Kilometres travelled: 1042
We’ve had two full days on the road, and now almost at the New South Wales-Queensland border.
There was one heck of a storm on our last day in Wagga Wagga, but we’ve been blessed with beautiful sunny skies and warm temperatures so far.
Our trusty steed for this journey is Adam’s beloved Camry, Mr Bishop. He encountered some floodwaters from the Murrumbidgee River, just east of Narrandera but handled them beautifully. I’ve since learnt the road’s been closed to all traffic, so we were lucky to get through when we did.
From there, we made our way north-west heading through Leeton, Griffith and Hillston, before stopping overnight in mining town of Cobar. We’ve been amazed at how green western NSW is. It’s amazing to see land, associated with dust and tough times, flourishing with tall grass, wildflowers as far as the eye can see and healthy looking stock.
We then shot up to Bourke, which was Adam’s ‘home town’ for part of 2015 when he was jackarooing on stations to the north-west, near the border town of Hungerford. We stopped by Morrall’s Bakery for a breakfast meat pie and coffee, and then strolled around town.
Down by the Darling River we ran into a man, who lived on a property near Brewarrina. With him was a kangaroo joey called George. He told us George’s mum had been shot, and he was now rearing her young. Adam couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a cuddle.
We then started to trek eastward, passing through Brewarrina and Walgett before finishing for the day in Lightning Ridge – famous for its black opals.
We’ve booked into a ‘fossicker’s cottage’ for a couple of nights, and plan on taking in a mine tour, and maybe trying our luck at trying to search for some opals ourselves!
Wattle and Ash 