Day 08: Your Blogger’s in Wagga

For any of those people who reckon most of our pictures have shown blue skies and that we’ve been whinging too often about the weather (and it’s raining again as I write this), take a look at the first picture. And no, we didn’t dummy it up by throwing a bucket of water on the campervan window. This was en route to Wagga Wagga yesterday.

The trouble is, once you get inland, you can’t moan about the rain because this is the stuff they’ve been praying for all year.

Now, back to dear diary.  We drove through Yass on our way to Wagga, stopping inevitably at the dog that’s still on the tuckerbox nine miles from Gundagai.  We were determined not to start singing “On the road to Gundagai” but failed miserably and still can’t get the song out of our minds. Read more

Day 07 Bring rain to Canberra - A Capital Idea

As I write this blog in Canberra, rain is lashing the roof of our campervan. Will it never stop? We are the Droughtbusters of the Nation.

Earlier today, while James worked on his laptop planning the day’s route, I took to the hills in my raincoat. The nearest hill was home to the War Memorial, built in 1924 by the local townsfolk.

Our cunning plan was to drive down the Federal Highway to our National Capital for a leisurely lunch in the city. What were we thinking - nowhere to park a juggernaut like ours, so we took pictures and kept driving, past the National Library, Parliament House and Kev’s home. Read more

Day 06: Meryl Streep and the Big Merino

More rain today for drought-stricken Goulburn. If we settled here, I reckon James and I could solve the water crisis inside a month.

Met up with some lovely puzzlers (aren’t they all?) at the NewsXpress store in town. Rebecca Wolfe has been buying all the Lovatts titles since they were first published in 1979. She knew more about our books than we did.

Plenty of people we met had heard Craig’s interview with James and myself on Radio 2GN, including Jeanette McKinley who helps with the Goulburn Friendship Club. They meet monthly and with the help of the crossword books we gave Jeanette, the club will be getting into puzzles later this year. Read more

Day 05: Drought-breakers and hail hit Goulburn

Important warning: if you’re breakfasting outdoors in Kiama, don’t turn your back on your food! Up until now, James and I had always defended the seagulls against those people who call them unscrupulous predators.

But not after losing our bacon and eggs to the thieving scavengers. We left Kiama after buying a second round of breakfasts and headed through the beautiful area of Jamberoo on a hairy climb through the mountains to Moss Vale.

Signs said caravans were forbidden from the route, but they didn’t say anything about motorhomes. The journey  gave James a workout with the steering wheel. It was the most exercise he’s had all week. Read more

Day 04: Day trip to Nowra

Met up today with Barbara Ingram at the Nowra Retirement Village to talk with some members of their crossword club. Each week they meet up (what a good idea) and solve a few crosswords and findawords between them. It keeps them razor sharp and I don’t think James or I could have solved the puzzles any faster.

We were given a great welcome by Barbara and Julie and told how much they valued puzzles to keep them sharp-witted.

Back to Kiama via the picturesque town of Berry, named after Alexander Berry who was given a land grant of some 40 square kilometres in 1822 to establish the first European settlement on the south coast of NSW.

Yesterday I promised to give the other nine body parts containing just three letters. So, in no particular order: Ear, jaw, gum, gut, rib, leg, arm, hip and lip.

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Day 03: Through the mountains — Bowral to Kiama

Another early start but never early enough to pack up in time for breakfast before meeting puzzlers at Pauline and David Hasting’s bright and modern newsagency in lovely downtown Bowral.

Don’t want to go on about the weather too much, so let’s just say that records are being broken every day, and none of them nice ones. I don’t think I’ve known constant rain like this since the final week of our recent trip to Ireland.

On air with Graham at radio 2ST while meeting puzzlers at the newsagency. Gave away prize packs to listeners who could come up with ten body parts containing three letters only (nothing rude). I’ll give you one with “Eye” and let you know the answers to the rest tomorrow.

Then back in the motorhome on the road to Kiama. We avoided the tourist route, mostly because of a sign saying “No caravans”. Goodness knows what that road was like because the recommended route contained the hairiest hairpin bends James had seen since his hippie days through Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass.

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Day 02: Bowral: Second coldest spot in Oz

Last night saw the thermometer plummet to just two degrees. Brrr.

But today, within seconds of arriving at the Highlands Radio Station, James was singing “In olden days a glimpse of stocking, was looked on as something…”

For heavens sake, James, be quiet. We were talking to Bobby Stewart on his Highlands Standards program on which he plays the golden oldies, which was probably why James was singing along.

Next stop was the CWA (Country Women’s Association for the uninitiated) at Bowral where again I had to calm James. He was panicking about parking the aircraft carrier (campervan), kindly loaned to us by the great folk at Around Australia Motorhomes.

We had trouble keeping up with the audience who were lightning fast at solving our cryptic clues. One lady even gave me one back: “Frisky pig at the Palace.” Answer: “Buckingham” — get it?

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Day 01: Wollongong — A Stormy Start

James and I are hunkered down in a brand new campervan,  relishing big bowls of piping hot minestrone soup while a gale force wind is buffeting the sides of the van and rain is lashing the windows.

But the Winnebago, kindly lent to us by the good folk at Around Australia Motorhomes, is up to the task of keeping us warm and dry.

We’re on Day One of our Lovatts Across and Down Under Tour, a wonderful Spring adventure, but it’s only 4 degrees out there.

On our way to Wollongong yesterday, the black clouds looked just like those films of tornado chasers in the US. For a while, James was afraid the tour was going to become the Lovatts Across Down Under and Straight Up in the Air Tour. Lightning was zipping around us and hailstones were bouncing on the windscreen as we drove up the mountainside to our caravan park in Heathcote.

We spent the night listening to a combination of thunder, tattooing rain on the roof and the booming rattle of coal freight trains thundering past on the nearby rail track from Wollongong.

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The Lovatts Across & Down Under Puzzle Tour

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» NSW TOUR ITINERARY

Hello!

Many years ago James and I travelled around Australia in a double-decker bus which had been converted into a home. Now we’re repeating history except that we’ll be in a motorhome and we’re about 30 years older.
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