Monday 24 August 2015
We had thunderstorms
overnight and during breakfast, much to the delight of the locals I
am sure.
Happy birthday to
Nancie! Our stay at Lightning Ridge ended with breakfast after which
we headed south west for Cobar.
Morning tea break was
at Brewarrina where Barbara and I made a quick dash to see the
Brewarrina fish traps. These are such impresssive aboriginal
constructions over 40000 years old and still maintained by the
aborigines. They looked fantastic in the swiftly flowing water. There
has been rain in the whole area this winter so the rivers are flowing
and the ground cover is thick.
Our mad dash meant we
missed morning tea and almost missed a desparate toilet stop. The
wildlife sighted today included emus and red-tailed black cockatoos.
We had a picnic lunch
at the Bourke Information Centre before heading for the P.V. Jandra,
a paddle vessel, and a one hour cruise of this top end of the Darling
River. There were quite a few pelicans on the river, some whistling
kites, a tern and some swallows. It was interesting to cruise under
both the old lifting bridge and its more modern replacement.
Back into Bourke to the
Port of Bourke and the modern day replica of its magnificent wharf. It has multiple levels to
cope with the rise and fall of the river.
Back into the bus again
to drive on to Cobar where we booked into the Town and Country MotorInn with only a little confusion. Dinner was another huge three
course meal then off to diaries and to collapse into bed.
Tuesday 25 August
We left Cobar after
breakfast and drove west towards Broken Hill. The countryside was
lush and green (in a green-grey sort of way) compared to other times
I've seen it. There were pools of standing water after the rain of
the last few days. We saw lots of emus, a dingo and hundreds of feral
goats. I don't remember seeing quite so many goats so close to the
road on other visits to the area. The road was long and
mostly straight with the occasional kink to skirt low dunes or cross
occasional creeks.
We stopped for morning
tea at one of the roadside pulloffs and were greeted by a bitterly
cold wind. Luckily I had kept my parka out today, just in case.
At Wilcannia we stopped
at a park off the main highway to have lunch. Barb and I had a wander
and saw lots of beautiful old buildings, some of which are being
renovated. I took a walk with Joan to try to work out how the (now
unused) centre lift bridge actually worked as we noted that it looked
slightly different to the one at Bourke.
Because we misheard the
time to be back at the bus Barbara and I were late but only by a few
minutes.
On then to Broken Hill
where our first stop was the BCA House to meet Neville and Kathryn Naden . Neville gave us a talk about
his work there and we examined the garden, a work-for-the-dole
project.
It was then time to
check in to the Ibis Styles motel, our home for the next two nights.
With a bit of time
before dinner Barb and I walked downtown finding a camera card for
her and having a chat to the owner of a camera shop about Surrey's
many cameras and what to do with them.
On then to the station
where we became more and more frozen waiting for Dianne's train to
arrive. She had come up from Adelaide on the Indian Pacific to stay
with us for two days.
We raced back to the
motel to enjoy our three course dinner but this time the helpings
were of a much more acceptable size. More chat followed in Dianne's
room until I excused myself and again collapsed into bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment