We weren’t able to leave Dubbo until 8.30 am as we had to wait until Reception opened at 8. Once we left Dubbo we were in Road Train country and we were only a few kilometres out of Dubbo when the first one, loaded with wool, passed us. They create an enormous draft of air as they pass and the mirror with van extension mirror attached was forced in against the driver’s window - even though I had an occy strap attached and hooked onto the guard! Just before Nyngan one passed with such force that the extension mirror was ripped off! At the same time we ran into some rain so it was all happening. All the excitement warranted a coffee break in Nyngan – we chose the local bakery and were rewarded with the special of the day – coffee and Black Forest cake. Beautiful!!!! Mum couldn’t drink all her coffee so she took it with her as we hit the road again. The road map shows the Mitchell Highway between Nyngan and Bourke as a straight line – it’s pretty accurate! We travelled 40 km out of Nyngan before we came to the first bend – definitely no more than 10 bends along the whole highway. Lunch was at Byrock, in front of the Mulga Creek Pub. I never cease to be amazed at the ingenious ways people in the outback have to raise money for the Flying Doctor Service. The Mulga Creek Pub has a number of non-operational parking meters out the front with a sign indicating that parking donations go to the FDS. Each parking meter was just a giant sized money box! Five and a half hours after leaving Dubbo we arrived in Bourke – not too bad considering we’d had a couple of stops and were just poking along at 80 kph. Kidman’s Camp Caravan Park is 7 km north of Bourke and is quite nice. Plenty of water (at the moment) so the lawns are all nice and green. The Darling River at Bourke is carrying quite a bit of water but further downstream things are a bit grimmer. The country around here is greener than further south, thanks to rain earlier in the year. TV reception is pretty crappy – we have a very snowy ABC and Impartja and that’s it!!!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
July 7
We weren’t able to leave Dubbo until 8.30 am as we had to wait until Reception opened at 8. Once we left Dubbo we were in Road Train country and we were only a few kilometres out of Dubbo when the first one, loaded with wool, passed us. They create an enormous draft of air as they pass and the mirror with van extension mirror attached was forced in against the driver’s window - even though I had an occy strap attached and hooked onto the guard! Just before Nyngan one passed with such force that the extension mirror was ripped off! At the same time we ran into some rain so it was all happening. All the excitement warranted a coffee break in Nyngan – we chose the local bakery and were rewarded with the special of the day – coffee and Black Forest cake. Beautiful!!!! Mum couldn’t drink all her coffee so she took it with her as we hit the road again. The road map shows the Mitchell Highway between Nyngan and Bourke as a straight line – it’s pretty accurate! We travelled 40 km out of Nyngan before we came to the first bend – definitely no more than 10 bends along the whole highway. Lunch was at Byrock, in front of the Mulga Creek Pub. I never cease to be amazed at the ingenious ways people in the outback have to raise money for the Flying Doctor Service. The Mulga Creek Pub has a number of non-operational parking meters out the front with a sign indicating that parking donations go to the FDS. Each parking meter was just a giant sized money box! Five and a half hours after leaving Dubbo we arrived in Bourke – not too bad considering we’d had a couple of stops and were just poking along at 80 kph. Kidman’s Camp Caravan Park is 7 km north of Bourke and is quite nice. Plenty of water (at the moment) so the lawns are all nice and green. The Darling River at Bourke is carrying quite a bit of water but further downstream things are a bit grimmer. The country around here is greener than further south, thanks to rain earlier in the year. TV reception is pretty crappy – we have a very snowy ABC and Impartja and that’s it!!!
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