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We decided to do a tour of New South Wales travelling from the outback to the ocean and then over to the spectacular Mountains.

We had a toal of 28 cars on the trip 2 woodies, 7 sedans, 2 vans and 7 utes and 10 moderns attend.

I tried to make this tour a little different by having all 2 and 3 night stopovers which seemed to go down well.

The tour started in Balranald and here we had a bbq to welcome everyone.

We travelled off to Broken Hill. Mmost of us went off to Silverton and visited the area where the movie of Mad Max was made.

After leaving Broken Hill we travelled through Willcania. Here some of the locals came and made us very welcome and they wanted to take photo's of our morries.

Then it was off to Bourke where we did a river cruise down the Darling River and some also had a bus tour of the area which showed them the diversity of the area.

It is very surprising to know that the area grows oranges, rock melons, cotton and jojoba. Here some of us also visited the cemetry where the famous eye surgeon, Fred Hollows, is burried.

Over to Lightning Ridge where we did a bus tour of the mine fields and heard a lot about the area. They say that no one knows how many people actually reside in Lightning Ridge as people keep coming and going as they please. Some of us ventured off to enjoy the free hot Artisian spa that was in the street.

We copped a bit of rain while travelling to Moree but the soak in one of the 4 hot pools at the caravan park more than made up for that.

On the way from Moree to Ballina, some called in at the Inverell Motor Museum which was quite interesting.

Most of us then stopped of at Tenderfield to have a look around. The rest of the way to Ballina was very windy and hilly as we crossed over the Great Dividing Range.

At Ballina we had time to relax as here we were having a 3 night stop over.

We went to the most Easterly part of Australia at Byron Bay and saw the famous light house and some even ventured off to Nimbin. The members that were on the trip from the Geelong Club put on a BBQ here for us.

Then on down to the coast to Coffs Harbour. A nice leisurly stroll over to Mutton Bird Island and a chance to just sit around and relax. The Club put on another BBQ here to celebrate the September Birthdays.

Leaving Coffs Harbour, we drove through Bellingen, Dorrigo and Armidale on our way to Tamworth, which is known as the country music capital of Australia. Here we visited the golden guitar and a took a short drive to a historic town called Nundle. on our last night here, the heavens opened up with an allmighty storm and we got quite wet.

We arrived at Emu Plains and some of the members of the Nepean Morris Minor Car Club met us at Tench Reserve and put on a BBQ for us.

While here I was on familiar territory so I took 26 members into Sydney on the train. We got off the train at Circular Quay hopped on a Ferry and went across to Watsons Bay and visited an area known as The Gap. We returned back to Circular Quay after having lunch at Doyle's Take Away Sea Food Resturant. We then boarded a River Cat which took us up the Parramatta River passed the Concord Hospital where the Australian medical drama show, All Saints, is filmed and on to Parramatta. We hopped onto a bus back to the station and finally, we caught a train back to Emu Plains. Next day John Strachan decided to take those that were interested on a train trip up to the lovely Blue Mountains. All that went said they had a great time.

While at Emu Plains we were met by Keith and Susan who are free lance photograghers for various magazines. They followed the morries everywhere and then even travelled to Cowra with the group. You can read thier articles in the following magazines Caravan World, (Nov 08) Unique cars (Dec 08) and also in the Minor Monthly from England (Dec 08)

The end of our trip is upon us we travelled from Emu Plains towards Cowra but we all had to stop and do a lap of the Mount Panarama circuit at Bathurst before reaching our final destination. We had a farewell dinner at the Cowra Function Centre and all said our goodbyes.

Regards Heather (REDBACK)