Thursday - The long drive to Cobar

Thursday The Long Drive to Cobar

We tried to wake up early enough to catch the sun rise but just missed it. I would have set my phone but the battery was flat and therefore useless as an alarm!

All was not lost though as the sun wasn’t up so we caught the sun coming up over the water in a great big orange ball and it was something out of a tacky Broken Hill art gallery picture.

Pelican on the lake

We packed up without a fuss and headed toward Wilcannia. We really wanted to drive the river road that travels along side the Darling River.

However, less than 1km on the rutted dirt road, it was apparent that it would be the end of the van if we went too much further. We were going less than 40km/hr and it was still too rough so we turned around in a 1000 point u turn and headed back toward Broken Hill. We would have to go through BH to get to Wilkannia as the road is paved all the way. It is longer though but probably quicker. On the bright side we decided we would get some breakfast on the way through. We were really disappointed that the river road that was supposed to be a good road was so bad. Well it wasn’t bad for the car, just the van.

We travelled back to Broken Hill and had some breakfast, I popped into the local IGA for some bits and pieces, we got fuel and headed off toward Wilcannia. We wanted to get to Cobar as Wilcannia is supposed to be a little rough and has a bad reputation. However, it was going to be an all day on the road day and pulling up in the dark to set up camp was a concept that wasn’t overwhelming us with enthusiasm.

Its a sign - but where to???
near Menindee National Park

We drove for ages and came across a whole lot of emus on the road(live ones) so Greg slowed the car while I frantically looked for my camera, wound the window down and half hanging out of the window, taking off seatbelt and throwing sunglasses somewhere else in the car – took some of the best emu shots. It was so worth it. It also made the trip more interesting. Then keep it a bit more interesting, I played music on the CD player. I found CD’s I haven’t played in ages.

Emus on the road - a scramble for the camera

Emus running off the road

Handy hint for the day – Ipods and MP3 players are all well and good in theory but someone can come along and delete all your music with the touch of a misplaced finger on a button. CD’s still work!!

Emus running away. Caz's amazing out of the car window photography!

The landscape changed several times from scrubby low lying bushes to treed areas, hills, flat, dry river bed crossings with bright red dirt. All sorts. We pulled up at a truck stop for a quick lunch and a pee in another terrible smelling enviro toilet. Quick lunch was the operative word. I had bought a fresh loaf of bread and some tomatoes but there was no butter as it was in the van fridge. I don’t care too much for butter but Greg likes it so he had to go without. So after the world’s fastest lunch – as it was so cold and windy that one didn’t want to linger outdoors for long at all. It was back on the road.

Miles of nothing much

Same- same but different - the ever changing not much there

At least the clouds were good.

Wilcannia - the most interesting
part was this bridge thing.

Wilcannia isn’t much to look at and we didn’t stop. We arrived at Cobar at near dark and booked into the caravan park. We were both really tired but the best thing was the site was a slab site. We started putting the van up.

When we opened the door this time we discovered that the glass cover that covers the light that doesn’t work had fallen down and smashed on the floor. What a bummer. I cleaned up the mess and checked the fridge that refused to work on gas while we were at our lake camp. It was barely working from the car battery and the food that was in the freezer had all but defrosted. Another bummer. Then the leftovers I had from the previous days had not been kept at a food safe temperature so I had to chuck it all out. Now this was giving us the shits.

After Wilcannia - more flat scenery

The upper door to the camper that has to be removed and replaced with every setting up and putting down wouldn’t go in its spot.

Greg cracked the shits big time. It wasn’t that we were ungrateful to have a lend of a van from a friend we are but our friend bought the van to be used once per year at Burrunjuck Dam for a 3 week camping stint, once a year. And for that its just the perfect thing.

At last some trees. Perfectly trimmed underneath on
account of the goats and sheep that graze on the side of
the road. Something else to look out for.
I'd never seen so many herds of wild goats before.

 It gets towed there once per year which is only an hour from Canberra and put up for 3 weeks, then put down and taken back to Canberra. Not dragged for hours on end on roads, some dirt, some corrugated and put up and down every day or two days. Its also such an old van that the wear and tear that naturally occurs for a van of its age was catching up with it. She was just wearing out and stuff started to go wrong.

Aside from the fact the fridge now hardly worked. The inside light was buggered and when you pumped water with the hand pump inside parts of the water squirted up through the pump soaking the bench. The little light in the fridge didn’t work so you weren’t sure when the gas was on or not. One slider side also didn’t like to be slid in very much either and the rivets on the lid that clamp down on one part had started coming out. We would have to take her back to Canberra and send her to Jaco for a thorough maintenance.

The long and winding road...
(John Lennon song)

More to the point it wasn’t ours. We became very much afraid of breaking it so that its owner wouldn’t be able to use it come summer time.

Trouble is, we recongnised all of this but what to do now?

Do we go back to Canberra or try to press on?

 If we pressed on and something went really wrong what would happen then?

My NRMA road assistance cover will cover transportation of the van back to Canberra on a truck which is good insurance but didn’t solve the problem.

Lunch stop scenery

We really didn’t know what to do – so we poured a drink and had a discussion. Then we decided that we probably needed a walk, so since the local bowls and golf club is just down the road, we decided to go there.

Greg looked all right except for the black cloud hanging over him but I looked like a train wreck. I hadn’t had a shower so my hair was terrible from being stoomped down in a beanie. I had no makeup on and I could not be bothered trying to find my clean jeans. We could have headed to the showers but that would have taken more time and by which the meals would probably be off in the club. We wanted to have dinner out for a change. I looked rough as hessian underpants but nobody knew me here so I didn’t really care.

The club in Cobar has a big open fire place which was an instant hit with me – and a very ordinary wine list which wasn’t a hit.

We bought some drinks and I dragged out the road maps from my handbag and we discussed strategy of what to do next from a comfy lounge chair.

Going on would probably be foolish and may break the van beyond repair. We would have to start heading home. I was crushed. Greg was not happy either. I just felt like bursting into tears – our holiday over 2 weeks prematurely. Greg said we could go somewhere else – but where? I had my heart set on Queensland – the warm. I’d had enough of this camping in cold shit weather. Turning back would just be headed back into the cold southern areas from which we had come. Undesirable.

For 12 months I had looked forward to a month away – right away not coming home in the middle of it.  A road trip of adventure and seeing things I’d not seen before. Not a resort with lazy chairs so you sit like a jellyfish reading rubbish fiction novels, eating too much stuff and becoming fat because there is nothing much else to do. That’s ok for a day or so…but gee.

Right now I wanted more lakeside camps with nobody else but us there. Listening to the quiet and the still and looking up at the stars from our camping chairs and our fireplace. Even caravan parks with their lint dispensing washing machines and manicured lawns weren’t doing it for me any more.

We decided to head toward Mudgee. Which is cold but I’ve never been there and its supposed to be really nice. We expected to hit home in about 5 days.

To try and lift our spirits we had dinner in the bowls club Chinese restaurant. Common sense said to have steak but we were so bored for flavour we had Chinese. Of course it wasn’t the best Chinese ever, I’m sure the sauces came out of a Kan Tong jar - but the staff were very prompt and attentive and it was clean so we cheered ourselves up a bit and after our meal stuck $5 into a poker machine.

We won our money back and the best part about that was I now had change for the washing machines tomorrow. We strolled back to our cramped camp and went to bed.