A Day on an Outback Road

We woke at 6am with an outside air temperature of 6 degrees. It was warm in the van as the gas heater had been on low all night and the all-composite construction of the Zone interior, walls, floor, and roof make for a very well insulated van. Our plan was to drive about 400km to a free camp about 60km from Cobar. This camp was a rest area close to the Barrier Highway which contained a number of camp sites in a bush environment and had very good reviews on WikiCamps. There was not much to do at such a campsite except relax, have a campfire, cook a meal, and chill out. So there was no point in getting there too early, and we planned to leave Broken Hill at a leisurely time of around 9am.
In the meantime we went for a good walk around the racetrack area where our campsite is located. There is a large dirt racetrack and two main grandstands. Parts of the surrounding grass areas where the horses may be presented has been turned into the campground and provides very flat nice grassy areas with access to toilets and showers as well as a number of power and water sites for an extra fee. We are fully self-contained so we opted for a unpowered site that was away from the grandstand and under some trees which gave a nice bush setting and some privacy. After our walk we hitched up for the day ahead.
Once underway the next decision was where are we planning to stop for a cappuccino? After due consultation with the GPS and Google Maps we decided that would be the the exciting outback town of Wilcannia. So with that target in mind we cruised for about 2 hours along the Barrier Highway only occasionally passing a truck or car coming the opposite way. The kilometres ticked by… and there it was! The big sign saying welcome to the RV Friendly town of Wilcannia! We could smell the coffee - or so we thought, because it turned out we were in for a shock.
As we entered the reasonable sized town we starting searching for the cafe, it had to be somewhere near the main road. Up and down the main streets we went until it dawned on us that there is no cafe open in Wilcannia!!! Whaaaat!! That had to be wrong, so Carolina hopped out of the car and went into a Pharmacy that was open. When she came out the colour was drained from her face - there is no cafe open in Wilcannia!!
With knees trembling from shock we pulled over on the side of the road next to a nice park and made our own cappuccinos in the van and drank them while looking at a group of ducks.
Then something else caught Carolina’s eye. A black cockatoo! So camera in hand she rushed over and got a quick picture of this lovely bird before it flew away.
Having now seen the sights of wonderful Wilcannia we headed out again on the Barrier Highway. Only 200 km to go to our camp site.
Again the kilometres ticked over as the scenery varied slightly from flat wide plains to long areas of trees and slightly undulating hills. The outback of Australia can be a little monotonous but it does change and is never really boring. However Carolina was starting to get frustrated and wanted the day to finish and was very pleased when we around 3pm we turned into the Meadow Glen Rest Area campsite. It is quite a large tree and bush area with room for around 20 caravans spread among generally secluded bush sites. One item that immediately caught our attention was many of the trees have clocks hanging on them! Yes you read correctly, clocks! Clearly some previous caravanners have decided to make this a special site by hanging a clock on a tree and there are perhaps 15 clocks in the area. A funny and different way of distinguishing this campground.
We set up and then relaxed over a rum & coke (or two) before cooking our final supply of Salvadorean papusas for a nice dinner next to a campfire. The campfire today was not one of our best ones and the wood did not burn easily or give out as much heat as normal. So it was an early night after just another day on an outback road.Read more