Last night's full moon was pretending to be a street light this morning and the sunrise was still very pretty despite the lack of clouds to reflect any colours. Thankfully once again Shane braved an early start to take photos.
We did manage to be very organised this morning and actually left the park before 9.00 at about 8.45am. All the brochures we had said watch for the giant emu on your way out.... And so I assume this was what they meant.....
I don't ever recall having been to Walgett although we are getting into territory now that I have been many times before showing dogs many years ago. Walgett of course was made "famous" by Julie McGregor in the old "Hey Dad" series but I think after the disgrace of Robert Hughes being jailed for child sex offences Walgett would not be referencing that one in it's claim to fame.
Walgett however was much bigger than I had anticipated and certainly had the largest showing of indigenous people than we've seen in our recent weeks of travel. Sadly it was reminiscent of Tennant Creek with a majority of shops and houses having barred windows.
Just out of Walgett was the most elaborate station sign I think I've ever seen. Welcome to Fairlands Station. Apparently you can do a station stay there although the owners have struggled throughout the drought having not had a winter crop in 3 years and selling their cattle. It's hard to believe any of the farmers in this area are doing well when you look at the conditions they are dealing with. About the only thing that grows is tumble weeds and the soil is more like sand and blowing up against the fences as it moves from paddock to paddock.
As we moved further south a little more water appeared here and there and a few crops and just a tinge of green along the side of the road but mostly it was just bare nothing!
We reached our destination of Coonamble just after 12.00pm and settled in at the Riverside Caravan park although perhaps the Riverbed Caravan park would be a better description as the river is dry here as well. The park however has water and power and not much else worth mentioning. Originally I had earmarked the showgrounds as an overnight stay but that plan changed when it was realised there's an NRL match tonight and the showgrounds doesn't offer power.... Plans change and we are, if nothing else, flexible in our travel plans. We had a bite to eat and then headed out to buy a bit of fruit since Lightning Ridge wasn't offering what we were after and did a bit of a drive around of the town. One of the first things we noticed was the artwork of John Murray (whose gallery we had enjoyed in Lightning Ridge) on a silo in the middle of town.
It's a really tidy little town but, being Saturday, by 1.00pm everything was closed except the bottle shop and the IGA - and I guess the pubs were open too. I spotted some indigenous murals down a narrow laneway that were bright and invited a closer look.
Back at camp I whipped up a couple of serves of chocolate mousse for dessert tonight as well as prep for a satay chicken stirfry and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon sorting through photos. The sunset wasn't much to write home about but the moon certainly made an impact as it rose a vivid orange colour while the sun set.
206km
Total - 12,484km
Top today 27°c - expecting overnight 5°c
No comments:
Post a Comment