Greetings from Cobar,

I got away from Dubbo at around 7:30am, and headed along the Newell Highway to Gilgandra, where I left it to follow the Castlereagh Highway (which follows the Castlereagh River) to Walgett, via Gulargambone (great name) and Coonamble. I stopped in Coonamble to buy a couple of meat pies, and had one for morning coffee at a rest area on the outskirts of town.

As the roads are mainly flat and straight, with a 110km/h speed limit, and there was bugger all traffic, I made much better progress than I had anticipated. Before I knew it, I was in Walgett, where I turned west onto the Kamilaroi Highway, heading for Bourke, via Brewarrina. I arrived in Brewarrina shortly after midday, where I had lunch on a bank of the Barwon River, and had the petrol tank filled (it’s been a looooong time since someone did it for me, AND cleaned the bugs from the windscreen). I arrived in Bourke about 1:30pm, and decided it was too early to stop. So, I headed back south, along the Kidman Way, to Cobar, after telephoning to make a reservation at a motel I’d selected from my trusty NRMA Accommodation Guide.

I’m not stopping to see the sights; this is just a quick reconnaissance for a future trip. If I was to take a couple of weeks, I’d run into the NSW school holiday makers. I was lucky to get a room in Dubbo; this week is the start of school holidays in Queensland, and they get lots of bookings from Queensland families wanting to do the Zoo thing.

I’ll head for Broken Hill tomorrow, but as it’s only 460km away, I’ll probably carry on to Wentworth or Mildura.

Cheers,
Julian