We headed out from Hay and after passing
more vineyards and orchards passed the turns to Griffith and Leeton, which
meant home wasn’t far away. This area of western NSW was familiar to us – we
had ventured out here for day trips. And the two afore-mentioned towns were
designed by a little known American town planner – Walter Burley Griffin., the
planner of our own little hamlet. We have a lake named after him. They have a
highway. We followed the Murumbidgee and its plentiful residual flooding. In
fact our entire journey through the Riverina – Murray from Mildura had featured
intermittent riverside and in some case roadside flooding.

We left the highway at Nerrandera to get a
pic of the Big Guitar. Housed in the town’s tourist centre, our last attempt to
photograph it was hampered by its position in the back room as well as the
glare from the glass. Being the middle of a weekday, we thought it would be the
perfect opportunity. Of course I couldn’t resist a few more local produce treats
– I picked up some delicious homemade Worcestershire sauce as well as some
spectacular chocolate bullets, from the chocolate company in Leeton.

We left Nerrandera and headed east to Wagga
Wagga. On our way in, I spied a model shop. A quick trip around the block and
TC took a quick look. Then we ventured past another of TC’s favourite things –
a mini tank on the side of the road. A quick search for second hand stores and
TC was in his element, checking for bargains. We made our way up towards the
train station end of town, a familiar scene to me. I had travelled to Wagga
quite a few times in years past to visit friends and had slept in the train
station on more than one occasion. I look for a bit more comfort these days
(and have enough cash to at least shell out for a room in a pub.  TC found a toy shop from his youth and then
another couple of pawn shops. Quite predictably, I found the most expensive
pair of shoes I had seen since I ventured into the boutiques of NYC or London.
Old worldly and spectacular, they were simply beautiful. A kind of 19th
century lace-up boot with pretty bows. But at more than $3200 and after my
extreme shopping pursuits in village after village, I decided they were best
left in the store. We couldn’t find anything we really felt like for lunch but after
some wandering slipped into a pie shop that declared they served the best ever
pies. A claim we come across at almost every pie shop we find. In this
instance, however, it was an accurate assessment. We were just going to have a
simple pie for lunch but couldn’t help ourselves from sampling the sweet pies
as well. [Shelter – Xavier Rudd – This album (Solace) was on high rotation in
my CD player when I lived in Kiama and came back to town each fortnight – a great
blues and roots number complete with stomp box].

With full bellies and tired heads, we
headed east until we hit the familiarity of the Hume highway , then the
Highway, and finally our front door. Home sweet home with a delectable bounty
and for the first time ever no shoes (pity about the model kits).

Model shops and pawn shops – 10, Big Things
– 14

Advertisement