CAMPSITE # 5 - Terramungamine Reserve - Reserved for a CRAPLOAD of H20

After finding some sunshine in the morning at Coolah, we felt inspired to continue on our journey in search of new adventures plus – how else could you beat a night like we had with the country boys & their tranny friend.

Dubbo was the next biggest town on our map and considering we were in need of topping up our supplies, we thought what better way to head there.

At Dubbo, we freed ourselves in a way that lifted SO much weight off of our shoulders. My personal loan CLEARED, my insurance CLEARED, Tom’s mobile phone plan CLEARED – we were officially CLEARED of every and all ties to the real world. Every day ahead of us we could be safe in the knowledge that we didn’t have any of those horried bills to drag us down. One of the most liberating feelings ever and we know we need to enjoy it while we can! We were officially FREE!

After a not so exciting stroll around the town centre, we decided to go in search for a caravan/campsite in town – just to see what it had to offer. Where better way to start than the cheapest – Oh God, I wouldn’t have stayed there if you paid me! Just think US trailer park trash with loads of concrete and overgrown plants oh and did I mention the highway overpass running over the park itself? For $22 a night, we would have rather slept on a park bench with rats licking at Tom’s beard.

We headed 10km North of Dubbo to a free campsite marked on our Camp5 booked (damn I wish I wrote that book – the folk who wrote it took 2 years to travel around Australia searching for free campsites to document them and write a book... brilliant!!!) aaaanyhow... Terramungamine Reserve was the name of campsite number # 5.

Located right on the river (elevated of course – we’re not stupid after the amount of rain we’d just endured) we found a great little corner spot at the site and setup camp.

Tom ventured down to the river via the walkway supplied to setup his Yabbie pot in hope of a free tasty meal for us later that night. As we sat to enjoy the surroundings, we counted that by 3pm there were only 3 other campers at the site. The sky was clear and it turned out to be a lovely and enjoyable afternoon amongst the sunshine – finally a chance to get the smelly dirty washing actually clean & dry for a change! Laundry hanging everywhere was not such a good look but hey better than smelly dirty clothes I reacon!

Sitting and admiring the wildlife (i.e. Cookatoos pooing on our awning) we enjoyed checking out all of the ‘big rigs’ rocking up for their free evening’s stay. When Tom yells out “HeyUp!...” I know there’s a big rig cruising down the road heading straight for us. Our favourite – was decked out like there was no tomorrow... a 4WD go-everywhere set up including tinny (British Translation – while a tinny is commonly know in the land of Oz as a can of beer it is also referred to as a small aluminium boat mainly used for fishing), bicycles, rods, kayaks, bloody everything! The perfect machine for going everywhere – including 30km/hr up a steep climb but hey who’s in a rush? 


The owners of our dream machine & two other rigs in their gang were really great people. We were invited straight over for a tinny (British Translation – in this case – a beer) and a yarn (British Translation – to tell a long-winded story about nothing in particular) around the fire.  By the time we ventured off to join our new friends around a campfire – we counted a total of 16 rigs setup at the average sized site – twas nice and cosy that’s for sure! Was a really great night enjoying our first dose of road trippin’ company.

The next morning – Tom woke me (as per usual – damn does that boy EVER sleep in?!!! I’m on bloody holidays!! J ) because the river had risen so much – not only could he no longer retrieve his yabbie pot – he couldn’t even see the point where he tied it down – the river had risen at least 3 metres overnight just from the huge rush of water following 7 days of solid rain. So we had to put the whole yabbie thing on the backburner and just hope that the water would drop before our departure the following day so we could get our pot back (we’re on a tight budget and those things cost AT LEAST $10).

We decided to head off on a little walk – right next to us there was some designated Aboriginal land and we thought we’d go through and have a little look. They had the area sectioned off because of the “Grinding Grooves” that had been carved in the rocks over the last 5000 years from sharpening their axes and spears. The Grinding Grooves were the first piece of insight into Aboriginal history to date in the trip – hopefully first of many. Really puts it into perspective how old Australia really is and made me feel sad that for so many thousands of years the aborigines had continued in their way of life and now we were standing there as intruders observing their ancestors history like it belonged in a museum.

 At this point, we met our first ‘rival’ Troopers. They pulled up in their bright red Landcruiser Troopcarrier and set up camp right next to us. We just had to spark up conversation with them just to appreciate and compare of course. Our new friends had also set off to travel around Australia and had only left 3 days after us. Their setup was, I suppose, the homemade version of ours... with a  similar shelving unit in the back and a side & back awning. Tom had some nice long chats about Troopie nuts and bolts and they even joked about how much $$$ we both had to spend on the ‘mechanical love’ in preparation for our adventures. Who knows, our paths may cross once again in the near future...

Given we are unemployed travellers now, every cent really does count. So we vowed to stay at the site until the water went down enough to retrieve the yabbie pot. Luckily, the next morning it had dropped, even though Tom did have to get a little muddie – we got the $10 pot back with no yabbie to show for it. Off to the next one then...

Who does this one-eyebrowed smiling face remind you of?