Away from Broken Hill by 9am & we were impressed by the piles of new concrete railway sleepers lined up along the railway line.  There were thousands of new sleepers stretching for many kilometres so that will keep some people employed for a while.  The road was straight & featureless for a long time before giving way to masses of blue & yellow flowers lining the sides of the road (it was still straight).  There has been a lot of rain recently, the desert is so green & vibrant, with big pools of water lying at the side of the road now & again.  All of the creek beds have been scoured clean, there is no debris in them at all.  The creek beds are a vibrant reddish orange colour & contrast is striking with the surrounding foliage.  The wildflowers are also spread out across the desert & it looks lovely.  Mother Nature certainly laid out her best for us.

A couple of hours later & 200 kms on, we drove into the sleepy town of Wilcannia.  We were going to drive through without stopping but the sandstone Post Office caught our attention.  We stopped to take some photos then went for a walk on the old bridge to look at the Darling River in full flow.  A local resident we spoke to told us that just a few months ago the riverbed was dry with a few stagnant pools of blue-green algae.  We started to read the local history signs that are at all of the places of interest, Wilcannia was a vibrant & rich wool river port in the late 1800s & early 1900s, hence the impressive sandstone buildings.  We explored further & admired the beautiful sandstone Court House & Police Station before deciding to stay & have lunch on the banks of the river under the shade of a river red gum.  We went exploring a bit further after lunch & admired the old sandstone bank building, now the Wilcannia Shire Office, as well as the restored sandstone hospital.  There are a few other sandstone buildings in town that are in need of loving care & attention, if they are restored the town would look significantly better.  The rest of the town looks a little bit shabby, in need of money, soul & love, with a few exceptions.  The new aboriginal settlement on the east of the river consists of new looking houses.

On the road again & the open plains are a field of white flowers, it really does look good.  Then as the landscape gets a few more tree’s the white & yellow flowers disappear into the distance around them, looking stunning.  When the sun hides behind a cloud the white flowers lose their brilliance & look like there is snow covering the ground.  The rest of the drive to Cobar is pretty with the mass of flowers in full bloom, however, the roads are very long & very straight.  We pulled into the Cobar Caravan Park after travelling 470km for the day.

We had goulash for dinner, no red – I am becoming a tee-totaller like Tereza. (Oh Sue & John where are you?)(come back please, I need someone to have a drink with)