Day Two - Hillston to Bourke

I awoke at 6 and got out of bed at 6:30 to shower and dress. The room was warm enough and the bed was comfortable, but I quickly realised that my waterbed at home had spoiled me. The mattress was firm and as a consequence, my shoulder blade ended up aching where I had been putting pressure on it in the bed. The warm shower (central overhead rose – very different from home and what I’m used to) got rid of the ache very quickly. However when I walked outside to get the drink I was having for breakfast, the cold hit. Lynn was very quick and prompt, and while I was packing up the car, she had finished her breakfast and was packing her stuff into ARTIE. As a result, we left at 7:30 with the temperature a very brisk 5°C. Inside ARTIE, the temperature in the front seats quickly rose to 24°C and we were comfortable. We headed out of Hillston and had a very good run. We pulled up at the Mt Hope pub, but it wasn’t open (it was supposed to be open for 8, but at 8:30 when we arrived, the notice on the door said it didn’t open until 10. Just down from the pub was a rest area with a post box and … a public phone booth! We continued on and noted the change in the landscape around us – but little change in the temperature. We arrived at Cobar around 10:10 and went straight to the lookout. The town was visible, stretched out, but the main attraction was the mine – like the SuperPit, but a lot smaller. While looking around, a couple from Crystal Brook in SA came up. We chatted a moment – they were there because a relative had worked in the mine. It was still cool, so we left and headed into Cobar. We called in to the Information Centre and toured the Museum. Interesting, but we could have spent longer there (but if so, we wouldn’t be back until the middle of October if we did the same elsewhere). Then into the town and I bought my lancet holder from THE John Mitchell Pharmacy (I had been chatting to John Mitchell, Geelong pharmacist, on Monday evening) and bandaids from the local supermarket. We then supported the local economy by having an early lunch at the local bakery. As we left the town, I filled up with diesel – ARTIE had just switched to the reserve tank). On the run up to Bourke, the sky was clear (a promise of things to come?) and the roadsides had visitors of sheep, cattle and feral goats – in some cases herds of up to a hundred goats were observed by a silly old goat and a nanny goat inside ARTIE. We arrived at Bourke at 2 and went straight to the Visitor Information Centre. There are two caravan parks around town and we chose the one in town. We arrived there with three vehicles travelling together and had to wait for them to be processed before booking it. We drove in and chose a site and decided to erect the tent while it was light, and then tour around. The tent only took ten minutes to put up (we expect to get better with practice and experience), then inflated the air mattresses and put them in. We returned to the Visitor Centre and did the “Back o’ Bourke” exhibition. Then we went to the cemetery and quickly found Fred Hollows grave – a very different memorial. We had a quick look around parts of the town, then went to the old wharf precinct. Looking around there we met and chatted to a couple from Goondiwindi. Accommodation in Bourke was also at a premium and they ended up paying $300 for a cottage for the night as there were no hotel or motel rooms left. We did some supermarket shopping and then returned to the camp. There was a school group there and this was their last night before heading home. We had sandwiches for tea at the back of ARTIE and I went up to get a cup of tea. Here I found from a lady from Colac that the Melbourne – Warrnambool express had been hit by a truck near Colac. We went into our sleeping bags early as it was too cold to do much else and the camp kitchen was open to the weather and filled by people watching the last State of Origin Rugby. However our plans for an early rest was stymied by the loud cries from the viewers of the game – some pleasure, some pain and some outright agony! Eventually that noise subsided to be replaced by trucks passing by changing gears and groups returning late to the campground. That noise died away, but dogs barking took up the challenge to keep us awake. Eventually the need for sleep became paramount, but just as I dropped off, a call of nature required getting out of the sleeping bag, putting on a track suit and boots, taking a torch and heading off to the amenity block. Back in the sleeping bag and the tent, I dropped quickly off to sleep to be awakened a short time later by the school group breaking camp.