Balranald

First up, I need to say something about the Hay plain. I've never driven it before, and my pre-reading and pre-chats with others made me think it'd be a challenge. But OH. MY. GOD. This will sound weird, but it was almost a spiritual experience for me.

The vastness of land and sky was truly awesome. As the weather was pretty dismal today, the clouds alternated between dark and angry, with splashes of chrome when the sun peeked out. It felt like I could see clouds in 3D (that sounds weird, but like, you could see multiple layers...and just so many). My favourite bit was the stretch where there were no trees, no buildings, and straight road. On one side of the road there were white, voluminous clouds outlined in grey and silver, and on the other side there were thick grey clouds with rain falling on the horizon. Words and photographs cannot begin to express the vastness and flatness of this place.

Anyway, once I got past the plain, I headed into Balranald. +10 for toilet cleanliness at the information centre. The info centre was also nicely decked out. Not much to the town, but a good stopping point for a coffee and a wee.

As with each town, I did a main street run to check the place out. I followed a sign that said "Riverbend" and lo and behold I ended up at a gorgeous spot on the Murrumbidgee. I stood on the bank for a bit and imagined the swaggies who'd camped alongside her a hundred years ago.

Anyway, on to Mildura.Read more