Broken Hill to MacCullochs Range Rest Area : 255kms

Sunday, 18th June.

It was a long, frosty walk to the jockeys' room to shower this morning so I stayed under the lovely hot water for a little longer than usual to warm up for the walk back to the caravan for breakfast.  We were beginning to think that the horses were having Sunday off from their trackwork when we heard the distinct clip clop of their hooves....they didn't look to be too happy to be out on the track, probably would have preferred to be tucked up in a warm stable somewhere.

As we had planned a shortish journey today, we were in no hurry to leave and pottered around until close to 11a.m., our latest departure so far.

Before we reached Topar, we passed the sign informing us that from there on, we were on NSW time and advanced our clocks by half an hour.  It was lovely and warm in the car but when we stopped at Little Topar Roadhouse, about halfway between Broken Hill and Wilcannia, the wind was so cold we hard to don jumpers for the short walk  to the roadhouse cafe where we bought ice creams (never too cold for an ice cream!)   Once we'd eaten them, it was back on the road which, for a time , was quite "nullarborish".....scrubby bushes and few trees.  Along the way there were emus, long haired goats with very cute little kids, sheep and a lot of roadkill....mostly roos  though we were very surprised to see two dead cows, particularly as there were no other cattle about.  Later on we spied a couple of dead pigs.

Our second stop was at a lovely small rest stop where we would have liked to spend the night but we still had a way to go, so boiled the billy for coffee and scoffed the remainder of the excellent Coles $5 dark fruit cake we'd brought with us.

We crossed over several dry creeks on the road to Wilcannia where we stopped for fuel, just before crossing the Darling River which had water in it but not much.  Shortly after remarking that there was no wildlife in that area, a large emu stepped out of the bushes and on to the road in front of us.  Fortunately, Mike had caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and applied the brakes, which slowed us down enough to avoid hitting him but it was a near miss.  The emu was momentarily startled then sped across the road to the other side and quickly disappeared into the bushes.  There were no other mishaps and we arrived at our overnight rest stop a little while later.  Several goats sauntered over to the caravan to see what was going on but didn't hang around for long, I guess they   find humans pretty boring!  We expect to have another cold night so the extra blanket will be required.