Our movements this morning were at an earlier time. It is amazing what something interesting can make one do.

We left the Cobar Caravan Park for a short drive to the Cobar Meteorological Station. About 15 or so other tourists joined the tour. The Met’ Station manager, Dan, took us through his morning work routine. He explained each step of his recordings. Most manual recordings are cross referenced with electronic readings.

Any discrepancies are investigated.

After doing all the manual recordings we walked back into the Met’ office while the manager entered his data.

Then a few minutes later, we walked onto the deck to watch the 0915 launch of the weather balloon that is filled with hydrogen and carries a small pack that has all the monitoring equipment and a radio transmitter to relay the information back to the Met’ station.

The Met’ station visit is well worth the time to gain a little more information on the vagaries of the weather.

After the Met’ station visit, we went to the Gecko Coffee Shop and is very popular location with locals and tourists for coffee. It has won numerous awards as a small business. The coffee was good, too. While in the main street, we went to the Pharmacy and it sells normal things that include ice-cream.

Then we went to the Cobar Museum where there is wonderful display not only of Cobar’s history but also the mining history as well as the aboriginal story of the area. The copper mining started after 3 men, who were returning to Victoria, stopped by a rare water hole to camp and were intrigued by the colour of the water and rocks. They took some rocks and they were identified by a women working in a hotel who had worked in a copper mine in the UK. So the copper mining began in this dry location. Other displays in the Museum are equally descriptive and worth spending at least an hour doing so.

After lunch, which we had in the Caravan Park, I decided that the day was warm enough for my first bike ride since leaving Lennox Head. I rode almost around the perimeter of the town. There is a variety of homes from the early mining homes and cottages to modern homes of all sizes. On the way I passed the Golf Club and the Showground. I also visited the Newey Water Reservoir which is used for recreation mainly.

For the late afternoon and early evening, we went to the Cobar Golf and Bowls Club for dinner and, more importantly, to watch the Wallabies being defeated by the New Zealand All Blacks with a score of 22 to 16. The Club is very busy and with good meals, too.

So the day comes to an end in Cobar.