Greetings from Broken Hill,

I was awakened around 5:15 this morning by the sweet sound of a dawn chorus of twittering birds (sorry, I know not what species), and since I’d set the alarm for 5:30, I elected to get out of bed. I’d settled my account the night before, and after my ablutions and breakfast, I was away by 6:30, under clear but cool skies.

I headed north-west along the Mitchell Highway to Nyngan, then west along the Barrier Highway. I reached Cobar shortly after 9, where I refilled the tank, and visited a bakery to stock up with provisions for the 460km run to Broken Hill. Whilst there are a couple of small roadhouses along the way, they’re unlikely to provide fare suitable to my discerning palate! I was getting a little peckish by 9:30, so I stopped by the side of the road and ate the Chilli Beef pie, sans coffee. At about 10:30, I had the first of my two Cheese & Bacon rolls, with coffee, at the Meadow Glen Rest Area. It was the second best C & B roll I’ve ever had; seriously, the best one having been at Mansfield in Victoria. The second roll was consumed for lunch at the Netallie Hill Rest Area around 12:30. I made better time that I thought I would, and arrived at the motel just after 2:30pm EST (2:00pm CST).

I didn’t feel like a walk today, so I just sat around the pool for a while, in the shade of the palm trees, reading and knocking back a couple of “Bee Sting” honey wheat beers.

I decided to have room service dinner tonight; the “Ginger Beer Battered Fish … served with chip (sic), salad and home made tartare sauce” wasn’t bad.

I’m off to Port Augusta tomorrow. It will be a short leg of only 417km; I’m constrained by my desire to stay in 3 star or greater accommodation, and if I wanted to go further than P.A, I’d need to get to Ceduna. That’s 885km away, and I don’t feel like such a long drive after covering 720km today.

Cheers,
Julian