So on the 4th March we headed back to Nungarin, They were holding their searchlight party and heritage rally event and it sounded like a fun thing to go see, where else can you see an 800 000 candlepower WW2 searchlight fired up during the night, let aolne take a ride in a restored tank or other armoured vehicle?

So we packed up little bus and set off Saturday morning, taking our time, though the museum would be open all day it would be night time before the light was fired up, but just taking a drive in the country is one of our favourite things. We headed out taking some of the back roads, out through Goomalling where we stopped for some morning tea in the shade of a tree that was slowly being destroyed by the white cockies enjoying their own morning tea.

We took a walk and had a stretch, visited the only shop open selling gifts and all sorts of interesting stuff then headed off again, arriving in Nungarin around midday.

We drove around the outskirts of the town, checking out some old relics in the bush and trying to figure out where we would be spending the night, the caravan park was full and the local oval was taking on its share of the overflow. The rest of the town seemed dead, nothing happening at all so we figured that with the whole town probably over at the museum “Well we might as well check out the museum then figure it out”

Jo spotted the big bus in the “car park” of the museum, one of the old Ansett touring buses that had been converted to a motorhome, so we parked up alongside that, Big bus and Little bus together, kind of made me smile.

Paid the $10 each that got us a fluoro wrist band and allowed us to go in, so in we went and had a wander. On our previous visit Jo hadn’t been in the actual museum before, but had spent the time reading her book while I had wandered around having the whole place to myself.

This time however it was packed, plenty of people checking things out, there was food, icecreams, a climbing wall for the kids a bar for the adults, and then a rumble started up, and low and behold a tank came around the corner, taking people for rides……awesome.(click on the tank below to go to our video)

Once the noise subsided we wandered inside and checked out all the exhibits again, including the old fords that had arrived for the rally, The great thing was that they were still letting the kids (both young and old) clamber in and on the vehicles on display, there were a few new displays from people who had come from the event as well. For some reason we never went for a tank ride…. maybe next time.

So once Jo had had a good look and decided like me that the doll collection was just a little creepy we went back to little bus for a rest, something to eat before heading back once night time fell. The sunset again was gorgeous

Then once it was time for the light to fire up we wandered back in,

We took our little chairs and set up off to one side alongside a truck and sat back to wait. they gave us a speel about what they were going to do, fire a cannon off then run the light then fire the cannon again. They said OK do the countdown… then silence then an almighty bang, the crowd jumped, our ears rang, the dogs barked and the huge flash, bang and sparks erupted from the cannon hung around.

The light fired up then it made sense, you need something for the light to reflect off or else you can’t see it!, if it was a cloudy sky or rain or something you would have seen more of the beam,. as it was it was just a big light, still 800,000 candela is impressive though, and it left huge green spots in front of our eyes to go with the ringing in our ears.

We decided before they fired the cannon again we would head back, and this time being in the van the windows all rattled, the dogs went off again as the whole neighbourhood shook.

So where did we stay?…… right where we were, in the “car park” aka paddock next to the museum, along with big bus, one caravan and several swags/4wd’s. Being fully contained it was ok and no one bothered us during the night. Next morning, there were markets in the main street, we expected just a couple of stalls but again Nungarin surprised us by putting on a big range of stalls, our favourite being the metal sculptures of animals, but just a little big to fit in an emu into little bus. We debated the benefits of buying home made lemon butter over fig jam and couldnlt decide in the end.

We enjoyed a gentle drive home calling into Merriden to see the old army hospital site, but thats a subject for another post and video. We stopped in front of the Ettamogah pub for a piccie then took the back roads home. Not that I hate the great eastern highway, its just we prefer the roads less travelled.

Hope you enjoyed this little post and remembered to click on the picture of the tank to get to the video of the day.

The Link to the museum is here nungarinmuseum.com.au

Cheers and we will see you on the next adventure