Parkes Phoenix Editor

Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia Solo Network rally organiser Rainey Parsell labeled this week’s Forbes rally a huge success.

Around 350 campervans and motorhomes rolled into town on Monday for a week’s worth of action, and they are due to hit the roads again on Monday. The Rally was held at the Forbes Showground for the Solo’s Rally, an event that members of the CMCA Solo Network, as well as some couples from the CMCA, participated in.

Solo Network members are members of the CMCA that are single. With between 30 and 40 of the 350 vans made up of couples, it is estimated that
around 400 people made it to the rally.

While the rally is still yet to feature its open and market day, which is on tomorrow for the public to enjoy, throughout the week members have engaged in activities such as dinners, morning walks, tai chi, meditation, arts and crafts, musical sessions, dance classes, seminars and regional tours.

Mrs Parsell said the support Forbes had offered to the Rally was great. “Council let us stay at the campgrounds for free while we set up the showground, and while we were there people came up to us and thanked us for coming.”

Mrs Parsell said many members of the Solo Network had suffered from depression due to being single and lonely (from losing their partners or families) and NSW Mental Health had come on board to run a seminar to help those affected by mental illness.

“It’s also great for those people to be apart of what we do as well. We spend our lives on the road and just have lots of fun together,” she said. Tomorrow’s open day will also feature vehicles for inspection, and in some cases, purchase.

Forbes and the entire Central West has sweltered through February and the start of March, as the country comes to grips of a record-breaking heat wave. Some areas have recorded their hottest start to Autumn in history, and above average temperatures are expected to hang around until April.

While the historical average maximum for March is 29 degrees, Forbes has seen daily average highs of 36 degrees so far this month. This followed a daily average of 34.1 degrees in February, up 1.5 degrees on the historical average.

While possible showers have been forecasted for Friday, the last two months have been very dry, with only 6.4mm of rain officially falling since February 1.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jake Phillips said the extreme weather was due to persistent high pressure in the atmosphere. “It’s largely due to a band of high pressure, which has been very static across the region, and that’s prevented any cold fronts from moving through,” he said.

“The most extreme conditions have been across the west and the south of the state.” While above average temperatures are expected to persist through March, the current El Nino weather pattern is expected to subside come April, and this means rain could return.

There is about a 30 per cent chance of a La Nina [wetter than normal conditions] forming later this year, but with long term forecasts currently suggesting El Nino [drier than normal conditions] is unlikely to reform,
the BOM stated no bad news is good news for local farmers.

“For the next six months there is no prediction of dryness for much of the South East going through for the next three months,” seasonal risk agronomist Dale Grey said.

Catherine and John Ilchef of Forbes are proud to announce the birth of their first child, Charlotte who was born on 12 February 2016 at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney.