The rain continued into the night, but there were no further issues with water on the roads in this part of the Outback. We stopped at the dump site then drove along the Barrier Hwy headed for Wilcannia, the only town between Cobar and Broken Hill.
When I put Tilly in the crate she behaved herself and didn’t hiss at Bluey. I have had to be firm with her to stop her behaving badly to Bluey.
At Wilcannia we stopped beside the road to walk Bluey and have lunch in the van. Police cars moved onto the highway to stop the traffic to allow a funeral procession to drive through town. Dozens of cars followed the hearse to the cemetery.
A caravan in front of us was travelling at 90-95kph, but when I moved out to overtake, the driver sped up to 110kph. I saw a small car ahead travelling slowly so had to move back behind the lunatic driver. Fortunately the caravan stopped at a rest area and we passed without seeing it again.
I sent a text to my nephew and niece to see if they were available for a catch up while we are in Broken Hill. Steve is an freight train driver and could not continue with his journey because of the floods. He drove from Condoblin to Nyngan, and passed us just outside Broken Hill. On two earlier trips we have passed Steve when he was driving very long trains. One time he didn’t know we were going to be in the area, but he spotted the Bushtracker from the train as we were driving along the highway.
We went to the Palace Hotel for dinner with Steve, Sarah and 2 year old Ivy. I was envious of Ivy’s pink Doc Martin boots – Sarah manages two shoe shops in Broken Hill.
The Palace featured in the Priscilla movie, and there is a very large high heel shoe in the foyer which fascinated Ivy.
We will spend another night in Broken Hill before moving on towards the Clare Valley.
Committed Travellers 