On the road, across country NSW

We finally hit the road on Friday 16th June, after getting our medical done for our visa. In light of all that excitement and the fun of packing everything up and moving out we decided to enjoy one last bit of luxury before getting stuck into the camping proper. We drove out to a small country town called Rylstone, about 1 hour north of Lithgow on the other side of the Blue Mountains. We enjoyed the luxuries of a log fire and spa for 2 days, and didn't do a great deal else. We did manage to find our way to the local coffee shop half an hour before it closed on the saturday afternoon for a smooth latte and a slice of white chocolate and berry cheesecake. We discussed the idea of staying in Rylstone for four months and posting other peoples pictures and stories on the website, but thought we should probably make the effort. So on sunday we packed up and hit the road proper.

We drove along the highways through country NSW, enjoying being away from the city traffic. At one point we pulled over and I helped a couple of guys fix up a leaking fuel line in their commodore. Sunday evening found us rolling into the Warrumbungles National Park. Warrumbungles is Aboriginal for crooked mountains. We pitched camp and hoped that it wouldn't be too cold. I got up on Monday morning to find frost on everything. On its first night the doona had proved its worth, keeping us toasty warm in our sleeping bags. We set off on a walk in the park to see the Breadknife, a thin straight sliver of rock standing about 90 metres high. When we finally saw it I was a bit underwelmed. It features strongly in the guide books and the visitor centre, so I was expecting a ridge that ran through the park impressively, but it was actually on the side of the ridge line, and towered over by bigger outcrops. Nevertheless, the views and walk were impressive and enjoyable.

Tuesday saw the beginning of the big distances, with a four hour, 380km, drive through country NSW to a town called Cobar, an old copper mining town. On the way we passed officially into the Outback according to a sign by the road. Picked for its location on the highway more than anything else, we pulled up there to stay the night before heading on the following morning to Broken Hill, a further 450kms down the same road. That meant a 5.30am alarm call, and on the road by 7am. We started to experience the long straight roads heading to the horizon and big scrub plains as far as the eye could see. We were surprised at the number of tree though. I nearly bagged my first 'roo on the bullbars as well after skippy leapt out from behind a bush right in front of the truck. My spidey sense helped avert that one.

We arrived in Broken Hill at a reasonable time, so set up at the caravan park and headed off to Silverton, a small collection of houses 25km north into the desert. Silverton is famous for a number of reasons. It still has a few buildings showing settler era architecture and its pub has featured in many films and tv ads, including Mad Max II, Dirty Deeds and A Town like Alice. The best part of all is that Mad Max's Interceptor is parked outside the pub, and I managed to bag the parking spot next to it for a particularly good photo. After a cold beer and a sausage roll we headed on to the Sculpture in the Desert, a series of carvings done by some artists in the late 90s. Shortly after I remarked on how nice it was that we hadn't run into any families with annoying little brats a convoy of 4WDs rolled up and a whole group of feral little bogan shits got out. B guided me away before I cracked it and threw them off the side of the hill.

Up early again the next morning we drove out to MutaWintji National Park. The drive was our first experience of red dirt gravel roads, but we couldn't see much of it due to low lying fog meaning I could barely see 10 metres in front of the truck. We set off early so we could catch a guided tour to one of the restricted areas in the park. We were shown around some historical Aboriginal art sites, and told how they lived off the land, using plants and trees to cure illness, feed themselves and navigate. The park served as a meeting place for tribes from South Australia, Queensland, NSW & Victoria for the past 10 - 15,000 years. The following day we did a walk along some of the many gorges in the park. The walk took us up onto the top of the gorge to give spectacular views across the Byngnano Range that forms part of the park.

Early on Saturday morning we left the park and hit the road for the 550km trip to Port Augusta, South Australia. The drive began with more long straight stretches through the desert scrub, but as we neared our destination the countryside changed back to rolling farmland, much like we'd left some 1200kms earlier in NSW. Port Augusta finally hove into view as we came through a very pleasant range of hills, only for the view to be spoilt somewhat by the power station down on the plain. Ah well. We pulled into town, found a bottle shop to get some wine and headed to the campsite for dinner and a cheeky red, bringing to an end our first week on the road.

Check out the photos on the albums page. matt

posted by Matt, Sunday, June 25, 2006.