On the Road again - CFT Outback Trip to Birdsville and Back

 Wednesday 17 May 2023

I was quite excited about this trip and was ready way too early to head to the city. I thought I could listen to my audiobook for an hour or so but decided that with public transport it is always better to get to the destination then listen to the audiobook. So I got an Uber to Kogarah station and headed to Central where I was to meet Kerrie for lunch. As I had a fair bit of time I walked to the Mercure where we were meeting the others later and spending the night before heading out of Sydney. I booked in, left my large suitcase and walked back to Central. After lunch Kerrie and I walked back to the Mercure and booked Kerrie in and left her bag.

At 2pm we were piled into two maxi taxis and taken to the Art Gallery of NSW to visit the new modern art gallery extension. It is an amazing building and I even liked some of the modern art! 

One installation was a huge mobile of blown glass yams. It was very inspiring.

The part I liked best was The Tank. This space was a huge underground fuel storage tank during WWII. It was cleared out and cleaned and an artist had created "monsters" from what seemed to be some of the archaeological salvage from the tank. The whole space was dark with white spotlights that moved slowly and came on and off creating shadows and highlights. Sometimes it was even pitch black. Silence was requested so it was sometimes quite eerie.

At 4:30 we were collected by Michael (our driver) and our coach for the trip. It is a huge 40 seater coach with only 15 travellers and 2 leaders so we are going to have tonnes of room. The rotation rule is only that someone different is allocated to the front seat each day.

By the time we had finished sorting mixed up rooms and bags it was time to meet for drinks and dinner. That was our time to introduce ourselves to each other and enjoy a lovely (but far too large) meal together. 

Back to our room to settle in for the night. We were able to make a silver tea but as there were no biscuits or anything we ate one of my tiny Easter eggs each.

Thursday 18 May 2023

We both woke before the alarm and made our way to breakfast (a buffet) then were all on the bus and off on our way by about 8:30. It took ages to get through peak hour Sydney but eventually we arrived at Echo Point for a cuppa at the coffee shop and meet the ladies from the CFT office who knew our names from all the tours we'd done. It was great to meet Sam and Nerolie at last, both of whom I've spoken to on the phone and emailed many times.

On again to The Beekeepers Inn just outside Bathurst where we had lunch. I had a magnificent home made tomato soup that was made with real tomatoes and tasted fantastic. This was followed by a home made scone for dessert with jam and cream. I was so full I declined the coffee.

Back on the road for a relatively long drive to Dubbo with a toilet stop at Wellington.

We settled in to the Oxley Motel really quickly so we could go for a walk to get a bit of exercise for the day. We walked down to the bridge of the Macquarie River flood plain then went around some of the back streets back to the motel.

Dinner was an alternate drop of lamb shanks or pasta and, because Kerrie is gluten intolerant, she chose the lamb and I had the vegetarian pasta which was delicious. Lots of chatter after dinner then back to the room for a silver tea, diary catch-up and then bed.