Day 8 – Cobar to Cunnamulla

It was nice to get into the car and on our way this morning because we’d had another cold night interrupted by a loaded cattle transporter parking too close to the Caravan Park. I alternated between grumpiness at the noises the cattle made and sympathy for them being in the truck.

I also had a reality check when, wearing my thermals, trackies, and beanie my freezing, hunched body made it to the ablutions block, there was a young woman perfectly relaxed applying her mascara at the basin. We live in different worlds!

We had 416 kms to cover today and one little interlude had us hypothesising about what we could see up ahead. A vehicle? A tree? A slowly moving tree? None of them, it was a tractor pulling a Tradies trailer. About 70 kms before Bourke we started seeing feral goats again.

In Bourke a man approached to talk to Fergus. He told us about a dog his family had owned that “Would have eaten a dung sandwich but he didn’t like bread”. These little gems we hear along the way make this type of travel special.

Bourke is another town with some lovely old buildings. And we enjoyed take away hot drinks from there but there was nothing appealing to eat there so we carried on. Just outside Bourke we saw evidence that cotton is grown in the area.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our next stop was Engonnia, where we sat outside outside the Oasis Pub and enjoyed a cider while sitting in the sun, it wasn’t exactly warm but we were comfortable. At least half a dozen other travellers stopped but only one other couple came to the pub the rest only visited the rather flash galvanised iron toilet.

• 

• 

We crossed the border and then the Queenslanders appeared, not the people but the houses on stilts with big verandahs etc. Arriving in Cunnamulla was a surprise because it was Thursday afternoon but very few people were in the Town Centre, it’s not the way we remember it.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Goodnight from Cunnamulla.