Caravan around Australia

  Of the 3 possible routes to Jugiong, we chose to go via Junee, which is the most direct and allows us to visit the Junee Liquorice and Chocolate Factory on the way through. Arriving at 11am it was perfect timing to stop for a cup of coffee and stock up on chocolate coated liquorice and ginger. Junee Liquorice and Chocolate Factory As is Saturday, the venue is quite busy with people coming in for coffee, brunch or lunch. There is live music to entertain the crowd. After coffee we continued on to Cootamundra, the birthplace of Australia's most famous cricket player, Donald Bradman. Most of the towns tourist attractions revolve around cricket and Bradman. The drive from Cootamundra to Jugiong is very scenic, hilly, windy and in need of repair. However is is great rural scenery with the canola crop starting to flower. The Ford's navigation software couldn't handle all of these minor roads and we ended up using Apple maps, after being directed to drive through someone's pr...

  A Nice Sunrise I took a walk around the whole complex this morning to better take in what is here. This photo looking over the lake towards the Malthouse gives a better look at the hospitality part of the complex, with the silos and equipment behind the buildings being the Voyager Malthouse Factory. The marquees in the foreground are function centres. The one on the right is dedicated bar. A, the one on the right  lot of money has been spent landscaping around the lake and providing features like this bridge out to a little island picnic area. In keeping with their desire to support the local community where possible, all of the garden mulch used through the site is all walnut shells, presumably from the processing plant in nearby Leeton. There is also a foot bridge back across the lake to the Malthouse Aqua golf facilities comprise a number of tees, targets out on the water and a coin operated machine to dispense golf balls. A small selection of clubs are also pro...

  Having had our dose of serenity over the past few days, we decided to move up market a little for a couple of our final days on the road. The Whitton Malthouse came to my attention and with their newly opened caravan park seemed can obvious choice. Located just out of Darlington Point and the Whitton road, Southern Cotton, operators of a massive cotton gin next to this site decided to enter the agri tourism industry and have built this impressive complex. It all started with 4 local farming families deciding to build a cotton gin locally, frustrated by having to transport local cotton 800 km for ginning. In May 2011, engaging with 60 local growers keen to support such a venture they went ahead and had the gin running within 12 months. It has been a huge success and that led to their next venture alongside the gin, the Whitton Malthouse. Partnering with Voyager Craft Malt, they developed small batch malting facility on site using locally grown barley adding value in the region and...

  On our way by just after 9 am, we stopped in Mildura to do a brief shop at Dan Murphy's. The large carpark was virtually empty, so we just parked across a few spaces as we wouldn't be long. In fact we weren't long at all, the store, and most of the shopping centre was closed and a sign on the door said they were unable to trade today due to a shortage of power ! Apparently a single car accident colliding with a power pole is going to result in substantial power cuts until Friday. A Celebrations store nearby fortunately, and seemingly not affected, whist only small was open. Our next priority was where to stop for our morning coffee. A town called Monash was about the right distance away, but sadly, there is not much going on in Monash for passing traffic. So we held on till we arrived at Euston, where there was a cafe not far from the highway. To our great surprise, parked out the front opposite the cafe was another Torus van. It is only the 4 th one we have seen in our t...

 It is largely a travelling day today. We have chosen a peaceful spot on a lake between Renmark and Mildura to stay overnight. Lake Cullulleraine is just off the highway, has huge campsites and we can stay hitched up, making departure tomorrow a lot easier. There are not a lot of people here, so we get a good site, close to everything. The lakeside is a big attraction with lots of water based activities available for campers, including hire of kayaks etc. In Summer I could imagine this would be a very popular holiday spot given its proximity to Renmark and, in particular, Mildura. The lake is stocked with Murray Cod and other local fresh water fish making it a good spot for fishing. They have a boat ramp and water skiing is also popular. Overall  is also a pretty good spot for a quiet overnight stopover. The lakeside along the boundary off the park is good for most water activities The pelicans like it The sunsets here are also pretty impressive.