We knew Day 2 was going to be a long drive, but I was excited, having never driven further west than Dubbo.
Before leaving Mudgee, we stocked up on some Highland Cheese (cow's milk) fetta with olives, and crusty bread.
Gulgong…
I had talked up Dunedoo, because I remembered hearing something about a 'Big Dunny' there. I love Australia's 'bigs', and was keen to add another to our collection of daggy family portraits, but it wasn't to be. As it turns out, the 'Big Dunny' never made it past proposal stage, with some members of the community (quite rightly) believing it could generate tourism, but more members of the community (quite rightly) believing it would be a rather unrefined eyesore.
Tiger Bay Wetlands, Warren…
Nyngan,
heart of the Bogan Shire…
…hmmm. What could I say here?….
We lunched by the Bogan River. That fetta from Mudgee was sweet and delicious, the olive oil was grassy, and we loved slurping it up with our bread.
Once we got past Nyngan, I started really loving the countryside. Long, straight stretches of road, with no-one around. We passed a section of railway line which looked like a freight train might have spilled some of it's load. The kids got out to investigate and came back with these…
I told them they were paddy melons, and I'm glad I erred on the side of caution telling them not to eat them, as I've since found out they are poisonous.
At least it gave them something to throw out at the fruit fly exclusion zone!
Cobar…
a copper mining town
And my first taste of some serious red earth
which was very green.
In fact, the whole outback of NSW was very, and unusually, green, with fields of flowers, and flowing water.
"…of droughts and flooding rains…"
In fact, production on the film Mad Max 4 which has already been postponed twice due to weather, has now been moved offshore (methinks to Africa), as the rolling green fields make the outback look more "Wales" than post-apocolypse!
Be sure to look out for the "bottle tree" on the way to Wilcannia..
…there is nothing else around…
…nothing, except for a 'shoe tree'…
…and what looks like the beginnings of the slightly macabre 'plush toy tree'…
Floodplains of The Darling…
Wilcannia, on the Darling River…
was a thriving inland port in the late 1800's.
It's hard to believe when you pass through now –
it's like a ghost town.
So many shops boarded-up
and with the nearest big towns of Cobar and Broken Hill being more than 2 hours away (in opposite directions), I wonder how the community is surviving.
It must be hard for the locals to watch each business close down.
Health care and social assistance are the biggest (only?) industries in the area, but how sustainable is that?
A pretty town, with beautiful old buildings, but deserted.
It's such a shame.
I saw emus in the wild for the first time ever, and we made it to White Cliffs just in time to run up the stairs onto the rooftop/ground for a sunset shot…
and a nice, big, Easter moonrise…
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