Day 2 Merriwagga to Bourke

 Its about 450km to Bourke through Cobar so a reasonably early start today.  The road is pretty quiet so it was easy to eat up the km's again seeing lots of roadkill but also lots of emus and so many goats. Hard to work out if they were feral or not . Seem to be smarted than roos as they move away from the side of the road when you get close. 

We stopped in Cobar to have lunch and had hoped to go up to the Fort Bourke lookout to check out the gold mine but no caravans allowed so bit disappointed so we just continued on to Bourke. again the country and the crops look great so it is shaping up as a good season. 

Funny what you see in the middle of nowhere

Got into Bourke around 3 and first stop was fuel - still around the 2.25 for diesel but what do you do. We are having a couple of nights here at Kidman Camp Resort which is in North Bourke . Yes it has a suburb and they are separated by the Darling River which  is flowing wide and fast at the moment. 

Got set up on our site and then took a walk down to the river to find the paddle steamer PV Jandra which is moored at the resort and does cruises down the river or so we thought. Apparently the driver has gone to Longreach to work on the river there so they ahve no driver so no cruises. The  boat sits there looking very forlorn and lost. 

There is a flood plain you walk across to get down there and this boat is testimony to how high the river was in flood.

The following day we looked around Bourke and all it had to offer. It was very warm with a top temperature of 28C - very nice after freezing in Bendigo for the last 2 weeks. Stopped in at the Visitor Centre as you do and then into town to have a look at the painted silo. This celebrates the achievements of Percy Hobson who was a gold medalist in high jump in the 1962 commonwealth games and was the first aboriginal to win a gold medal.

Called dance of the Echidnas outside visitor centre 

here's Percy

Dida lap of the main street ( didn't take that long) but some lovely old buildings around. 

Finished up at the port wharf where they have an old Crossley Motor that they start up every day. Russ was fascinated and the young guy that was doing it was obviously very passionate about it - gave us lots of information about its history and how it runs. 

Russ at the wharf

Our last stop was a trip out to the historic weir  just out of town. Only one problem it was under water because the river is up so high . Amazing to think it wasn't that long ago that there was no water at all. 

Where's the weir?

Our next move will depend a little on the weather as we see that big front with rain come through.