Jetty Tour Day 3 - Cobar to Wilcannia

On the surface of it, 260km is a relatively short hop but we sill made four hours of it. Traveling at 90km/hr and with Sue needing lots of breaks at the moment as her back has been troublesome, we get nowhere in a hurry. The speed is purely to aid fuel consumption and as we like to take it all in around us, along we plod.

Sue had a sleep in this morning, not realising we are approaching the western edge of the eastern time zone and as such, there is considerably less daylight at 7:30am than there is in Tamworth so it was about half past nine before we left. We were escorted out of town by half a dozen policeman, although they may have been setting up a checking station for heavy transport drivers.

Meadow Glen Rest Area

I am constantly amazed at the jerks who travel our highways. For instance, Cobar Council have set up an overnight stop (no power or water but toilets and lit and covered picnic tables) at Meadow Glen Rest Area. There is a big, level asphalted pull in area on either side of the Barrier Highway, with facilities replicated on both sides of the road. Well, that's how it was when we came through here in June 2017. There is no lighting in the shelter sheds on ether side of the road anymore, as someone broke into the switch boxes and stole the solar batteries! You can't wash your hands because someone stole the tap handles!

The other thing of note at Meadow Glen was an abandoned pop-top van which broke down here when its chassis broke. The old bloke who owned it wrote his farewell on the table top and drove away and people have been gradually stripping it for parts.

I guess because of the drought, there is a distinct lack of road kill along the highway. Many roos have perished already and those left are clinging to water sources. We haven't even seen many. The goats are still ever present - in all shades of brown and black and white but they are wary of the road and its a very rare thing to see any goat carcasses on or beside the road. Its so dry. We haven't seen any stock in paddocks since before Warren.

We stopped at Baden Park rest area for lunch. I must admit, boiling the kettle and having sandwiches inside our little mobile cubby house is something I love about being away.

About 45km from Wilcannia, we crested a hill and the real outback was revealed for the first time. Low saltbush, the few trees were little more than over-sized shrubs and long, rolling red sandhills stretched away as far as we could see. Willy-willies started suddenly, threw twigs and dirt into the air and just as soon were gone.

Today's photos

We are spending tonight at Warrawong on the Darling, a camping area and motel just outside Wilcannia. Its camping area backs onto a billabong which was mostly water two years ago but now is mostly dust. Despite the lack of water, we've still seen Magpies, Willy Wagtails, Black Cockatoos, Ravens, Black Fronted Doterills and Welcome Swallows. I just heard a Whistling Kite. I don't think we'll be identifying the 63 species we did last time! Delightful spot, back off the highway by six hundred meters, a camp kitchen and the best amenities block anywhere in Australia.

Maybe a couple of nights here.

AAA Tour - Day 17 - Broken Hill to Cobar

A long day in the saddle today, on our way back to Tamworth.

Lining up for fuel at Wilcannia

We reluctantly decided to bypass Warrawong, at Wilcannia, in favour of a long drive on the first of three days driving. This will also give us the advantage of staying the night in Gulargambone. The caravan park is one of several pieces of infrastructure which has been taken over by a collective formed by locals in order to keep their town alive. We are told that the welcome at the park is warm and the activities provided as a bonus to accommodation fees, need to be experienced. In 1978, Sue did her first prac teaching assignment at Gulargambone Central but remembers more about the pool table at the pub. I remember receiving a call from her two college mates suggesting I should come out for the weekend as she was chatting up locals at the pool table. There's more to this story but another time.

The 460kms to Cobar passed without much in the way of events worth a mention. Perhaps the most notable was the line up for fuel at Wilcannia. There is one petrol station and a fuel depot. The depot has a range of fuels, where as the petrol station has unleaded 91 & 98 and diesel ... when the pumps for 98 and diesel aren't broken or out of gas. We joined a queue of five and more piled up behind us. With the distances to travel out here, hoping you'll make it isn't an option.

During the afternoon, Sue had her first drive of the tour and her first with this van. She doesn't like driving at the best of times, so it sort of worked out that I am usually the one behind the wheel but its not realistic for her not to practice the skills needed when towing. The time may come when I am injured or sick and that's not the time to be learning how. She had a reasonably uneventful run apart from emus who wandered a little close to the edge of the road and a nerve-wracking few minutes with a B-double hard on her tail. She was fine and will hopefully have a few more stints at the wheel in the next few days.

Its no reflection on her that I hate sitting in the passenger seat. Because I have done so much driving - nearing 2 million kms - I find it hard to be comfortable when someone else is in control.

Drive through site tonight with no frills and van staying hitched for a quick getaway in the morning.

AAA Tour - Day 7 - Great Cobar Heritage Centre

Clothes washing before breakfast.

Days always start better with coffee, so ours started at Gumnut Gifts, where we relaxed in their courtyard. Following coffee, we had a nice chat with the owner Trudy.

We visited the Great Cobar Heritage Centre this morning. The building was formerly the administration office of the Great Cobar copper mine in the early part of the 20th century, Cobar's most successful copper mine. The curator of the museum has done a good job of constructing the displays. On the ground floor, examples of the rural existence of this community is lovingly recreated. Up the creaking staircase, an examination of mining in the area and the the original indigenous existence is shown in a number of rooms. Outside, there is a variety of rural farming implements, including a unique dunny in a tree. The standout exhibit was a railway carriage that had been the baby health centre of the Far West Health Service. 

Probably my favourite exhibit was a photo of Norman Fersen. Born in 1800, he lived to 1909 and at 103, he applied for an old age pension and was asked a series of questions before a local Cobar magistrate. He revealed he was born in Quebec, Canada, had been married and had three children. When asked where they were, he replied "dead". The magistrate followed up with an enquiry as to what they died of. "Old age" Fensen replied. He got his pension. He was a very tall man, who never wore shoes and he arrived in Australia via a shipwreck near Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria. He served time when at 104 he belted a local blacksmith for trying to sell a book Fensen had lent him. Soon after his release at 109, he slipped on the footpath carrying a case of pickles, weighing 38kg, and broke his hip. In hospital, he pleaded with nursing staff to cut his leg off because he felt it was his only chance of survival. They refused and he died 3 weeks later.

After lunch, we walked through the Cobar Miner's Heritage Park, which includes the sculpture of a miner from the early 1900's and a poppet head from the New Cobar Mine and several other pieces of machinery.

Click to see today's photos.

Apart from a bit of shopping, the other brief event was a visit to Newey Reserve. This is a lovely body of water with abundant water life and two islands. There are bbq facilities and a toilet but whilst a day use place for people from Cobar, as the sun set, we discovered its other main use as free campers flooded in, dressed in a whole collection of vehicles from big vans, through to rough four wheel drives. Good luck to them. Its going to be 4C overnight but I'll stick to my electric blanket and air conditioning. Soft? Maybe ... but warm.

AAA Tour - Day 6 - Warren to Cobar

The Big Bogan

After a couple of pleasant days in Warren – it was back to the road this morning – south first to Nevertire and then basically west.

This is flat country so we soon settled into a steady rhythm and just rolled down the Mitchell Highway until we reached Nyngan and morning tea. We found, by accident, a small stop in the main street which not only hosted a display of a refurbished Cob & Co Coach but also one of the flat drays which were used to transport wheat bales. We also cast our eye over The Big Bogan - a statue in the rest stop.

Cobb & Co started in 1953 when Freeman Cobb established the company after coming to Australia from America. He sold the company in 1861 but it didn’t stop it from leaping ahead. At its height, Cobb & Co’s coaches were travelling 45 000kms every week and pulled by 6 000 horses. The coming of the railways meant the closing of the business.

There didn’t appear to be much else happening in Nyngan apart from the Shearer’s Museum but it was shut and from the outside … well … it would want to be better on the inside.

We changed Highways in Nyngan and picked up the Barrier towards Cobar.

Click here to see today's photos.

After booking into our caravan park, we paid a visit to Fort Bourke Hill. It’s a small hill on the edge of town which not only has all of the telecommunication towers and some water reservoirs but it also provides a lookout over the flat surrounds. Of course, the view is completely dominated by the bloody big hole in the ground, the site of the first gold mine in Cobar.

Back in town, I snapped a few shots of some old buildings while Sue checked out the supermarket.

Cobar

Broken Hill – Wilcannia - Cobar 456(16062) kms

Our drive today was so reminiscent of the long stretches through western Qld - flat horizon, scrubby trees and red dirt and an unrelenting direction - somewhere between north east and east all day.

We stopped 10 km short of Wilcannia to have lunch in a roadside rest stop with a truckie taking a giant mining vehicle on his low loader to a destination near Maitland and his mate who was provide the escort. From there, it was a straight and uninterrupted run of 280kms to Cobar. Nice, easy drive and lots of goats. Wild goats apparently, although they looked pretty happy today as we passed them. Saw a few emus too.

Nice sunset.

Last day tomorrow ... sob ... sob ... sob!