Road Trip 2016 - Day 21 (28th July) - Where the HAY are we???

Today we leave the Murray, and Echuca/Moama - deciding that we have had enough of this cold, wet, windy weather we have been experiencing since coming to the southern part of NSW.

We are heading north out of town on the Cobb Highway - with no firm plan - other than we are going to Dubbo to visit the Western Plains Zoo. Moores has never been to Dubbo, or this zoo, and it's been probably 30+ years since I visited here with my young family - when we were living in Bathurst.

We take a slight detour into the section of Murray Valley Regional Park at Mathoura. There is a campsite here that I planned we would stay at on this trip - and now this would not be happening. 

Edward River Campground is situated only 7km from Mathoura and although the road was still mucky from recent rains - it did look okay for a drive in there today. 

They do a lot of commercial logging in this huge stand of River Red Gum.

This is a lovely camping spot and we will plan to come back through here some other time hopefully.

We made Deniliquin for morning tea - and found this to be a lovely town where we had a coffee and bit of a look around before moving on.

These three lovely ladies were actually sculpted in Carrara in Italy in 1891. the story of these thre muses in a below photograph.

The lovely old courthouse building ----

Deniliquin is famous for the "Deni Ute Muster" - a huge event held here each year, with the entertainment usually headed up by Keith Urban.

After leaving Deni we find ourselves travelling through the "forever flat" Hay Plains where all you see for miles around is flat plains - which at the moment are very very green and very very wet.

There are some lovely sculptures at a rest stop along the way as well --

We are in Hay for a late lunch - stopping just over the Murrumbidgee at a lovely park on the riverbank.

We do a quick bit of grocery shop and decide we will stay overnight here in Hay.

Well what a great decision this was - as we stumbled on a free camp at Sandy Point - just up river from the bridge.

It is a beautiful spot with a sandy beach and designated swimming spot down at the picnic area on the "bidgee " (Murrumbidgee river). 

This free camp has good facilities - flushing toilets and many picnic shelters on the waterfront. There is also outdoor showers at the beach - but I think it's a bit too cold at the moment to give these a go.

There are quite a few campers already here - but there is plenty of room and we have no problem selecting a good spot.

We are there in the centre background -- if you look very very hard you will spot our little "blimp".

Once we are setup - we are off exploring around the bush tracks and along the river bank for a bit. 

Then, for me, the rest of the afternoon is all about finding enough wood for a campfire tonight. 

I get some advice from our neighbouring campers and head back into the bush to see what I can find - in the direction they indicated.

It's true - I can be a bit over ambitious sometimes in my efforts to create a good campfire - and today was no exception. I spy a good log - strip off the bark and the critters (including a very large spider that did freak me out a bit) living under it and start trying to drag it back to camp.

I get some help from Moores after I have managed to drag it about halfway back to camp.

Now all I had to do was find enough fuel to build a fire hot enough to get this log burning.

This free camp is a great spot - with friendly campers as our neighbours - so we decide to stay for two nights. The camping area would be pretty dodgy to get out of in the wet - but the weather forecast appears to be in our favour - and we won't be the only ones stuck here if it does get really wet.

The campfire is a success and the night is spent enjoying this warmth and peacefulness. No stars tonight - it's too overcast.