Heading north through Gundagai, home of the dog on the Tucker box. To Young where we stopped and got a bag of cherries and a cherry pie. Cherrie pie I found way too sweet so poor Chris had to eat all that himself, a challenge he told me he was up too.
We stopped for the night at Wheogo Park Rest Area at Forbes a 48hr limit. This has been a favourite spot to stop when passing through Forbes. It’s a great spot that was pretty busy. Being small we were very easily able to find an out of the way spot. Lots of walking in the area not far from town.
Wheogo Park Rest Area at Forbes, NSW
Dragon Boat practice
Continuing north through Dubbo home of the great Dubbo Zoo. Gligandra, Coonamble and onto Pilliga. Some of these roads we had not been on before.
Pilliga has a council run Artesian Bore Spa Baths with a camping area. Hot pool is free but there is a $5 fee per night for camping which you must book via the Narrabri Council website. They call it a primitive campground with basic facilities, which do include toilets and a bore water shower, table and chairs and a cover over the hot spa. So it didn’t sound too primitive to us.
Our camp spot
This is where we had our 39th wedding anniversary with bit of special meal, well as special as it gets in a camper van. We spent 2 nights here, hot pools are a concrete pool but very much artesian water with that smell of sulphur. Our skin was soooo smooth and very much needed after the dryness of the Murray. It would be great to come back and spend a few days here in cooler weather. 35 degrees day time temperature was a bit warm really. Soaking in the thermal water on a cool day warming them bones would be lovely.
Artesian Bore
Sunset at Pilliga
The GPS and Google Maps in there wisdom sent us on a “short cut” which was shorter but a dirt road for many many km’s. I was not so keen to do a long distance stint on a dirt road but Trek coped with it surprisingly well with no dust ingress inside, so we were very happy.
Next stop was Moree staying at the Gwydir Caravan Park and Thermal Pools. Now we have stayed here before in 2018 in the camper trailer. The big draw card is those hot pools, 4 pools of varying temperatures and a cold pool. Since we were last here in 2018 the caravan park side of it has deteriorated, we have heard stories from other travelers about where the money goes that I won’t speculate here. But it sure was not going back into maintenance of the park.
Amenities were filthy, cleaning did not get done every day, they were old and run down, tiles and pavers missing. On my last day I could not get any hot water for a shower. The grounds were not well maintained, the pools are the big draw card were also dirty. Many people were complaining. Some of the reception staff (not all) were rude and abrupt, many also mentioned that, it was hit and miss who you got on checkin. We had heard the caravan park could not get enough staff. We were given a small dirt site because we were “small”. We paid the same amount though as bigger vans on the bigger sites. Mind you many of them were also tight with people unable to put their awnings up.
In rained one night with over 40mm and our site was flooded as were many others. As I said we have stayed here before and we came back because of the hot pools. We were solely disappointed to the point we have no plans to ever go back unless there is a big change in the management/ownership of the place and we can not recommend it.
Live Long and Prosper