September 21st 2022
Cobar
Dinner last night brought another surprise, again closed on our last visit this time the restaurant is open for business. Situated next to the hotel in a small cabin like building with a wide deck, brightly lit with LED fairy lights, tables are set under the verandah. The night is warm after a hot hot day, more akin to our imaginings of outback Australia. Given the choice of indoor or outdoor dining we choose the outdoors. This time the owners are Vietnamese, the food is western, with a slightly Vietnamese twist, especially on the spices. We are waited on by the owners young son aged about fourteen, who mostly looked like he wanted to be elsewhere on this warm spring night. Dad, though kept a close eye on him, with not much english himself the boy spoke pure Aussie and so an important link in the chain. Once outside, Aussie flys are known worldwide as a pest during the heat of the day, but at night, gnats and mosquito’s come out for a bloodsucking feed. Dad is quick to the rescue when the patrons start swatting, itching and scratching, quickly producing cans of Aeroguard to distribute amongst the guests. The menu is a little different, but the food is excellent.
We make the night an early one, we want to be on the road as soon as we can tomorrow. Just after midnight the promised rain comes thundering down and lasts until morning. We both manage to sleep through most of it, after all we live in Stirling, but awake to a leaden sky and a sodden hotel grounds. Fortunately, this large weather system moving from west to east across central Australia had mostly passed through. Note the severe weather warning on the map above.
We manage to be on the road a little after 8.00am, a real effort for us oldies but we are pleased, as we have a solid day of driving, mostly retracing our steps of five weeks ago. The trip of 614 kilometres is made in three blocks, Charleville to Cunnamulla, Cunnamulla to Bourke and finally, Bourke to Cobar. Again Mulga forest makes way for wide open plains that open up 360 degrees, horizon to horizon, then back to forest again. After leaving Charleville we run into few heavy rain showers under dark skies, but the further south we travel, the further the weather system drifts off to our east.
Blue skies once again appear, the temperature rising to a more comfortable level. Our First stop is at Cunnamulla around mid morning, a rest stop and a quick visit to the visitor centre. Amanda is on a mission to collect a few souvenir stubbie holders (neoprene sleeves for keeping small beer bottles cool in your hand) for our collection.
After a short break we are back on the road again, traffic is light, very few caravans on the road, very few semi’s, no cars just a few wide loads heading north that we need to navigate, slowly and carefully.
Next stop, around lunch time, Bourke and the visitors centre where we know we can buy a good cappuccino and a stubbie holder. There are some art installations at the site giving us some photo ops.
Moving on there are hours to talk and play spot the animal or bird, Emu’s are everywhere. We first see them off behind fence lines but more and more they appear on the verges, leading us to slow down on numerous occasions. Father Emu’s with their chicks cross the road or graze on the verges as we pass close by at speed.
Needing a constant eye on the road for unexpected movement. At time flocks of tiny budgerigars fly out across the landscape, a flash of brilliant green, turning in unison first one way then another before disappearing behind us. We spot many bird species unknown to us but hawks are a constant circling the roadside looking for a meal. Occasionally other parrots fly by and Willy Wag Tails flit about wagging their tail feathers, around fence posts. Finches and Wrens as well are all out here enjoying the spring rains.
At one point after a particularly bumpy stretch of road Amanda discovers the suspension controls, whats sports mode she asks?, well that’s for driving in hills and curves where you want maximum road feel I reply, whats comfort mode she asks, I sense an issue here. Well it sort of, is for straight line cruising where comfort is more important. Ok. She says switch it to Comfort. The roads somehow became a lot less bumpy after that.
Back to animal spotting, we are wondering where all the goats have gone that we saw in the hundreds in this area on our way north. There are far more emu’s than goats on our return trip. They soon began to appear, firstly behind fences, probably farmed, then more frequently on the roadside, we stop to take some photos but the families of Billiy Goats, Nanny Goats and Kids quickly bound into the bush as soon as we stop.
Eventually we reach our destination Cobar, now in NSW, just in front of another rain event that has the clouds opening up again as we pull into our hotel for the night.
Tomorrow we travel to Broken Hill our last stop, a two night one, before crossing the border into our home state South Australia on Saturday.