Day 2 – Wednesday July 21 2021 – 447km

What a cold miserable wet & windy night. The train driver passing nearby seemed to take great delight in long blasts of the train whistle as the train slowly trundled past. There were a few noisy trucks stopping at the one-lane bridge traffic lights near the caravan park as well. The morning was cold and we took an early morning walk down to the flooded Lachlan River skirting the caravan park. The flood water was full of log and branch debris as it flowed quickly past and under the bridge. We packed up and on the road by 9am with a brief stop in Forbes for breakfast.

The road to Bogan Gate was surprisingly good with not much traffic, wide roads and wide flat agricultural land with new wheat crops bright green on both sides.  Bogan Gate is not very large, but has a large wheat silo in town next to the railway. We turned right and headed towards Trundle.

Trundle’s claim to fame is a hotel with the longest verandah in Australia, Trundle also hosts an annual Abba festival to try & attract tourists. It needs something as it is a long way from anything. We passed through Tullamore, another small town with a large wheat silo on the way to Nyngan.

Nyngan is a largish town for western NSW and we stopped for light lunch at the large & nicely kept Rotary Park just west of Nyngan on the road to Bourke next to the Bogan River. This was a pleasant opportunity to stretch our legs & take a break from driving. The road to Bourke was another 200+ kilometres away along a very straight & flat road.

The trip was uneventful, a few road trains coming the other way and some roadworks. Tereza had a few small naps & I reassured her that she didn’t miss much, the scenery is fairly unchanging, trees, bushes, grasses and shrubs with some bright red dirt now and then. We made good time & arrived in Bourke a bit after 3pm and refuelled before heading a few kilometres north of Bourke to the Kidman’s Way caravan park. This park is very nice indeed, after setting up Tereza & I went for a walk to the banks of the Darling River. This river is also flowing deep and fast, with lots of dried mud on the bank from recent flooding events. There is a paddle wheel river boat tied up to the bank, PV Jandra, built in 2000 and modelled on an old original paddle wheel steamer. The Jandra is used for pleasure cruises along the Darling River.

The walk back to the park is equally pleasant.  What a difference a day makes, the temperature is 16C and we Canberrans felt quite comfortable to cooked & sit outside with Sue & John for dinner & a glass or two of red chatting [RT1] as the near full moon rises & lights up the sky. As the sun goes down it gets cold & we retreat into the heated comfort of our vans for the night.  Another great day.

 [RT1]