20160316 – Wednesday – Leaving Pauline and Barrie from Tristan Coles’ home

After I left Tristan Coles’ place, I decided I would travel down the coast, the way I came, but it didn’t happen that way.

Somehow or other I found myself on the way to Broken Hill and it was too late to turn back in the end. Anyway, I was happy in the end that I did go this way because it showed me that it takes less time and is an easier trip to come from Adelaide through Broken Hill if I ever decide to visit Cobar again. I found it a really peaceful and pleasant trip.

I stayed overnight at Wilcannia and a caravan park called Warrawong which is a brand new caravan which has just been built and only recently opened. It did cost me $27 for the night, but I felt it was worth it. I went to the office and past a group of people sitting under a covered area. It turned out that it was “happy hour” at Warrawong and drinks and finger food was put on by the camp owners.I don’t expect they will always do that, but since it was new and they were trying to build up the number of tourists using the camp site, it seemed like a good idea to them.

The woman at the desk directed me to a park on the grass just in front of the toilet block. I was very happy with this, so no need for a chamber pot for this night.

I find I am not very sociable on these trips, I seem to be happy with my own company. the campsite has a number of brand new cabins and the toilet block is very nice; big, clean and spacious. I had a shower and ate the other part of my steak sandwich and  went straight to bed.

It was very hot and I had developed an aching left wrist. I realized eventually that it was RSI from gripping the wheel of my car too tightly. I also could not remember whether I had taken my insulin in the morning. This was a real worry. If I had taken my drugs, then there was no way I should risk taking more. If I hadn’t taken my insulin, then my sugar levels were likely to be very high, both alternatives were not good for me. What I did do, was take 10 units of Lantus which would help me if I hadn’t taken my insulin in the morning, and would mitigate against not having enough insulin, but would not be too much if I had taken my insulin in the morning. I think that would have been okay, but I ended up taking another 5 units of insulin, and the result of that was that in the middle of night I woke up having a hypo.

I was drenched with perspiration and felt very hot. I fell out of bed and sat in my plastic chair and looked up at the stars. I began to take stock of what I had in the car to eat that would raise my sugar levels. I decided on a small tin of spaghetti and a small tin of baked beans and some Ryvita biscuits. If I had a banana that would be better, becuase a banana has just enough sugar to raise my sugar levels from being dangerously low to just enough not to spike my levels up too high. I didn’t have a banana, though, so baked beans and spaghetti it was.

I have found something really strange about eating after a hypo. Food tastes simply delicious, way out of proportion to what food normally tastes like. I ate the baked beans, then the spaghetti and it was like nectar. Then I ate five Ryvita biscuits and they were simply delicious. I ate them slowly, savoring each morsel. It was actually quite enjoyable, out there in the night with the stars overhead and a light breeze stirring my hair. Gradually my shirt top dried off and everything was so peaceful. I just love traveling all by myself along the highway as I was doing.

20160317 – Thursday – Wilcannia to Broken Hill

I woke up late next morning because of  having the hypo and I just lay there for quite a while. Eventually I packed my trailer up. All that needed was to put my box and my chair on the bed and close up the tail gate and zip up the cover. Soon I was on my way. I decided not to take my next lot of drugs until I got to a place to have breakfast so I exhorted myself to remember to take them then.

I’m driving towards Broken Hill and I am about 135 k away. It is a little bit hilly here with the shrubby sort of trees, trees that up in Cobar they would describe as “woody weed,” but I don’t know what they wuld call them here.

It is a beautiful day and I have just passed a really nice rest area that I should remember for next time I come this way. The next rest area is called Topaz and it is about  45 k away.  Australia is such a very beautiful country, but it is a sunburnt country, and not a soft muted English countryside. I think you have to be an Australian to love it as I do. It has a spirit about it that is different to any other country.

I just saw some sort of council vehicle and a man was dragging a kangaroo off of the road. I often wondered what they did about the many dead kangaroos on the road because they are quite dangerous to your tires at least if you run over a carcass on the road.

The time now is 10.18 am and I have just taken my drugs I am 80k out of Broken Hill and I have come to an hotel here which is also a road house and there are a number of trucks parked here so that means the food is going to be good. You can always tell that when there are a number of trucks parked outside an eating house, then the food will be good and plenteous. The place is called Little Topar

I am coming into Broken Hill now, so I can see the mines in front of me and a mountain of slag towering over it all.  This is the town where Olive Riley lived, where Emma Dangerfield, Olive’s beloved sister was buried and Olive recently erected a tombstone on the empty grave site. So many of my Dangerfield rellies lived and worked at Broken Hill at one time or another. Broken Hill is in such a dry barren area but when water is applied to the red soil then the plant life flourishes.

Just out of Broken Hill, I pulled into a rest area and had a rest for a while because I was tired. I hadn’t stayed in the town at all.  Peter and Pat had told me to go to a museum there which had a huge painting of the area lit up with lights which was very impressive, but I couldn’t think what the name of the place was, so I didn’t stay in Broken Hill. I also made up my mind that I would not stay in big towns because it is hard to find good places to stay that are cheap and I like staying in the small towns and the out of the way places rather than the built up areas.

It is now 2.14 pm and I am about to be on my way again. I like driving alone, and I love some of these dry areas. The sky is so big and arching over everything and if I turn my head it is as if I am sitting on top of a ball

The land that I am coming into now has a lot more vegetation on it. There is a railway that runs beside the road I am driving on. A semi-trailer just passed me and it was really weaving a lot on  the road and nearly side-swiped me. I have had a few close shaves on this trip. I think the angels have been looking after me, because any one of them could easily have been the end of me.

I paused at Olary where there is a hotel and attached to it is a a rest area that you can stay in overnight for free, but I decided not to stay there. I decided that I would go on to Yunta. It is now 3.30 pm and it will take me about an hour to get there. I will have dinner somewhere and then go to bed.

I have just passed through Mannahill which is a small one-horse place where there is a hotel where you can get food, but once again, I don’t think I will stop here.

Yunta is 43k from here, so that’s where I will go to stay the night. I just took some photos of some funny hills that look as though they are diggings from a mine, but they can’t be because they are so large and so long. At Yunta I purchased a steak sandwich and ate half of it. It was lucky I ate it in the cafe because I had  left my keys on the counter !!! and the girl behind the counter found them some time later and brought them over to me.I seem also to have lost my earphones as well so I am not very happy about it.I think I might have left them at Cobar. Now I am heading towards Farrell Flat which is 3 ½ hours away. I don’t know how far I will get tonight because I don’t usually like driving so late. I like to be parked and able to eat a meal and go to bed pretty early in the afternoon.

I don’t know how I managed to do it, but when I left Yunta, even though I had set up my GPS and keyed Farrell Flat into it as my destination, I ended up going north instead of south.  I found myself back at Mannahill!!! So I had traveled about 50 ks back the way I had come. I was not happy with myself. I turned back and went once again towards Yunta.

I was now traveling towards Farrell Flat. I decided that I didn’t want to stay at Mitch’s and Deb’s place at Farrell Flat but did want to visit them. I decided that I would just park somewhere close by and visit tomorrow. I will also visit Lynne Shrive and Andrew Quixley.

It is raining, so now it is not very hot outside. In a few days, the grass will start to spring. I have passed some emus on the road. They were just strolling along there beside the road. I am hoping that I don’t get too tired and that I can keep going. Emus are such amazing looking creatures.

I am passing those hills again that don’t look like real hills. As I drive along I think of Sir Sydney Kidman. I thought of all that I have read about him, and how he rode all over this country and was able to interpret the lie of the land and watch the patterns of water retention and dispersion that decided the movement of cattle to keep them alive when there were droughts or floods.

He was such an amazing man. He seemed to understand the whole structure of the land and make sense of everything. Also everyone he met he figured they knew something that he didn’t so his carefully placed questions used to gain information from them that they didn’t even realize they were giving him.

He knew where all the major waterways were and where they flowed and what happened when they flowed. On this information he used to buy up stations so that no matter what disaster occurred he would always have somewhere to take his cattle to keep them safe and well fed. If there was drought in one area he knew where to go to find grass and water somewhere else for his cattle. Because of his forsight, he usually owned the land that allowed access to such watered areas.

I am still so annoyed at myself for driving the wrong way! I am still not yet at Yunta and iit is 6.15 pm and I should be in bed by now. I am glad there are sign posts on the road. If I hadn’t seen that sign that said Mannahill, I would probably still be going in the wrong direction and be halfway back to Cobar by now!!

It is raining. The good thing is it is cleaning my car which was all covered in yellow dirt. Now I am at Yunta again. I could stay here, It would probably be the best thing to do really, but I think I would like to get nearer to Farrell Flat so that I can call in to Mitch tomorrow, so I think I will just keep going.

I am leaving Yunta now. The time is 6.36. I don’t really need to go to bed until about 8.00 pm so I can probably drive for a couple more hours. Next time I go driving any distance I think I will buy one of those head rests you put around your neck that allows you to comfortably rest your head against the neck rest at the back of your head. That would support my neck better.

It is really pleasant driving now. It is all damp outside and everything looks beautiful and it is quite cool and pleasant. Even though I have air conditioning in my car I can still tell that it is different outside. When it is raining, there is not as much likelihood of there being kangaroos on the road because they are not coming for the water that lies at the edge of the road.

I have started up google maps again and I have set Farrell Flat as my destination, so this time I am heading in the right direction. I have just passed through the quarantine area and I am 1 ¼ hours away from Farrell Flat. I drove to Clare in the end, I checked Wikicamps and found a place called the Pioneer Park which is a day area for travellers. It has toilets that are lit up and open all night, a playground for children, a rotunda for meals which is lit up all night I noticed.

It was not supposed to be for night stay, but I decided to stay. I parked far back in the park beside some trees and where my car and trailer could not be seen from the road. I sent a message to Mitch, but he says that he and Deb are in Adelaide at the moment and not at Farrell Flat. They only left two days ago and are sorry they have missed me.

I sent a message to Lynne Shrive and she’s going to be home tomorrow so I am to call and visit with her and Peter tomorrow. My trip is nearly over and I feel as though I would like to just go on forever.