2026-05-11
Today the plan was to take the caravan to Oberon, so after the usual breakfast and pack down (no bird walk this morning), I set off. First stop was for fuel (90.7L @ $1.804/L for PULP95) at BP Gilgandra. A quick aside I didn't address yesterday, the driver's wave/salute that was so lacking in Qld, is a staple on the Newell Hwy, with only a small number of other caravan drivers not responding. This continued today. Anyway, back on track, the pattern seen on the two previous days continued with most of the traffic heading north, and not a lot of traffic heading the same way as I, which suited me fine. Dubbo was the first major town to encounter, but I had no reason to stop at this point. I had put the caravan park in Oberon in to the gps, and didn't actually check the route, so just on the southern side of Dubbo, it led me on to Obley Rd. Apparently, according to Maps, this was a whole 2 mins quicker, but let me tell you, that is somewhat optimistic. The road is narrow, frequently has no lines, and fairly rough in places. It definitely wasn't the quicker. However, I stopped at Yeoval, a quaint little country town around morning tea time for some coffee and an snack and to stretch my legs. From there I continued along what was now called Banjo Patterson Way, which was slightly better (mostly) than Obley Rd, but did have the added advantage of community art all along the way. The theme was Animals on Bicycles, and indeed, landowners had made various constructions of animals on bicycles, with one exception, where there was a diplodicus made of tyres with a bicycle on its back. No pictures I'm afraid due to driving, and if I'd not had the caravan, it would have been a nice country drive.
At Molong, I joined the Mitchell Highway, and then on to Orange. As it turns out, Orange is at considerable altitude (900ish metres), and unsurprisingly, this fact had a considerable impact on the fuel economy. Next was Bathurst, which I passed through without stopping (time enough for that later), and then onwards to Oberon. Oberon too is quite high, although the peak altitude was hit just before the township, at 1,025m above sea level. My fuel economy when I got to Oberon was 23.3L/100km - eeek!
I had not pre-booked this caravan park (I hadn't booked any of them, it's off-season) but this time I arrived before 2pm (13:30) and as such the office wasn't open, instead there was a note saying that those that had booked would have an SMS with their site number. I rang the bell anyway, and one of the caretakers showed up. I explained what I wanted (4 nights) and that I'd be leaving the van there for the first night unattended as I needed to pop over to Sydney. He was fine with that, but his wife does the bookings, so said we could fix it up tomorrow. He even put me on a paved site as rain was forecast. I quickly parked, and set up enough for the van to be secure and powered.
I plugged my destination in to maps and off I set. Once again, the supposedly "quickest" route, left a little to be desired. In fact, in this instance, the route to Lithgow it gave me was over quite possibly the worst "sealed" road in Australia. I used sealed generously here, because when the road wasn't featuring holes large enough to swallow a child, it was made up entirely of overlapping patches. Eventually though, I ended up in Tarana. A very small village that seems to contain a railway station, a pub, and a café, and that last point was very important as I was overdue for lunch. I stopped and had a sweet chilli chicken wrap and an iced-coffee.
I made it to Lithgow without issue, and chose to fill up here as the price wasn't bad and Lea had told me the price in Parramatta was fairly high. I put in 79.04L @ $1.999/L. It was then time to head up the Bells Line of Road, since the Great Western Highway is currently closed due to a bridge issue between Mt Victoria and Lithgow. After clear skies all trip, now the rain started. I quite like the Blue Mountains in the rain and low cloud, it's pretty and atmospheric. Rather than continuing along the Bells Line, I took the detour back to the Great Western Highway at Mt Victoria. It was an uneventful trip across the mountains and a combination of lack of caravan and a mostly downhill run from Katoomba onwards, meant I got fuel economy of 9.4L/100km at the base of the mountains, and an eventual figure of 10L/100km when I got to Northmead (where I'm staying tonight).
Total distance today approx 480km
Tomorrow Lea and I head back to Oberon and start the holiday proper.