It was a chilly awakening this morning – 6 degrees in Orange – that gets the juices flowing!
Interestingly, within an hour or so the temp had risen to 16 degrees and we set off to explore the main street of Orange. I was surprised how little I recalled of the town, but we did only live there for a year, and it was 32 years ago. Gary did catch up with an old customer that he hadn't seen since we left and I’m sure was chuffed to here “I remember you, you were the only bank manager I ever had who I didn’t hate!”
Having conferred with Kevin and Maz we decided we would meet in Narromine for lunch and headed off for our morning drive. We stopped for petrol at Molong and Gary asked the best way to Narromine. “Definitely go through Dubbo” was the reply. We had planned to go along Banjo Paterson Way, (which does not go through Dubbo), and as we approached that turn off we thought, ‘no guts, no glory’ and decided to be adventurous. When we were soon dodging potholes and then hit the ominous ‘Gravel Road’ sign, we doubted ourselves…but it was short lived. The dirt road was only for a km or so, and the road improved enormously. It was a great trip and we arrived well before our travel partners who left ages before us and went through Dubbo. We felt like driving back to Molong to tell the petrol station lady that she needs to revise her advice.
We had a lovely picnic lunch in Narromine Park, visited the famous (?) Glenn McGrath statue, and then it was back on the road to head for Cobar, via Nyngan. It was a great road too. Straight, flat, 110 km/hr speed limit, virtually no traffic. Luckily we had downloaded an audio book or two and we were kept entertained by our first foray into what I think will be a great way to pass the time – listening to a book.
Arriving in Cobar at about 4pm, we unpacked our stuff and then went exploring to visit a couple of the local sites – the famous Cobar sign and Heritage Museum, a lookout to see a very large open cut mine, and the Newy Reservoir. It was 33 degrees and quite warm, though the locals laughed at us when we said it was hot. By 7pm we were sitting down to another brilliantly put together BBQ and salad, with a glass of wine, or in my case, bottle of Pimms, in hand. (Who has been keeping this stuff a secret? Thanks to my cricket team who introduced me to it!)
By 8pm, Marion and I had donned the bicycle helmets and were cycling around the caravan park, with a date booked for 8am tomorrow to cycle a little further afield. Big drive tomorrow, so hoping for a good night’s sleep – it’s still 28 degrees at 9pm.
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