It’s Friday, 22 May, and we’re in Bourke now – we left Broken Hill after being stuck in the van for 2 days due to rain.
There’s been quite a bit of rain in the area over the last few days which is great for the area, but not so great for us.
All the rain has brought out the wildlife. On the road between Broken Hill and Cobar we saw so many birds and animals –eagles, kites, hawks, kangaroos, emus, cattle and sheep, and lots of feral goats. I must admit, when I saw the goats my mind turned to thoughts of Nepalese Goat Curry, and roasted leg of kid the way Maggie Beer cooked it on The Cook and The Chef the other night. Hmmm, I must have been hungry 
.
We stopped overnight at Cobar and visited the Great Western Hotel which claims to have the longest lace work verandah in the State, or the Southern Hemisphere, depending on who you believe . This is a great hotel to have a drink in, especially at happy hour, between 5pm and 6pm – everyone talks to you. We met a lovely old guy who seems to have a mysterious past, some sort of government job – James Bond comes to mind! I guess it depends on whether you believe what you are told, but he was a lot of fun to talk to. The locals were also full of information about work in the area etc so it was good talking to them.
There isn’t any work around the Cobar area, so we headed off to Bourke. With all the rain, the area is really green.
We’ve been told there isn’t too much work around this area either, but we’ve booked in for 3 nights to give us a chance to check out the area.
We’re staying at the Kidman Rest Caravan Park which is a lovely park near the banks of the Darling River. It’s really pretty, the amenities are fantastic and the people are very friendly.
When we checked out the pool, there were quite a few frogs having a swim, including this really strange looking one – not sure what sort it is, but it’s quite cute in an ugly sort of way.
They have a good campfire area where they host camp oven dinners on Wednesday and Friday nights for $15/head, including entertainment. We didn’t eat there but we did go along to listen to the music for a while and it wasn’t too bad.
The following morning we went for a long walk down to the river and then into town to check out the sites. There are quite a few historical buildings
The old wharf has been reconstructed, but I think the river must have been a lot higher in the days of the original wharf. There are some huge river gums next to the wharf which are home to the large flocks of cockatoos in the area.
Later in the afternoon we dropped in to the Northy – the Back to Bourke Hotel for a drink. It’s a very basic pub, but friendly. The pub doesn’t do meals, but the roadhouse next door does, and you can take them into the pub to have with your drink. Mel behind the bar is really nice – her uncle owns the pub and she’s currently managing it for him. We met a group of young guys in town for some shearing work. Unfortunately due to all the rain the area has had, they hadn’t been able to start work – they were hoping it would start the following day.
On Sunday morning we went for another long walk, this time to a different part of the river then in the afternoon we went on the paddle steamer tour down the river which was quite pleasant. Too many people though – we should have done it on Saturday when only about half a dozen people went on the boat trip. Never mind.
We really like this area, but since there’s no work we’ll move on.
