Plod Adventures No. 31

April 26th Still on the Morgan Run. A tour of a citrus orchard is on the agenda to day plus a Devonshire cream tea and the cream was the best I have had in Australia just like the clotted cream we have in Devon. A long pleasant drive home stopping off for lunch in a pub. We looked at a collection of Douglas motor bikes at least 41.



Arrived back at Brian & Helen's Bed & Breakfast Lucerne on Fernberg Road a splendid place he has too. I stayed for two nights waiting for my flight back home. Richard stayed one as he has a long drive back to Sydney and had to get back to work. He met up with Roger at Glen Innes - the weather was fine - so Roger will still have a clean car. Brian is a great cook and host another N.B.C man. I think I can safely say that we all had a great weekend, apart from Bob and Marira, on the way back their clutch went. And of course Tom's well polished Morgan did not make it further than the meeting point, his gears went wrong, it was a bush.



April 27th I helped Brian with a few light jobs around the place. We had a B.B.Q in the evening to end a very nice well organized event. It was nice to be back with Morgans and their owners.

April 28th I even got a lift to the airport. My 6 months trip to Australia was very exciting and educational I drove 17,428 K (10,830 miles) which is not counting the miles Richard drove up to Brisbane and on the Morgan run, around another 4,000k. If you ask me what I liked the best I wouldn't be able to say, it was all good. I have made so many new friends and acquaintances it was unbelievable. Unfortunately there was not time to say good bye to all of them. I will catch up with them next year.



April 29th I had a good trip back in the coach, the driver had a sense of humour and I met a lady called Gillian to whom I chatted most of the way from the Airport to Exeter. She is 74 years old and travels the world a great deal on her own, in fact she is only in England about 3 months of the year. I arrived back in Devon to a fine day. A wonderful trip.

Plod Adventures No. 30

April 21st Up and ready for our long journey to Brisbane, unfortunately Roger was unable to join us due to business commitments. The weather, well it is raining again so the Morgan hood had to be put up. The first day we had a 7 hour long run to Nambucca Heads, our accommodation was on the sea front and very grand it was to.



April 22nd Still raining, more English weather so the hood stayed up. Lunch time came around and the sun started to poke out from under the clouds, hooray the hood came down. We stopped at Nimbin a very unusual town and very much a hippy town, after 5 hours driving in the Morgan we arrived at Murwillumbah at a very nice B&B. Again Richard washed his Morgan and put it to bed, another long day but very pleasant.

April 23rd A nice fine day with the top down. So Richard decided to take me to see O'Reillys in the Lamington N.P a little out of our way but an extremely pretty route. Richard drove to perfection driving up and down round and round having great fun. We stopped at Canungra for a break then on to O'Reillys, a very busy place, back down the hill and on to Sanctuary Cove for a very nice late lunch looking at all the millionaire's boats. On our way again and we had to stop off at Greg's place in Brisbane going in convoy up to Maroochydore arriving rather late well in to the night.



April 24th Greg had our day planned and an early start we had, with my eyes still shut. Off we went to Mapleton Kenilworth Maleny, Montville and all around stopping off at the usual sites, and having our late lunch near Flaxton at the Le Relais Blessan with his magnificent collection of Citroen cars and one Morgan, you can walk through his collection of cars to get to the restaurant. We fetched Christine from the station and then off out again for a slap up meal.

April 25th An early start again to meet other Morgan cars for our run up to Gayndah unfortunately one car broke down, Tom's +8 the most polished car on the run, he had to limp back to Brisbane in 4th gear a common fault in a +8 gear box, that's cars for you. The day was hot just right for Morgans and I drove two of them. A lunch break at Kilkivan in The Left Bank. These Morgan folk certainly know how to live. Arriving at Gayndah booked in to our rooms, a very nice Motel, a good choice. A short distance down the road we went to Peter & Les who have a Citroen collection of 30 or more cars, all in excellent condition, they are truly Citroen experts and if they do not know how to fix it nobody does. They joined us for Dinner at the Grand Hotel.

Plod Adventures No. 29

April 16th I left the camp site at Dunns Swamp and had a lovely drive through the Blue Mountains and on to Leura where I meet Linda a Morgan owner and some family members for lunch as it is Linda's birthday on the 17th April. We had lunch at the Wayzgoose cafe. Mark the owner is another Morgan owner, and makes the worlds best scones. After lunch Linda showed me around most of the spectacular views in the district, and my camera was red hot. We also went to the Carrington Hotel. I stayed at Linda's home in Katoomba. The weather in the mountains is rather cold in fact very cold as winter is on its way.



April 17th Up at 6 o'clock and straight down to the health club for a swim and a very nice place it is. The water in the pool is extremely warm and the spar was lovely and hot. Then we went on to a cafe and had breakfast. Ready for a good days work up at the farm, Linda and I was doing some fencing as the bull had knocked it down I believe it got a little amorous! I drove the motorbike and the landrover helping to drive the cattle back into the right field. Great fun that was! Back to the house for Linda birthday party.



April 18th Up early at 6.30 for a swim. Then four of us went to Sydney to the Easter Show, an agriculture show. iIn the evening there were cars doing stunts and motorbikes as well as a lot of other entertainments on the agenda and to finish, a firework display.

April 19th On my way again, to park Plod up until I return. I made my way to Richard's place near Windsor N.S.W and it was raining cats and dogs. I had a nice warm welcome, Richard was working in his beautiful garage, on the Morgan, and yes it is a beautiful garage.

April 20th I sorted Plod out and packed up for my trip home to the U.K. Roger was working on his Cobra trying to get the clutch to work properly.

Plod Adventures No. 28

Easter Saturday 11th April I am on the move again. A good time to leave as it has started to rain out in Cunnamulla. I was going to the Races but the rain stopped play for me particularly as I wanted to get going after so long in one place. I said good buy to Nicky and Paul a very nice family making a new life in Cunnamulla, (from England) and doing up the old picture house. I drove on to near Bourke and stopped the night nothing special there.

Easter Sunday 12th April I drove through Gilgandra a nice little town then on to Mendooran at a very nice free site N0 393 in the camps4 book, with a pub nearby. I have met lots of very nice people here and a couple from England touring around looking for a place to settle. The weather is much colder now, and yes it is raining, cats and dogs.



14th April. I had a very pleasant drive down to Mudgee a nice friendly town, stopped and had a look around and popped into a shop to get my hair cut. Then on to Dunns Swamp Wollemi N.P through Rystone, the countryside around here is so much prettier than in the outback from whence I have just come from, but quite different. I struck lucky again with my camp site, even though it had a 10K dirt road, fortunately in very good condition. Thank goodness it has stopped raining.

15th April It is nice and sunny. This site was so nice and lots of friendly people I stayed another night. I took a 3 hour walk around the place and had fun climbing over some rocks and up to the view points.

Adventures of Plod No. 27

Helping out on a station has it's advantages meeting lots of people and making new friends. I went out on a girls night out in Cunnamulla and very interesting it was too. Unfortunately I was unable to have a drink, as the Police over here are extremely on the ball when it comes to drinking and driving. They wait around the corners of the pubs and pounce on you. Exactly the same as speeding when the sign says 40k you only do 40k an hour.


I went out with Rob to do some delving (ditching in England) that was quite a laugh unhooking the chain from the tractor, and opening the gates (gates made out of wire and a pice of wood or metal pole) I almost lost my boots in the mud, I had to rescue them from the mud 'ouch' now I have very muddy feet, never mind it's all good fun.

We're having roast leg of Lamb as Rod's son Alex is coming home from school for the Easter holidays. I am off to Paul and Nicky in Cunnamulla to send out this message and some photos, as well as catch up with the news. Then it's off on my way towards Sydney - I'm leaving the cattle station which was a very interesting stay. I have seen how the station owners live.