Another travel day with 460 kilometres from Broken Hill to Cobar. This section particularly between Wilcannia to Cobar was some of the roughest bitumen roads so far.

 

Once again it showed that the drought was affecting the region with no ground cover or grasses even though the trees seem to be doing OK. The road was littered with dead wildlife, mainly kangaroos but the occasional emu and goat. Obviously the only grass was along side the road edge with goats and kangaroos lining the road and very used to traffic as they just looked up as I went passed and didn’t move. The birds that were making a meal of the road kill would fly off.

 

At one point I was using a road train to drag me along but there suddenly appeared a dead roo underneath it which meant a quick swerve to miss it. After getting the caravan back under control, I pulled over to see what the damage was. Luckily it was just one drawer out and some contents out of the fridge.

 

At one of road side rest stops, there were goats everywhere. There was one couple trying to eat their lunch at a picnic table and about 20 goats wanted to help them out.

 

With a few stops along the way, it took 7 hours for today’s journey. The temperature has also risen to 26C during the day so it is now time to break out the shorts.

 

Diesel @ Wilcannia $1.619 per litre

A travel day today heading from Mildura to Broken Hill, a trip of 300 kilometres. Not all that far but it still took 5 hours with stops for geocaches along the way.

 

The drought was very evident half way between Wentworth and Broken Hill with no grass, only sand with the occasional tree. There were plenty of wild goats on the roadside with plenty of kangaroo roadkill.

 

The was a major infrastructure project on the western side of the road. They are building a 270 kilometre water pipeline from the River Murray at Wentworth up to Broken Hill. This has been due to the current water supply for the city being unreliable. 

 

Getting into Broken Hill around 3pm, I spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the sights of the City using geocaches as my guide.

 

Diesel @ Broken Hill $1.569 per litre

By the time I had woken up, Garry was busy doing caravan park stuff and Deb was at work in town.

 

Today was a geocaching day around Mildura. The weather was very changeable, depending on where I was. On the western side it was warm and no wind while on the eastern side was windy and wet.

 

At the end of the day, I headed out with Garry and Deb for an Chinese meal at Andy’s Kitchen in town. I had the seafood special and boy did it clear the sinuses and bring on a sweat. We finished off the night with some night geocaching with a couple of moments dodging kangaroos.

 

Diesel @ Mildura $1.529 per litre

Having been back home for just over a month and only at work for a couple of weeks due to my knee injury and surgery, I was getting itchy feet again for travel. The cold weather didn’t convince me that staying home was an option.

 

I had originally booked a week of Long Service Leave to go with the High Range 4WD Club to Googs Track on the West Coast. But the plan was to change. I booked another tour of Long Service Leave that gave me 20 days off and decided to head northeast to warmer climes and attend the Queensland Outback Geocaching Muster in Barcaldine.

 

Rachael returned home from the US yesterday, so managed a quick catchup and finished my last night shift this morning, then it was time to hit the road.

 

There was a short diversion to The Bend Motorsport Park to check out what we are going to do at the Adelaide Rally in November. It was cold and windy so was looking forward to some warmer weather in a few days time.

 

Heading towards Loxton, the temperatures were rising with 21C by the time I got to the border. The skies became very dark and the temperature dropping 10C with heavy rainfall for the next 100 kilometres.

 

By the time I arrived at Mildura, the rain had stopped and the temperature had risen to 18C even though it was 7pm.

 

Checked into the Apex Riverbend Caravan Park, dining in Garry and Deb’s cabin, before hitting the hay for some well deserved sleep.

 

Diesel @ Loxton $1.559 per litre