Wandering
to Wilcannia, Cruising on to Cobar, Barrelling towards Bourke and Brewarrina
and Lobbing in to Lightning Ridge.
Monday 4th November
We were up early and after provisioning at the local
supermarket, we headed off again.
We drove through similar landscapes as we have seen
around Broken Hill and were amazed at the number of goats we saw……hundreds of
them!!!
We arrived in Wilcannia in time for lunch. It has all the
makings of a pretty little town with lots of lovely old sandstone buildings.
Sadly, much of the area is unkempt and there is a lot of
litter around.
There were gorgeous places near the river.
We stopped in a lovely little park for lunch but there
was such a lot of empty beer cans and rubbish around.
We walked through town and a few young lads were friendly
and said ‘Gidday’.
From there, we drove on to (1061) MacCullochs Range Rest Area. Talk
about up-market…..it even has a Playground.
And what’s a playground without kids?
And Mum watching from the side!
I told you there were goats!
I’ve already told Ron that I’m not going to the toilet by
myself tonight!!!
We had a couple of blokes in a caravan nearby and I had a
bit of a chat to one of them. He was very friendly and used to be, among other
things, a postman in Ryde and a nurse in Gladesville (my old stamping
ground….talk about your small world!!)
Tuesday 5th November
Today is Melbourne
Cup Day and Guy Fawkes Day, not to mention Herman from ‘Herman’s Hermits’
Wedding Anniversary (not that we will be celebrating any of them).
We drove off towards Cobar and arrived just about lunch time. There were
more goats. The scenery was scrubbier.
We saw lots of emus and a few kangaroos as well.
We called at The Tourist Info Centre and the lovely young
girl there loaded me up with ‘must sees’.
She was decked out
for Melbourne Cup in her little black fascinator. I asked if she had a horse
and she replied that she had one in a Sweep but she could not remember its
name. It was a favourite and Gay Waterhouse trained it and Damien Oliver was riding. I wished her luck.
I walked across to The Miners Heritage Park,
commemorating the significance of mining to Cobar since 1869. Cobar is often
called The Copper City.
We went for a bit of a walk around town then headed out to The ‘Newey’
Reserve for lunch by the water. It was a pretty spot and lovely and cool in the
shade with a beaut breeze.
Cobar’s drinking water actually comes from Burrendong Dam
near Wellington approximately 400 km away!!!!
After lunch, we headed up to Fort Bourke Lookout with
views over New Cobar Open Cut Gold mine.
The lookout looked anything but welcoming with its high
fence, barbed wire and fully caged lookout.
But, once inside the lookout area, it is obvious why it
is set up like that.
It is a long way down to the bottom!!!!
From here, we drove on towards Bourke and stopped at (1086)
Curraweena Rest Area.
More ferrel goats, red dust and blow flies……Ahhh the real
Australia!!!
Ronnie was listening to the radio and heard that the girl
from Cobar Info Centre’s horse had won The Cup so I suppose in a way, I did
have a reason for celebration after all, even if it was by proxy!!!!!
Wednesday 6th November
We drove to Bourke. It is a pretty town, perched on the Darling River.
We drove around and had a bit of a look about and ended up at the Wharf
Precinct.
The Riverboats used to go up and
down the river around here and the wharf has at least three different levels to
cater for different heights in the water levels. It looked like it had been a
while since they would have used the top level.
The country between here and Brewarrina is very dry.
We drove through from Bourke to Brewarrina and found the loveliest free
camp (403) Brewarrina Rest Area about 1.5km north of the town centre right on
the Barwon River.
We even had little wallabies come visit for a drink of
water!
Thursday 7th November
From here, it was off to Lightning Ridge where we were
greeted on the outskirts of town by ‘Stanley’ the 18 metre tall emu, with a VW
car for a body and satellite dishes for eyes. Makes you wonder what artists
would do without VWs!
Then it was off to town for a bit of a look about.
Our friends from Sydney, Christine and David Roussel
lived here. Christine was a well-known and highly respected Opal Carver before
she sadly passed away a few years ago. David was a miner (and of course, once a
miner always a miner)! So he is still here.
When we lived in Sydney, David helped me make a little
wooden rocking elephant for Paul’s first birthday. (He was forever tinkering
about and making stuff). Paul did like it and Ben was happy to help with the
rocking.
We came out here to visit them at Easter about 25 years
ago and had pretty much lost touch with then since. They had two children a
couple of years older than Ben and Paul.
After a few enquiries around town we found a piece of
Christine’s carved opal in a shop. And we learned that David has a new partner
and also works at ‘The Chambers of the Black Hand’.
We went and booked into ‘The Opal Caravan Park’ ($29.70).
It has a pool with hot bore water and the amenities are fabulous. They even
have a trolley for the laundry basket and hairdryers in the toilets. Very
flash!
We had a soak in the pool. My back was feeling a bit
fragile. I think I must have slept a bit funny the night before but the waters
did relieve it. We chatted to a few of the other tourists before adjourning for
dinner.
Friday 8th November
We decided to stay another day. I went on the ‘Chambers
of the Black Hand’ tour. It was fabulous. It is a mine tour and the artist, Ron
Canlin has carved hundreds of sculptures in the sandstone level above the opal
mining level.
He makes his sculptures by copying drawings and from his
imagination. They were amazing. He also has a wonderful sense of humour and has
painted about 20 ‘Where’s Wally’s’ all around the sculptures.
I look pretty amazing in my hard hat too!
Some sculptures are plain, and some are painted.
He was still working on the lion and his drawing (which he has adapted
somewhat) and tools were there.
I loved his quirky ones, like the feet disappearing down
the hole and the wombat in red boots.
His Super Heroes were fabulous and just in case you didn’t notice
‘Where’s Wally’; he is next to Spiderman’s foot.
I really love The Invisible Man too!
David was not working today but one of the other fellows
gave me his number and I called him. He was so pleased that we had gotten in
touch and he called round to see us that night on his way to Lodge.
And didn’t he look dapper!
We had a great old catch up and lots of laughs for about
half an hour and he offered to come back tomorrow and take us for a bit of a
drive around.
Saturday 9th November
David arrived early and carted us off around town. We did lots of the
touristy bits and later went to the shop that Eyla his partner works at.
She is really lovely and I even bought a new frock from
her. We visited the fossil museum and found out that David had donated lots of
fossilised opal he had found over the years to the museum as well. We also
found out that he had managed to find quite a bit of good opal over the years.
But like all good miners, he is now thinking of getting yet another claim to
work.
He still has his fabulous sense of humour and had us in
stitches for most of the day.
We went back to their place for coffee and he still is surrounded by
bits and pieces of machines and every time he goes to the tip he comes back
with almost the same amount as he took to dump. He looked much more like his
old self without the bow tie!
This was my favourite thing in his collection of
miscellaneous stuff.
Afterwards we went into town and had a bit of lunch and
then we drove out to the Bore Baths.
We went there when we were here last time and I remember them being
quite warm. Ron and I went over later in the afternoon and it was way past
warm. I have a new respect for how lobsters and prawns feel. It was boiling. We
only managed a couple of minutes in there. It was sooooo much hotter than any
bath I have ever had!!!
It was built by miners and the stipulation was that it
always had to be free. I was surprised by the fact that there is still
absolutely no fencing at all around it.
When we got back home, we went in the heated pool here to
cool down!!!!
We have had a ball
here and will finally head into Queensland tomorrow!
arrived in Wilcannia in time for lunch. It has all the
makings of a pretty little town with lots of lovely old sandstone buildings.
