Friday 21st March

Not knowing if we’d find anywhere else today, we took the opportunity to fill up with fuel in Goondiwindi before we set out, as the Shell station was open. Nothing else in the town was, but we took some photos of interesting local buildings and statues, including a horse, Gunsynd, who was the only horse in history to win at least one race at every track on the eastern seaboard. (I’m adding more useless information to my store.) It was a roasting hot morning, so we were very pleased to have the air conditioning in the car. Goondi (for short) is just on the north of the border with NSW, so virtually as soon as we left there we were back in daylight saving time i.e. one hour ahead. At least the car clock showed that time as we’d never changed it. A few miles out of Goondi is the village of Boggabilla where the sky in every direction was just blue with hardly a trace of clouds – fantastic. The land is even flatter than previously if that’s possible, with no hills in view at all and hardly any habitation. The road is a school bus route and it goes on for miles – some of the designated stops have no houses in view, just a dirt track disappearing into the distance so where the children come from and go to is a mystery, and what time do they have to catch the bus in the mornings?

At Moree, 127kms from Goondi, nothing was open until we found a Subway so stopped there for a 6” sub and a drink and visit to the loos – quite necessary by then! Bumpy roads have their consequences! Just before we left Moree we saw the signs for Driver Reviver free drinks and stopped to see what it was. Bushell’s Tea company sponsor this by providing free tea, coffee and biscuits for people driving at peak holiday times to try to cut the accident rate caused by people driving while tired. I’ve mentioned before the Stop, Revive, Survive signs that are all over the place on major routes, and this is all part of the same scheme. The stops are manned by volunteers from local organisations like the Lions and Rotary.

Moree to Narrabri was the next stage of the day’s drive – more straight roads, and quite a lot of traffic. We passed through Gurley – with “We’re a Tidy Town” signs. Any one can keep their town tidy if all it consists of is a Post Office and general store, a grain store and a railway line with a couple of houses! As we approached Narrabri, hills appeared in the distance, quite high ones with names like Haystack Mountain, Mounts Waa, Hook, Kaputar and Byar, all to the east of the road. It was a nice change to see something other that flat land! There were fields of sunflowers too as well as some crop which we couldn’t identify.

Road signs we’ve seen en route include this one which has had us chuckling on more than one occasion – Need I say more?! At Narrabri, we again stopped for fuel. I don’t know if they’d put the prices up for Easter, but regular was 13cents a litre more expensive here than at Goondi. Then it was the last leg to Coonabarabran, 118kms. We were both fed up by then as there’s only so much flat scenery you can appreciate, and we hadn’t seen any of the kangaroos there were signs warning us about all along the route. Plus the fact that our bums were quite bruised by the bumpy roads – and this stool I’m sitting on now isn’t helping the situation!! But we’re here in our room at the Wagon Wheel Motel, which is more like a cabin on a caravan park, but it’s a bed for the night. Tom’s found a Skywatch Experience at the local Observatory for us to go to later this evening, then it’s off to the Chinese restaurant, which is the only eating place open!

Later.

Well, the Chinese restaurant wasn’t the only one open – there was one attached to the Observatory, so we ate there and very good it was too. We had time to look round the exhibition of all things astronomical before being taken outside to look at a few stars, by which time, although it was dark, it wasn’t, if you get my drift, because the moon was out! But we were able to view Orion and Sirius, Castor and Pollux, the Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri. The moonlight meant we couldn’t see the smaller stars and clouds kept moving over some of the constellations, but we saw Saturn with its rings and a couple of its moons too. Tom managed to get some pretty good pics of the moon through the telescope despite being bitten by some bug or other and we’ve returned to the room to sort out today’s photos, finish the blog, which I’m doing now, then hit the sack ready for another day’s exciting drive tomorrow.

Amusing place names today – Boggabilla, Letter Box Road, Little Bumble Creek, Terry Hie Hie, Wee Waa and Warrumbungle Shire. That’s all for now, folks, speak to you all soon. Night!