There comes a time in every holiday when all the things you wanted to do have been ticked off and all that's left is the getting home bit. That's what it felt like today.
From Wilcannia the trip home should take about 8 and a half hours of driving or 800 km. I can't do that in one day so it means I will be home by Saturday afternoon.
Before I left Wilcannia I missed some street art that I really needed to include in my entries.
 |
| River us our Heartbeat. Water is Life. |
Wilcannia sits alongside the Darling River. Whilst this river system had been used to ship goods to towns along the river, that was a long time ago. Studies have shown that the Darling River is drying up and that climate change is the big culprit. If the Darling River disappears, then so will towns like Wilcannia.
After leaving Wilcannia I hopped on to the Cobb Highway which was to see me through to my stop tonight in Hay.
The Cobb Highway was named in honour of the Cobb & Co stagecoach companies, operating in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
From the time I got on to the Cobb Highway to the time I entered Ivanhoe (160km or 1 1/2 hours), I did not see one car, truck or any other vehicle. And only one house, which appeared unoccupied.
What I did see were plenty of these.
The cattle grids are designed to restrict their movement between properties.
Between yesterday's dirt road travelling and the Cobb Highway today, I would have driven over 150 of these.
Other highlights of the morning's travel included:
- Tumbleweeds. Real tumbleweeds, as you would have seen in old timey Westerns. The wind would carry them quickly across the road. The first couple scared me, as I couldn't avoid them. When I worked out what they were, I calmed down.
- Lizards. Big lizard activity as well as "big lizard" activity. Two monitor lizards that scurried off the road as I approached.
- Emus. They weren't terribly scared of the car.
- Goats. Many, many goats. Feral. You could say they were in plague proportions.
It was good to see human activity when I reached Ivanhoe. It's interesting to compare and contrast the 1 general store, 1 pub Ivanhoe in outback New South Wales with the affluent suburban Ivanhoe in Victoria. Chalk and cheese.
After a bite to eat (pie review below). It was on to Hay - about 2 hours driving. The only thing of note were the toilet signs in the tiny town of Booligal.
In my quest to see all of the silo and water tower art around the country I found a great specimen in Hay.
Last leg tomorrow. I should get home by late afternoon.
PIE REVIEW
I was appreciative that, although Ivanhoe didn't have a bakery, their general store was selling hot pies.
What I was less appreciative of was that the pies were heated through the use of a microwave oven.
So it is that I bought the Mrs Macs Angus beef pie ($6.50).
So the first mouthful also got me some gristle. Luckily this was the only evidence of this in the pie. The rest of the filling was actually pretty tasty. The crust caused me to mark this way, way down.
This was marginally better than yesterday's pie.
Final results tomorrow.
I had someone ask me whether I normally eat pies. Truth is that there have only been a couple of bakeries I will normally buy pies from - Buck's Country Bakehouse in Yaark is one and Flour Flower Bakery in Kinglake West is another. And after this holiday's effort of eating a pie every day (excluding Port Lincoln) I think I am going to stay clear of pies for the next year or so.
Have I put on weight with all this pie eating? I don't think so. I have been keeping track of my "steps" and my average daily is significantly more than at home. I'd like to think the extra walking was keeping the extra calories in check. But that might also be wishful thinking.
Podcast of the day: After 19 days of podcasts I decided to change things up and avoided them today. A day of music instead.
Total km travelled: 5,228
No comments:
Post a Comment