Sunset at Cobar last night
Red Wing Parrot
The Castlereagh River
Galahs at Mendooran
Chris & Kevin with their Guzzi's!
Sunset @ Cobar
Campsite @ Cobar
Me blogging LATE last night here in Cobar!!!
The butcherbird that sings so prettily
Andrew & Bekky @ campfire in Mendooran
Moonlit night!
Campsite @ Mendooran on the river
The Castlereagh River, Mendooran
Denman countryside
Coal Mines
Andrew & Bekky
AM & Bekky at the convict built culvert
Galahs at Mendooran
Chris & Kevin with their Guzzi's!
Sunset @ Cobar
Campsite @ Cobar
Me blogging LATE last night here in Cobar!!!
The butcherbird that sings so prettily
Andrew & Bekky @ campfire in Mendooran
Moonlit night!
Campsite @ Mendooran on the river
The Castlereagh River, Mendooran
Denman countryside
Coal Mines
Andrew & Bekky
AM & Bekky at the convict built culvert
Apologies for confusing text & photos... connecting to the Internet and uploading photos to the blog on a tiny laptop is a long slow process and a lot of fiddling about... hence photos first followed by relevant text for that blog entry!! Enjoy! I will put up ALL photos on an online Picasa album on our return!
Day 1: 21st June 2010
Empire Bay to Mendooran, NSW
We set off from Empire Bay around 8.30am, stopping by Umina Beach to pick up a few last minute supplies! We headed through Somersby and Bucketty towards The Hunter Valley, travelling through really pretty country & vineyards along the Great North Road built by the convicts in the 1830’s. There were several old sandstone culverts along road, also built by the early convicts. We saw numerous kangaroos, wombats and even cows along this stretch of road! Unfortunately, there were also some not so pretty parts around Broke, namely the enormous high wall open cut coal mines that dominate the countryside like gaping ugly grey scars in the countryside, stretching as far as the eye can see. We stopped so I could take a photo of the coal mines, and the stench of sulphur was so strong it did not take long for me to get back in the car! How anyone can live near these mines astounds me! After turning onto The Golden Highway, we passed through Denman, Merriwa and eventually got stuck behind a huge coal dumpster being transported on the back of a truck which took up the whole width of the road! Along this part of the road we also saw the Terrex Seismic teams doing seismic testing for the depth of even more coal seams! It just all seems so greedy to me...
We decided we’d make our first free camp stop at Mendooran, the oldest town on the Castlereagh River. We arrived around 3.30pm at the camp site, situated right on the river with good facilities – loos, showers (cold!), tank water, BBQ’s and plenty of grassy spots to camp. There were already a few other campers – a mobile home, a camper van and a couple on their Moto Guzzi bikes! After setting up the Oztent and getting out all the gear we needed for the night, we took Bekky for a bit of a run along the river, which she thoroughly enjoyed after so many hours in the car! We were amazed by how many birds there were in this area – galahs, corellas, cockatoos, butcher birds, magpies, heron, egrets etc. We then set about gathering firewood for our campfire as it was a very still and chilly night! We had a lovely fire going in no time and after dinner, our biker neighbours, Chris and Kevin, joined us around the fire for a couple of hours which was very cosy. They were travelling to Queensland for a 3 week holiday on their motorbikes! Very interesting and nice couple. It was lovely to climb into the goosedown sleeping bags, getting a reasonable nights sleep, despite hearing something having a good sniff around outside the tent during the night!!! Dog? Wombat? Feral Goat? Feral Pig? Who knows??!! But Bekky never moved a muscle under her warm blanket!!! ;o)
Daily Trip Statistics
TOTAL DISTANCE: 376km
MIN. ALTITUDE: 1m
MAX. ALTITUDE: 570m
TOTAL TIME: 5hrs 55 mins
DRIVING TIME: 4hrs 56mins
STOP TIME: 59mins
AVERAGE SPEED: 61Kmh
AVERAGE DRIVING SPEED: 75Kmh
MAX. DRIVING SPEED: 124Kmh
Day 2: 22nd June 2010-06-22
Mendooran to Cobar
After waking very early to the sounds of local dogs and roosters competing for attention around 4.00am, we went back to sleep and ended up sleeping in a bit and eventually got up about 7.30am to the much nicer sounds of a butcherbird in the tree above us and kookaburras in a chorus nearby. The campfire embers were still smouldering so it took very little to get the fire going again to keep warm over breakfast as it was mighty chilly!! Bekky quickly positioned herself close by the fire again, as she’d done the previous night! This dog is definitely a heat loving dog! And spoilt! But she is such an easy dog to go camping with and loves the attention she constantly receives from other travellers wherever we go! We finally set off from Mendooran around 9.45am under overcast skies, heading out along the Mitchell Highway with dead flat countryside - broadacre farming one side and the railway line and sheep grazing country on the other. Our original plan was to get to Silverton outside Broken Hill, but we opted for ‘Plan B’... take it easy, don’t rush and enjoy the drive, agreeing on Cobar as our next stop, the ‘Gateway to The Outback.’ When we reached Warren, we called in to the local cemetery to look for the graves of the Noonan family, who are the maternal ancestors of Rod. (Andrew’s son). We found the many gravestones easily and I took numerous photographs to add to the family tree that Andrew is working on. After a lunch-stop in Nyngan we continued on until we reached Cobar around 3.30pm where we checked in to the only caravan park in town! Very busy caravan park and it seems to be almost at capacity, with numerous ‘grey nomads’ surrounding us on all sides!!! We have a very nice grassy powered site @ $25/night and the various amenities seem very good. Cobar is a growing outback NSW mining town where copper was discovered in 1870 and today gold, silver and zinc are also mined in this region.
I have now been sitting here typing away for over an hour on Andrew’s Dell Mini netbook, wearing my woolly beanie and Drizabone coat to keep out the cold, and whilst succeeding at keeping my body warm, mostly, my fingers are now losing any feeling from the chilly night air... despite the glass of red in front of me!! That’s simply put a glow in my cheeks!! I will thoroughly enjoy a hot shower tonight and hopefully upload this along with a few photos before I climb into my sleeping bag. Bekky retired under her sleeping bag a long time ago! And all the ‘grey nomads’ around us have turned off their TV’s and gone to bed too!! It is a very peaceful night now, apart from the far off sounds of howling dingoes and the odd bit of road noise... bliss!
Stay tuned for the next instalment... maybe this time from Silverton, where the movies Mad Max and Priscilla, Queen of The Desert were filmed!
Daily Trip Statistics
TOTAL DISTANCE: 348km
MIN. ALTITUDE: 170m
MAX. ALTITUDE: 380m
TOTAL TIME: 6hrs 0 mins
DRIVING TIME: 3hrs 45mins
STOP TIME: 2hrs 15mins
AVERAGE SPEED: 57Kmh
AVERAGE DRIVING SPEED: 90Kmh
MAX. DRIVING SPEED: 115Kmh
Empire Bay to Mendooran, NSW
We set off from Empire Bay around 8.30am, stopping by Umina Beach to pick up a few last minute supplies! We headed through Somersby and Bucketty towards The Hunter Valley, travelling through really pretty country & vineyards along the Great North Road built by the convicts in the 1830’s. There were several old sandstone culverts along road, also built by the early convicts. We saw numerous kangaroos, wombats and even cows along this stretch of road! Unfortunately, there were also some not so pretty parts around Broke, namely the enormous high wall open cut coal mines that dominate the countryside like gaping ugly grey scars in the countryside, stretching as far as the eye can see. We stopped so I could take a photo of the coal mines, and the stench of sulphur was so strong it did not take long for me to get back in the car! How anyone can live near these mines astounds me! After turning onto The Golden Highway, we passed through Denman, Merriwa and eventually got stuck behind a huge coal dumpster being transported on the back of a truck which took up the whole width of the road! Along this part of the road we also saw the Terrex Seismic teams doing seismic testing for the depth of even more coal seams! It just all seems so greedy to me...
We decided we’d make our first free camp stop at Mendooran, the oldest town on the Castlereagh River. We arrived around 3.30pm at the camp site, situated right on the river with good facilities – loos, showers (cold!), tank water, BBQ’s and plenty of grassy spots to camp. There were already a few other campers – a mobile home, a camper van and a couple on their Moto Guzzi bikes! After setting up the Oztent and getting out all the gear we needed for the night, we took Bekky for a bit of a run along the river, which she thoroughly enjoyed after so many hours in the car! We were amazed by how many birds there were in this area – galahs, corellas, cockatoos, butcher birds, magpies, heron, egrets etc. We then set about gathering firewood for our campfire as it was a very still and chilly night! We had a lovely fire going in no time and after dinner, our biker neighbours, Chris and Kevin, joined us around the fire for a couple of hours which was very cosy. They were travelling to Queensland for a 3 week holiday on their motorbikes! Very interesting and nice couple. It was lovely to climb into the goosedown sleeping bags, getting a reasonable nights sleep, despite hearing something having a good sniff around outside the tent during the night!!! Dog? Wombat? Feral Goat? Feral Pig? Who knows??!! But Bekky never moved a muscle under her warm blanket!!! ;o)
Daily Trip Statistics
TOTAL DISTANCE: 376km
MIN. ALTITUDE: 1m
MAX. ALTITUDE: 570m
TOTAL TIME: 5hrs 55 mins
DRIVING TIME: 4hrs 56mins
STOP TIME: 59mins
AVERAGE SPEED: 61Kmh
AVERAGE DRIVING SPEED: 75Kmh
MAX. DRIVING SPEED: 124Kmh
Day 2: 22nd June 2010-06-22
Mendooran to Cobar
After waking very early to the sounds of local dogs and roosters competing for attention around 4.00am, we went back to sleep and ended up sleeping in a bit and eventually got up about 7.30am to the much nicer sounds of a butcherbird in the tree above us and kookaburras in a chorus nearby. The campfire embers were still smouldering so it took very little to get the fire going again to keep warm over breakfast as it was mighty chilly!! Bekky quickly positioned herself close by the fire again, as she’d done the previous night! This dog is definitely a heat loving dog! And spoilt! But she is such an easy dog to go camping with and loves the attention she constantly receives from other travellers wherever we go! We finally set off from Mendooran around 9.45am under overcast skies, heading out along the Mitchell Highway with dead flat countryside - broadacre farming one side and the railway line and sheep grazing country on the other. Our original plan was to get to Silverton outside Broken Hill, but we opted for ‘Plan B’... take it easy, don’t rush and enjoy the drive, agreeing on Cobar as our next stop, the ‘Gateway to The Outback.’ When we reached Warren, we called in to the local cemetery to look for the graves of the Noonan family, who are the maternal ancestors of Rod. (Andrew’s son). We found the many gravestones easily and I took numerous photographs to add to the family tree that Andrew is working on. After a lunch-stop in Nyngan we continued on until we reached Cobar around 3.30pm where we checked in to the only caravan park in town! Very busy caravan park and it seems to be almost at capacity, with numerous ‘grey nomads’ surrounding us on all sides!!! We have a very nice grassy powered site @ $25/night and the various amenities seem very good. Cobar is a growing outback NSW mining town where copper was discovered in 1870 and today gold, silver and zinc are also mined in this region.
I have now been sitting here typing away for over an hour on Andrew’s Dell Mini netbook, wearing my woolly beanie and Drizabone coat to keep out the cold, and whilst succeeding at keeping my body warm, mostly, my fingers are now losing any feeling from the chilly night air... despite the glass of red in front of me!! That’s simply put a glow in my cheeks!! I will thoroughly enjoy a hot shower tonight and hopefully upload this along with a few photos before I climb into my sleeping bag. Bekky retired under her sleeping bag a long time ago! And all the ‘grey nomads’ around us have turned off their TV’s and gone to bed too!! It is a very peaceful night now, apart from the far off sounds of howling dingoes and the odd bit of road noise... bliss!
Stay tuned for the next instalment... maybe this time from Silverton, where the movies Mad Max and Priscilla, Queen of The Desert were filmed!
Daily Trip Statistics
TOTAL DISTANCE: 348km
MIN. ALTITUDE: 170m
MAX. ALTITUDE: 380m
TOTAL TIME: 6hrs 0 mins
DRIVING TIME: 3hrs 45mins
STOP TIME: 2hrs 15mins
AVERAGE SPEED: 57Kmh
AVERAGE DRIVING SPEED: 90Kmh
MAX. DRIVING SPEED: 115Kmh
Sounds like you're having fun. Looks cold! Very cold! Love the photo's - very beautiful. Mandooran is an interesting place and I reckon $25 per night out there's a bit rich! Keep the updates coming. Travel Safe.
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