Beyond the Black Stump.......

Wednesday 22nd March 2017

     Day three began with the usual pack up routine, followed by one almighty thunderstorm  Very impressive fork lightening, thunder and 19 mm of rain in 20 minutes. (fortunately we were on the move by the time the rain hit)   This shower managed to rinse the crud off the van that we accumulated yesterday.

     Within half an hour the rain had gone and we continued the rest of the day in bright sunshine.


    We stopped for a short tour of Merriwagga.   This towns claim to fame is that is the origins of the term "The black Stump" (and therefore one can venture beyond it!)

     The story goes that a drover upon returning to his home camp found his wife  had perished, having fallen into a cooking fire   It is said that he said that she was unrecognisable, "Just a black stump".   Fact or fiction???....well it's a good yarn.

     We continued north on the Kidman Way, named for the legendary cattle king.   The road is of excellent quality, which makes a nice change from the roads around home. 

     We stopped for a stroll around Hillston, a cotton and orange growing area.   After looking through the tourist information booklet, we saw that the area has a cotton gin, and that a tour was on offer.   We spoke with a local shopkeeper, asked about the tour, and were told that they hadn't done tours for more than two years......   Apparently the people putting the brochure together didn't bother asking if the tours were still running.   We didn't tour the cotton gin.

    
     We continued on our way, deciding to have lunch at Mount Hope....well there is a fuel pod, a pub and a toilet block.....

     After lunch we continued on to Cobar.   The Cobar shire is of a similar size to Tasmania.....except the shire has only 7,000 residents.....     Cobar is a copper and gold mining town, with an open cut mine, from which was removed 3.6 million tonnes of rock.

     We found a beaut spot to free camp, set up camp and kicked back with a couple of cool beverages, outside temperature at Cobar, a balmy 36 degrees......