DAY 11
25th December 2020 – start of real Big Lap after a successful test run
We drove from Josh's place through Stroud, Clarence Town and the Bylong Valley to Sofala. It started bloody raining on the way, but thankfully the weather blew over. It was a long day of driving and we got to our campsite on the Turon River at Sofala about 6:30pm. We set up and had a dinner of cheese, crackers and dip (and wine), as Josh’s parents had given that to us as a gift. The river itself was so nice, with duck families swimming up and down. There was only one other camper set up too, so it was a very quiet night.
DAY 12
26th December 2020
We left Sofala, driving along the road that followed the Turon River. At the intersection, we turned left onto the Palmers Oaky Road, following it through the countryside.
We drove through a couple of state forests too – Dark Corner and Sunny Corner. We hit the Great Western Highway, but only stayed on it for a little while before turning off again and taking the back roads through Tarana, coming out at Oberon.
We stopped at Oberon to have lunch. It’s summer but it was seriously cold there. We didn’t hang around after lunch, just ate and got back into the warm car.
We drove to Abercrombie River Rest Area to camp for the night. This was a free campsite by a river on the side of the road. It was quite busy but well spread out. There was a national park paid campsite (Bummaroo campsite) just down the road so we wandered down there to have a look at the site and use the loo, then went back to camp to set up and start a fire. Of course, we had the fire set up and it just started to pour with rain! Josh got to use his leaf blower to keep the fire going, which was funny.
