost a lot of my readers by now......I have been reading blogs though, but not often commenting.....I hope to get back to posting in the future......

A lot of time has been taken up with getting customer quilts finished for our local quilt show this weekend, and as I am one of the shops, I have been cutting and packing bundles to sell.

Would love to see you this weekend at Bordertown......

Be back with a report of the show sometime soon.

Blessings, From Jude

On the road again..........part 2........in New South Wales

 Hello again, it must be time for another update,....... this time our journey into NSW.........I said in the last post that we had intended to stay at Tooleybuc, but it was booked out......so it was onto plan B, and we kept going to Balranald where we were fortunate to get the last site in the park......

Balranald is a large town on the Murrumbidgee river, so after booking in we went for a walk along the river.........

.                                     .............I had to smile at the signs on the toilets!!!..........

It was a lovely peaceful spot alongside the river......well it was until late afternoon and we were 'entertained' by a LOUD chorus of screeching corellas!! They did go quiet when it was dark, until the sun rose in the morning, and the chorus started soon after 6am!!

After brekkie next morning, we packed up and headed up the road......through Hay...... where the emu's greet you at the town entrance...........

.............and these statues feature in the main street....................

...............and local people who went off to war, are painted onto the water tanks...There are signs nearby telling the stories of these local identities................

.............and we had to smile as in the streets, all the cars reverse park back into the kerb........(in SA we don't do this, we drive in and reverse out)??

                                        

Back onto the highway again, and we came across lots of cattle, grazing on the roadsides.........what we call the "long paddock"! They seemed rather quiet, but we slowed our pace, just in case they suddenly ran on to the road. We were amazed at the amount of feed on the roadsides, which was quite a contrast to SA, where it has had the driest 15 months on record, and thus very little feed.

We headed toward West Wyalong, but turned off before that, at Rankin Springs, and took the road to Lake Cargelligo, where we booked in for 2 nights.

As it was school holiday time, and there was a large lake here, we had expected the park to be very busy. We were rather surprised to find out that there was room to spare!! 

Here we found another painted water tower...........

                                   ............below is a closeup of the painting above..........

We found a museum of very old farm machinery............

....and this one took Barry back to his earlier days working on the farm with his father, and using one just like this!!

We thought this circle of silo's was very different to any we had seen other places.......

We spent 2 nights at Lake Cargelligo, and the weather was warm enough to get the washing dry and  Barry had time to do some work.

Next morning we headed off again, and I shall be back another day to report on the next stage of our journey.

Blessings, From Jude

On the road again...........part 1 ......Victoria

Sorry for this late report of our last trip...............it must be time to post to the blog, as it's almost time to head off again......I will try to make this a brief summary...........

After the wedding, we packed the van with the last minute requirements as a lot of 'stuff' is in the van full time. It was Easter time and also school holidays, and we had nothing booked. A decision was made to head up through country Victoria, where we expected to be able to find somewhere to stay.

Our first night was in the tiny town of Yarpeet, which is only a tiny town. There was a camp site beside the local oval, and we found a spot for the night.............

It was not far from the Albercutchya painted silos.........

                              

                         ..................which is part of the Victorian Silo Art trail............

...and many small country towns have painted silos, and over Easter their was much traffic following the trail.......which is a benefit to these towns as the tourists visit.

Our next stop was at Lake Lascelles, where we camped without power or water, but for a donation.

This was the view from the caravan door...........it was lovely and peaceful........

Not far from Lake Lascelles is Woolmelang where there are lots of painted field bins.........

Next port of call was Sea Lake to check out some more painted silos......and once again this small town was a buzz with tourists..........

From there we drove to the river and crossed the narrow bridge at Tooleybuc. We had thought to stay at Tooleybuc, but being a river town, it was booked out and very busy.

We were now into NewSouth Wales and I'll finish this post here and continue another day.

Blessings, From Jude, and of course Bazza