Day 2 - Nyngan to Cobar, Wilcannia & Broken Hill
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2010
1
3
17
Trip End
Sep 18, 2010
Where I stayed
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Saturday, September 4, 2010
We were on the road again by 10am Saturday and were having morning tea in Cobar at 11:30. Cobar is actually quite a nice town. Heading west to Wilcannia from Cobar it was evident that we were clearly in red dirt country, but with regular rainfall and recent storms every creek was flowing and the patches of red were getting shrunk by the thriving grasses and shrubs and mulgas.
I could see Wilcannia approaching on the GPS but more exciting was the blue snake running through it.....yep - the once mighty Darling River! As we approached town I could see the bridge over the river approaching. I slowed right down and got Julie to roll the video......the river looked great. It was 4m deep and flowing. This time last year it was bone dry. This was a bit of a buzz for me. Anyway - the bloody camera went out of focus right at the moment we crossed the bridge.
Wilcannia itself was a hole. Lots of lovely old brick & sandstone buildings but they were all boarded up and derelict. The pub looked dodgy and the service station was shonky. We paid 1.66 for premium unleaded. Due to a gale force 40km/h headwind and a spare tyre on the roof we used it all up in 400km.
After that it was just plains...wide & open plains that go on forever. If it had've been summer during a drought it would've been scary. Only the fact that it was raining and knowing that we were approaching a city (Broken Hill) made it bearable. We saw lots of tumbleweed!
