The Road to Bourke

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The road to Bourke passed through cattle and sheep country. It was largely flat, with little vegetation and appeared monotonously the same. However it bears noting for a couple of reasons.



Firstly, we calculated, based on observation that since leaving Clermont we had averaged 5 pieces of road kill every kilometre. That’s 500 per 100 km. A whopping 2,000 in just the distance we covered that day. That’s an awfully large number of animals killed on the road. These were mainly kangaroos, a smattering of wild pigs and even the odd sheep. Of course these were not all fresh. The fresh ones were often covered by crows which have obviously learnt if, or when they need to flee for their life.



Secondly, a scary driving experience. All of a sudden Greg seemed to have no control over the car and caravan. It lurched from side to side and wobbled all over the road. Thinking we may have blown a tyre we slowed down and pulled off the road to find this was not so. We checked everything over and all seemed OK. Gingerly we took off again without any problem. We were rather baffled. We have come to the conclusion the back of the van may have been hit by a wurlie or wind eddy. These seem to occur frequently in this area and are not always easy to spot. We have experienced a couple of these in caravan parks where they have swept through quite viciously blowing over chairs and any light equipment outside, severely rustling the awning and are gone in less than 30 seconds.



“Camels!” yelled Greg. We pulled over and sure enough there were camels sheltering under the trees in the distance. They seemed to be mixed up with a herd of cattle so we are not sure if they were totally feral or farmed. We have not seen any signs warning us of camels so weren’t looking for them. Unlike WA where there were warnings everywhere and we saw none.



Finally, we crossed into NSW and daylight saving. Yeah! Sunrise at a sensible time.

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Photos

Our lunch spot fits the bill.
Greg decided to find a lunch spot. It had to be flat, have shade, be safely off the road and easy to access.