Cobar to Bourke

After last night’s rain, this morning dawned wind still with a baby blue sky above. The Zo-Mobil couldn’t go anywhere this morning until after the Insiders program on ABC had finished. And yes, most of the other caravans in our town-based car park were long gone!

Mid morning we set off, stopping to check out the new Cobar mine (now filled with water) across the road, the beautifully crafted miner’s monument in the town gardens opposite the visitor Centre and finally, we climbed Fort Bourke Lookout at the Cobar Open Cut Gold Mine to get an incredible view of the goldmine and surrounding district spread out below the mine crater.

We drove back through the streets of Cobar, passing the Grand Hotel with its enormous can of Toohey’s New Draught Beer perched on top of the building.

We drove straight through to Bourke, once again conscious of the many dead kangaroos we saw along the way and wary of the way the live kangaroos suddenly jump in front of your car.

In Bourke we went to the visitor’s Centre for a quick visit to collect some brochures and then drove to our chosen riverside camp spot on the Darling River.

The road in to the campsite was quite soft due to last night’s rain and within five minutes we were bogged in the soft sandy soil. While Gadi went to get out our shovel to try to dig us out, a local farmer came by on his tractor and pulled us out by our back end. After this excitement we set up on a high piece of land by the river, close to a shelter and picnic tables.

The afternoon was spent relaxing along the river bank with a lovely cold cider and some yummy cheese, dried fruit and crackers.

I then prepped a homemade lasagne by cooking a meat sauce on the caravan stove, which I later transferred to my favourite Weber frypan, which doubles as a casserole dish as well. I cooked the prepared lasagne in our baby Weber as I sat outside under an inky black sky disturbed only by the enormous low-lying yellow moon shining her light over the silver flash of river before me.

Things I learnt today:

1. A lot of miners have died in many Australian towns over many years despite the attention to safety

2. Don’t be too proud to accept help when you are bogged - oh and next time don’t forget to take photos to remind your husband of what he did!

3. Afternoons spent drinking one’s favourite tipple snd enjoying delicious cheese, nuts and dried fruit is an afternoon well spent!Read more