My Tom Tom is out of favour!

Of course it was mostly Tom Tom's fault!

I thought that I had a reasonable expectation when I programmed my journey from Brisbane in Queensland  to  Mudgee in NSW that my mate Tom Tom would navigate me there on main roads........ definitely sealed roads at the very least.

Tom Tom is programmed to alert  me if there are unpaved routes. Ha!  He didn't. That's it. I am reprogramming him. I will change his voice to more dulcet tones. He can turn into Tomasina. We'll see what happens then,

The New England Highway is a pretty route and for most of the day I enjoyed mostly fine weather. It did  rain  from Guyra to Tamworth though. I decided that although I wouldn't arrive until about 8pm, I would drive straight through from my overnight stop at Dalveen near Stanthorpe.

At Willow Tree Tom Tom insisted that I turn right onto a narrow sealed road. I balked at first. I looked at my  Free Camps Australia map. It is not detailed but the Willow Tree/Merriwa road did seem the appropriate and most direct route to travel along.

The countryside was so pretty with green farmland surrounded by hills but the sky was spectacular. A patch of sunlight filtering through amongst the storm cells. Looming thunderheads were hanging over the hills with blue black patches of sky. Distant lightning was flashing and forking above the hills and one short brilliant rainbow stood out amid the grey.

 After about 35 kms on this delightful road, I rounded a bend, crossed a cattle grid and then the road turned to dust......and up, up into the hills. Cattle were wandering across the road. Calves sprinting about too. Two quick brown foxes scampered across my path.

It was late afternoon. I wondered what lay ahead. Should I turn back? No. Not me! The blue black sky and twilight in the hills gave a wonderfully exciting eerie atmosphere. Onwards and upwards I would go. If there were any wash outs I could sleep in Free Spirit until morning and then back track.

Tom Tom had been playing up since Willow Tree, changing screens and generally behaving unhelpfully. My phone had now switched off and refused to recharge. Luckily I had already rung Angela and related my position.

There were more cattle grids to cross and the road became rougher and greasier from previous rain. There were masses of potholes and corrugations.
As I topped the crest of a big hill and bounced across yet another cattle grid my extension mirror fell off. I stopped and went back for it.

Aha! Bitumen again. Yes! Down hill over a narrow road through the trees. It was really beautiful in the stormy evening light.

Around another bend and oh no! Gravel, so rough that I could only travel at about 20 -30 kms. I hit one huge hole and my slide-on camper bounced on the ute tray. Oh oh it shouldn't do that!

I climbed out, produced my spanners and squatted down to check on the 4 chains. One was almost undone and all were loose. There was mud everywhere from the wet road. Some of it attached itself to me.

The light was slowly going from the day when I arrived at my first underwater causeway. Now I am no fool and I listen to all of the warnings from the swift water rescue people. I could never look my fireman friend, rescue training officer Shane in the eye again if I was irresponsible here.

I pulled up and walked to the waters edge. It was shallow, muddy and not fast flowing. No rumble from upstream of impending flood waters. Cautiously I walked across in ankle deep water looking out for holes or washouts. Across on one side and back on the other. All clear!
 I had to repeat this on 5 causeways. The last two by the light of my headlights and torch as it was now completely dark and starting to rain again.

I was so relieved to finally hit the sealed road again near Merriwa and then the Golden Highway.

Now I turned on my music, loudly and sung my heart out to relieve my tension as I kept an eye on the slippery roads, scanned for kangaroos and drove the last hour and a half to Mudgee and Angela's home.
Tom Tom decided to navigate again but tried to misdirect me once more. I politely ignored him. I am definitely plugging him in for reprogramming tomorrow.

I arrived after 10pm. I was tired and much relieved to be there at last.

Next morning I scrubbed and cleaned until my van was once again pristine and pretty.

Some Greek yoghurt had burst open in the fridge. Everything had tumbled around and yoghurt was in every crevice including inside the door seal! Yuk. All sparkling now and I am enjoying beautiful weather and great company here. Angela is pampering me too :-)