Monday 7th August 2006

A quiet day today without anything too much planned, other than preparation for moving on tomorrow. The day started out warmer than the last few mornings and the sky was bright blue and it remained that way throughout the day. One could say it was a very pleasant day.

First we drove into town and took some photographs in a park in the town centre. From here we drove up to the top of the mullock heap also near the centre of town where there is a restaurant and the 'Line of Lode Memorial' which is a memorial to the 800 or more miners who have lost their lives working along the Line of Lode. The views from the restaurant and Line of Lode Memorial were panoramic over Broken Hill town and beyond, and the drive up to the top of the mullock heap was worth it just for that, but to see the 800 names on the Line of Lode Memorial makes one realize the conditions the early miners worked under, and the rate of deaths were quite high. Fortunately today's mining practices have reduced the fatalities to almost none. On the way back to the car 'One of Us' said she needed a rest because she thought she was fading away to nothing so she sat on a bench seat for a short time, however the 'Other One' didn't really notice any difference in her.

We then headed for the shopping centre and strolled through the 'Reject' shop and 'One of Us' wanted to leave the 'Other One' there, however he followed her out of the shop and then it was in to Woolworths to stock up on our groceries before moving on, as we think it will be a while before we stop in a major centre again. It was then time to fill up the Patrol and three 20 litre containers with diesel which was 138.9 cents per litre after the 4 cent discount. This is the cheapest we have paid for some time.

It was then time to return to the caravan park, but we had to deviate to a chemist shop to pick up some additional tablets from a script we had but when we arrived they had the wrong tablets. We couldn't complain about the service though, they drove to several other chemist shops themselves until they found what we needed and returned to their own shop where we were waiting for them. That was service for you.

On our return to the caravan we tidied up and packed up what we could in readiness for our departure in the morning, not that we intend to leave really early and we only have about 460 kilometres to travel to Cobar. When this was all done we sat outside the caravan for the start of our Happy Hour, however it cooled down pretty quickly and we moved inside for the second glass. A stir fry was prepared for dinner then an early night is planned.

Pro Harts Painted Rolls Royce

Little Pammy having a rest, just sitting around

Tuesday 8th August 2006

On the move again today, managed to get on the road just after 8.am and headed east out the Barrier highway with our first stop at a rest stop about 180 kilometres down the highway, about 20 kilometres short of Wilcannia.

We stopped long enough to check the wheel nuts on the caravan as we had changed wheels around whilst we were in Broken Hill and to have a cup of tea before moving on. We drove through Wilcannia without stopping as although it is on the Darling River, it in not very large and most of it could be seen whilst driving through. The river did have a small amount of water in it but it certainly did not look inviting for those who may like a swim.

We continued along the Barrier Highway without stopping again until we reached Cobar and turned into the caravan park which is at the entrance to the town, so at this time we haven't explored the area yet. As we are required to fill in the census form today as well as prepare the website, we chose to book in for two nights and take our time looking around the area tomorrow.

The journey from Broken Hill to Cobar took us through a change of country from some pretty barren dry land and some treeless plains before coming to rolling hills and green grass covered pasture land with considerable more tree growth. 'One of Us' commented often that it had become more interesting the closer we came to Cobar.

Having set up for the night and with the website almost finished, the census form will have to wait until after happy hour, maybe the answers will be more interesting after that.

Wednesday 9th August 2006

We woke to a warmer morning although there was a breeze blowing that did cool us down when we were not in the sun. It was another quiet day for us today as we stayed in Cobar for the day and although Cobar is a town of about 5,500 people, there is not a lot of tourist sights to see in the area. It sits about 250 metres above sea level and has an average temperature of 35.5 degrees in summer and 15.5 degrees in winter. The average annual rainfall is 352mm

At about 10:am we left the caravan park and drove into the town centre and on through to the Information Centre which is on the east side of the town. This was housed in a two story building that used to be the main Office administration building for the Great Cobar Copper Mine in 1910, but was only used for a few years before the mine closed down and since then it has had many periods of disuse as well as various tenants until the Cobar Shire took it over and turned it into a heritage centre for the district.

We chose to make the pilgrimage through the centre at a cost of $5 each (concession, normal rates $7 per person) and it took the next hour and a half to view all the exhibits and stroll through the outdoor display section that had mining and agricultural implements displayed around the yard.

From here we drove back into the town centre where we strolled up and down the street and called in to the local IGA store for a look and walked out with a bag full of goodies .Prices were dearer than city rates, but not too bad considering where we are. We then stopped off at the Caltex Service Station on the way back to the caravan park and filled up the Patrol with 103 litres of diesel at 146.9 cents per litre. Once upon a time we would have been horrified about paying that much for fuel but now we think that is quite reasonable.

It was about 1:pm by the time we returned to the caravan park where we cooked up a meal of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, corn on the cobb and toast. Maybe it sounds a bit like breakfast but honest, we were up a lot earlier than this, in fact after that it felt like it was time for a siesta. We may not have had a siesta but we did take it easy for the rest of the afternoon though.