We left
home at 5am en route to the
Gold Coast on a family related matter. Jeddah the dog was dropped off for some RnR at
Broken Hill and many thanks our friends and EO Member, Dave B and his good wife Nora, for taking care of her. Then it was on to
Wilcannia. The lady at the food outlet said “Yeah, the short cut to
Bourke should be dry by now, ye’ll be right” and the fella at the servo said “Nah, the road’s closed”. There were no signs up and so we took a punt on the gravel cutting off 90km from the journey. The road to
Tilpa was smooth and we were able to set the cruise control to 100kmh. At
Tilpa the road to
Louth via the west track WAS closed due to recent rains. We ducked over the
Darling River, and the rest of the road on the east side of the river was open but with quite a bit of water, ponded in the road depressions. Needless to say, there was a puddle I couldn’t miss and SWMBO berated me for getting her beloved Xtrail drenched in mud.
We hadn’t been back to
Bourke since 1970 and the town seemed a lot greener and cleaner since that visit. The motel room was good and away from traffic and a great country meal and some liquids were enjoyed at the RSL. An interesting observation for this part of the trip was continuous Next G coverage between
Wilcannia and
Bourke.
The next day saw us take in
Brewarrina,
Walgett,
Burren Junction(hot springs), Wee Waa, Narrabri, Mt Kaputar NP,
Bingara, Capeton
Dam,
Inverell, Glen Innes, Gibraltar NP and down the
hill to
Grafton where the Xtrail enjoyed a car wash and we enjoyed a pub feed and another quiet motel. The scenery from Narrabri onwards was spectacularly lush and green and something to behold.
The Princes Hwy north from
Grafton to around near Byron Bay was disappointing to say the least. It still hasn’t been upgraded to Highway status! The Sunday traffic was busy and many cars went whizzing past at speeds
well above the posted 100kmh. All the tailgaters drove 4x4’s !
The
Gold Coast was hot and humid with scattered storms about and after doing what we needed to do, we pulled out of there on Wednesday morning and made for
Rathdowney in the Hinterland where we had morning tea, sticky buns, creamed donuts and hot scones with EO Member Ruth(of
Birdsville Caravan Park fame). Her husband Ian had buggered off somewhere and never turned up. I did leave one donut for him. Very gracious of me, eh? EO Member Doug T and his mate Dusty joined us there and chatter in the air-conditioned shed covered a wide range of subjects. We said our goodbyes after few hours of sojourn and made it to
Warwick and then
Goondiwindi for another 4 star motel and a very expensive plate of food (but it was good tucker!!). The patter of rain during the night sent us into dreamland.
The next morning we tackled the Newell Highway to
Moree. A Kenworth with single dog screamed past me at a rate of knots and I followed it but gave up the chase when the speed got to 130kmh! At
Moree we luxuriated in the hot artesian waters of the local spa. It has
three pools. One at 29 degrees, one at 38 degrees and one at 41 degrees. Phew, that last one was HOT. SWMBO got chatted up by the local gigolo in
the pool and we had a good laugh about that. Then we pushed on to Collarenebri,
Walgett,
Brewarrina and stayed in the same motel at
Bourke where we were given a suite at the same price as an ordinary room. Yesterday we took the road to
Cobar and dropped in to Gundabooka NP along the way to read the notice board and found out about the Leopardwood Tree Flindersia maculosa . Later in the day we saw some of them on the side of the road and had a good look. Fascinating bark. I spoke with a local fella at one of the roadside stops and he said if you cut a branch you can clearly see the growth rings. Stayed over in
Broken Hill last night, collected the dog and made it
home before lunch today. Some rain last night and creeks were running between
Cockburn and
Yunta. I measured 28mm at
home, which takes our rainfall now to 15mm above the annual average. The
Peterborough district is enjoying green pastures at the moment.
Observations
Most expensive ULP
Wilcannia @ $1.57
Cheapest ULP
Gold Coast @ $1.15
Best fuel consumption 8.6lt/100km
Worst fuel consumption 10.9lt/100km(city cycle cut and thrust)
Waeco fridge flashed the Error light there and back. I put it on bypass thermostat and it cooled the stuff in the fridge down sufficiently. Will
check the power supply tomorrow and repair where necessary
Next G phone coverage on whole route (basic ZTE 850 Telstra phone)
Lots of flash 4bies on the
Gold Coast smothered in chrome
Fewer older cars on the road
Most of the
young casual skirts display their wares to the max and that makes an old blokes' eyes pop out at times
There only seem to be
young people or old people on the GC. No inbetweeners…lol
Motels over $90 per night room only, are good and comfy
Motels under $90 per night tend to be a bit sleazy
Some motel operators give no receipts
A servo owner in the bush wanted a signature on an eftpos transaction as he said so many cards are stolen ones
We saw mobs of Emus and chicks, Goats and kids, Sheep and lambs, Fat Cattle, a Perentie, Bearded Dragons, Stumpy Tail lizards, Parrots, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Red Tailed Cockatoos, a Feral Deer near
Walgett, a dead Razorback porker near
Cobar.
Traffic flowed smoothly and the trucks and road trains posed no hazards along the way. But there are some lead footed drivers around who take scant notice of posted speed limits.
Cheers