DAY 20: Well, the decision has been made. We are heading for a 2000 km detour to Newcastle to get a new strut fitted by the people who best know how to fit it. It was tempting to try the Dubbo option, but we dreaded getting there and discovering that they didn't have the right seals to suit. Silver lining? We get to see two of our boys, their partners and our two grandchildren. Yay!
The decision will mean two long days driving. Today's destination was Cobar. Before we left Milparinka, we decided to go and visit Sturt's Cairn, Depot Glen and James Poole's gravesite, all associated with Sturt's search for the inland lake. We had not had time to see these last time we were in Milparinka so decided to start our day there.
Sturt's cairn is atop Mount Poole and was a stiff walk but not difficult up the hill to the top. Originally, this cairn was built on Sturt's instructions by men in his party, to give them something to do when they were stopped at Depot Glen for 6 months because of drought. Originally, the cairn was 18 feet high, but it is now about 8 feet high. Time, and I suspect interference from tourists, has somewhat diminished the cairn. The views were, as usual, splendid. Check out the fence lines - they go for miles!
Depot Glen and the James Poole's gravesite were interesting. The grevillea tree next to which Poole (Sturt's second-in-command) was buried still remains - it must be over 200 years old. The engraving of his initials in the tree are still visible.
It is not hard to understand why Study would have chosen Depot Glen to stay out the drought. The trees along the creek are beautiful and I presume there would have been water there back before the pastoralists took over the land.
From here we retraced our drive back to White Cliffs and then Wilcannia. Fortunately, the first bit to White Cliffs is quite an interesting and fun drive so doing it in reverse was not too hard. From White Cliffs to Wilcannia isn't too long so wasn't too bad. The worst part - Wilcannia to Cobar. It is a long, not very interesting drive with thousands of goats by the side of the road. We were driving along here mid to late afternoon so had to keep a constant lookout for the animals. Fortunately, goats seem to have more road sense than kangaroos or emus and we only saw a few kangaroos.
After the sun had set and just before Cobar, we enjoyed the sight of the rising nearly-full moon. Beautiful.
We had booked a motel in Cobar - recommendation - do not bother staying at the Copper City Motel. Outside the room smelled like cat wee, the bed was awful and although the room and the bathroom were clean, the towels were completely frayed along the edges and a washed sock from a previous resident was left hanging on a towel rail. However, the hotel to which the motel was attached did have yummy pizzas so that was a bonus, since we did not feel like cooking or going far for a meal.
Pete had no time for extra activities today.
DAY 21: Destination Newcastle. Another long driving day via Nevertire, Warren, Nyngan, Gilgandra and Dunedoo. Cobar is like the end of the outback. Towns are much more regular once you get east of Cobar. We turned off the highway at Nevertire and took a look at the silo art. Saw a couple of cockatiels there too.
Cotton country starts just outside of Nevertire.
Much of the picking had already been done, but there were a few large paddocks here still awaiting harvest.
We lunched at Dunedoo, another silo art town.
It is good to see some sort of art being embraced by so many places. In the park near these silos there were sculptures of birds too. They were not so good. I had to look at the plaque to see what bird this was ...
Somewhere near Denman, we had another obstacle, this time not a native animal, to our way.
Finally arrived in Newcastle for an evening meal with the clan. 😁
DAY 22: A family day today, spent busily building lego, taking children for walks around the block, weeding, fixing a bit of a mess we'd made with the camper when we tried to open it without the strut, etc., etc.
Liana and I gathered leaves for a table display - her idea not mine. The result was great.
We enjoyed a meal together again tonight and then the fun of children being children.
DAY 23: The day of reckoning. We took our camper in to get the strut replacement done and the wonderful people at Wedgetail managed to swap the old strut for a new one in about three quarters of an hour. Since the grandchildren were at preschool, Georgie was doing an exam and Sam, Ella and Alex were all working, we kept ourselves busy topping up groceries, purchasing a few odds and bobs that we needed, changing the water in the camper to something more drinkable than that which we had topped up with at Tibooburra, filling up with diesel, and washing clothes. By the time we had done all that, the grandchildren were home and we spent the rest of the day having fun with them. Who knew what fun toilet rolls could be! Look at the 'forts' we made.
Dinner with everyone (except Alex who was still working in Sydney) again tonight.
Tomorrow we will head off again. A little disappointed in that our Simpson Desert trip will not be the one we had hoped for. This evening we received notification from the guide that the itinerary has changed due to the fact that Eyre Creek is still not able to be crossed, so the southern route across the desert is not permitted. This means our trip will cover many more kilometers (as if we haven't done that already!) than originally intended as we will get to Mt Dare via the Birdsville and Oodnadatta Tracks. Oh well. I'm sure there will be a silver lining ... somewhere. The only other alternative was to delay till next year, but we may have other plans for then.
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