On the road again

Hello there friends and family,

We are travelling from Cobar to Broken Hill today, takes about 5 hours all up and it is a hot day - 36. There has obviously been a bit of rain out here because it is greener than we have ever seen it. The road edges are green and there is heaps of wildlife. Emus, goats, sheep, cattle, kangaroos and salt bush scrub - it's all olive green and red with that blue blue sky you only see out west. It makes you a bit poetic thinking of the vastness and harshness of the outback and of course the beauty. It's amazing and so beautiful.

Ross has worked out as we travel at vast speeds the roads are pretty good BUT we only come to bumps when we are passing trucks - a bit of Murphy's Law. We have just driven in a dead straight line for 50k and the GPS says go 462k and turn left. Where else in the world?

We are seeing packs of smaller hawks or kites and they are in groups of 20 and 30. A bit of a worry near the edge of the road but they seem to be used to the traffic and move of in the right direction every time. It must have been a busy breeding season.

Stopping in at Emdale, a roadhouse in the middle of the outback that we used to stop at for a pie and beer on the way to Menindee. You could write your name on the wall and then read all the names and destinations of other travellers. Well it's gone upmarket - a paint job and wait for it Merlo coffee and a barista - ya gotta laugh - in the middle of nowhere, in  36 degree heat and the flies, we had an espresso. You can camp there for $20 and that includes 2 showers. Though the toilets are a bit suspect - the Mouse House (ladies loo) had a huge - like 20cm centipede in the sink - made for a quick exit for me.

The windscreen now looks like a war zone, every bug in the vicinity committing suicide on ours. Passed some trees in the middle of nowhere, 1 with shows and thongs and sox hanging from it, another with hats and the last with soft toys, we think it is a point for a cache spot - a GPS Internet system where you visit and post on the net. Will have to ask the kids.

Going across the Talyawalka Floodplains heading into Wilcannia, ks and ks of green and red with low blue hills in the distance makes it look like the brush men of the bush paintings, the old sweeping plains and Dorothea McKeller.

Wilcannia is looking very differently than it did in our day - it actually looks like someone cares. The parks are all looking good, the pubs shut and the rubbish cleared. Still bars on windows and doors but it, looks the best we have seen it and the heritage buildings are worth a look.

Did a run past the school and they must have spent millions on it - all brand new and everything that opens and shuts. All for 90 or so students. Although most of them looked like they were sitting on the main streets smoking - there seems to be some hope.