Buon giorno from Broken Hill,

After a hearty cooked breakfast, I departed the motel at 7:20, visited the bakery, then headed north along the Cobb Highway. Some 40km out of town, I stopped at the One Tree Hotel, hoping to take some photos, in the early morning light, of what I thought was a dilapidated ruin, but I was greatly disappointed. It was surrounded by a high Cyclone Wire fence, making it impossible to get a clear shot. What was worse, however, was that it is in the process of being restored and now has no character whatsoever!

I refuelled in Ivanhoe ’round 10, and shortly beyond left the bitumen for the dirt, heading for the Barrier Highway. Morning coffee was had by the roadside ’round a quarter past 10. The road was mostly smooth hard-packed clay, with no corrugations and very few stones. It had only been opened Monday last, after having been closed for at least a month due to wet weather. I can now understand why, as there were a few short sections where it had been badly “cut up” by tyre tracks; the clay must become quite soft in the wet.

I had lunch at the Netallie Hill Rest Area, a short distance past Wilcannia ’round 12, and was in my motel room by 2:15pm “my” time (local time was 1:45pm), having covered 601km.

After checking in, I looked up the nearest Waeco agent, as my little “fridge” had stopped working in the car yesterday. I suspected that it was the 12V cable, rather then the fridge itself, as it worked OK on 240V. The sales lady let my try a cable before purchasing one, and thankfully that was indeed the problem.

Dinner was a Chicken Green Curry, and it was a struggle to finish the huge serving.

Cheers,
Julian