Dubbo to Cobar

It rained overnight but it had pretty well stopped this morning. We treated ourselves to breakfast out and found a little cafe around the corner that sold a very healthy looking option called açaí bowl. It was very nice so I should be able to have an extra beer tonight 😂.

We then hit the road which was wet and as we left town one of those flashing traffic signs warned us of the animal activity on the road ahead. Wet weather tends to bring them close to the road edge for the moisture and new green shoots of grass.

The temperature was 18 and we soon hit 22 so it was lovely riding conditions and I was happy to slow down and avoid any potential disasters.

As it happens there wasn’t much roadkill and I only saw one live kangaroo beside the road but that’s one more than any other day on this trip so under the speed limit I stayed.

We stopped for morning tea at a town called Nyngan which is where the road turns sharply to the west. Nyngan is in the Bogan Shire and there are signs all over promoting that fact. Makes for a photo op at least.

There was still very menacing clouds in the east and some is heading this way but we are staying ahead of it.

There are some 500 year flood events taking place north of Sydney.

Long straight roads today flanked with bush either side. Some areas of cleared land which I assume grow cotton in the season. For long stretches of road cotton balls line the roadway and at one place there was a huge area full of cotton bales about the same size as the round hay bales we have in NZ.

Interestingly there were several colours of wrapping which I assume means different grades of cotton.

The time seemed to whizz by and by 1pm we arrived at our destination Cobar, a mining town.

We visited the local lookout point perched right on the edge of the open cast mine, They extract a multitude of minerals from around here but mainly copper.

We then checked into our motel and set off on foot for lunch and to visit the local museum which was really well put together and told the history of the mining since the middle of the 19th century and how the town went from boom to bust and back again on more than one occasion.

Across the road from the museum was the miners memorial park which also was really well done and fortunately the roll of people killed in the mines has thinned out over time.

All in all a very pleasant day.

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