no doot aboot it eh!

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DAY 22

Week 4

SYDNEY (New South Wales, AUS) to MILDURA (Victoria, AUS)
via GUNDAGAI (New South Wales, AUS)

Monday October 4th, 2010

TODAYS MILEAGE – 632 miles or 1017 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 2556 miles or 4113 kilometres

After 10 days in the big smoke, it was time to hit the road again.

After packing up the ute again, we fired up "Matilda", what we named the Navman GPS system, we headed out Southeast some 1011 kilometres (628 miles) along Highway 20, bound for Mildura in Victoria.

Today was one of the 5 days of 1000+ kilometres we need to travel, in order to try and fit in all the we wanted to see and do in the following three weeks, while Jungle & Yvonne are in the country.

We trundled on past the Big Merino, near Goulburn (NSW) and decided to take a look at the Dog On A Tuckerbox just outside Gundagai (NSW). Now I've heard a lot about this landmark and it's engrained in Australian folklore, but if the truth be told, I was totally underwhelmed to the point of not even taking the camera out for a photo. A big disappointment.

Celebrated in Australian folklore, poetry, and song, the Dog On The Tuckerbox is a monument to the pioneers of the Riverina region, but now has become a faded icon of Australia's past.

One version of the dog's role in pioneering times is that the dog was guarding its master's tuckerbox and other possessions while he sought help from being bogged at a river crossing. The master, a bullocky or driver of a bullock team, never returns but the dog continues to guard the tuckerbox until its death.

Anyways, seeing as it was about tucker time for us, we headed into town and stopped at the Niagara Café, who's major claim to fame is that back in 1942, just after midnight, the owner Jack Castrission was locking up when there was a knock at the door. He opened it, prepared to tell an unwelcome visitor where to go, only to discover the then Australian Prime Minister John Curtin. Curtin tipped his hat and said he had a couple of mates in the car and they were all hungry and freezing. The 'mates' were future Country Party leader, Artie Fadden, and future Prime Minister, Ben Chifley.

By the look of it, things have not progressed much since then.

That night, after chasing drizzling rain the whole way, we were parked up at the Best Western Chaffey International Motor Inn and with no place to eat other than Macca's, a couple of "steaks in a glass" were partaken upon before we had to greet another 1000 plus kilometre day.