Hallidays Point – Dec 2019 – Merriwa

Out of West Wyalong and on to Merriwa.

Day 3

Starting out from our overnight stop at West Wyalong Showground, it’s a north-east direction towards the towns of Forbes and Parkes.

Our first stop of the day is in Forbes, where we try to obtain fuel. This proves to be considerably more difficult than you may imagine, as finding a service station we can navigate while pulling almost 10 metres of caravan behind us seems a near impossible task. Many of these service stations are small with little in the way of the space needed to swing wide for turns. There are probably service stations that we missed because they are off the main highway. Anyway, we decided to skip refuelling here and try our luck in Parkes.

Parkes

We didn’t seem to be having much more luck finding fuel in Parkes either, but eventually found a Caltex that had its diesel pumps running down the side with an exit around the back of the building. Negotiating our way around the building was a little difficult, but eventually we were on our way once more.

We couldn’t come to Parkes and not visit The Dish, and so this was our next stop.

After lunch at the observatory’s cafe, we made a wrong turn at the highway. We didn’t realise it at the time, but as we approached the outskirts of Dubbo, we realised that we weren’t supposed to go through there. Oh well. It wasn’t too far out of the way anyway once you add in the needed backtrack towards Parkes from the observatory that we didn’t do. Plus, the roads were better this way. The wrong turn did however mean that we missed ticking off the I’ve Been Everywhere town of Gulgong.

Merriwa

From Dubbo we headed east through Dunedoo, home of a big thing, the Big Swan, and to our overnight stop at a free camp offered by the Merriwa RSL. Naturally, we ate at the RSL that evening in appreciation.

Next stop, Hallidays Point.