Sunday, so there was not much of a sleep in as we were on the move again after some interesting days in Cobar. We packed up and proceeded into town to the Busy Bee Cafe for our regular fix of caffeine and toast. It is always good to have a nice start to the morning.
Then we went to the Caltex Fuel Stop and refuelled the Bravo with Diesel at 131.9 cents/litre. As we progress on our trip we will find a variety of prices. Even though we are a long way from the seaboard, fuel is not too bad compared to last year.
Our first stop for the day, after about 1 ½ hours, was at a rest area west of Cobar. We chatted to a nice family from Sydney who was basically travelling so their son can build up hours driving in his Learner’s Logbook. They were travelling marginally slower than us as he is restricted to 80 km/hour. I guess that is a good way to get hours up and see the country at the same time, not to mention the saving in fuel compared to travelling at the post speed limit.
One sight we saw a lot during the day was wild goats. They are in every colour you can imagine. They seem to show no respect for fences as they were beside the road and in paddocks nearby. I think we saw more goats than either sheep or cattle. We only saw one that had been hit by a vehicle, probably a road train. The road trains are only 2 trailers and not like the 3 or 4 trailers we saw last year.
We stopped at a little tiny truck stop, Emmdale, as I realised that I had no petrol on board to run the generator should we want to. The Unleaded petrol was 142.8 cents/litre! I am very pleased to see diesel is so much cheaper and more economical. While there we bought a pasty and pie for lunch.
Then we moved on towards Wilcannia. Some photos were taken of some of the lovely old sandstone buildings in the town which sits on the bank of the Darling River. The Darling River is just running with very light brown water. The most beautiful buildings are the ones owned by State or Local Government, such as the Police Station/Goal, Court House and Police Residence along with the Central Darling Council offices. dSadly, some of the old original warehouses are showing signs of neglect or damage. There are some nice cared for homes but also some that leave a lot to be desired, too.
After having a look around, we continued on our way along the Barrier Highway towards Broken Hill. We stopped about 60 kms out and chatted with a couple travelling towards Queensland from Adelaide. Prue gave away a small bag of lemons as tomorrow we go into a quarantine area for fruit and we are forbidden to take anything in, especially with a potential fine of $11,000.00 likely. While there we thought about stopping overnight but it was quite exposed to wind and also very close to the road.
We drove on further and found an area about 200 metres from the road and among some trees. So this is the night’s location away from the road a bit and partially out of sight of the road. Plenty of spiky goat head prickles along with a bit of saltbush and other foliage around our camp site.
Now for a wine and nibblies.