26 June 2026

 26 Jun 2026

Another early wake-up today, as the road workers start early everywhere, and there are a lot of roads that need a heck of a lot of work everywhere around Australia. Early enough for a walk around town to get a couple of sunrise pics of Cobar before we hit the road.

Cobar Miner's Memorial

Looks like another nice road trip day out, and started off early enough and were well underway by 7:30 am. Nice quiet roads and only a little fog about, too.

Two hours later I stopped for a quick stretch and chocolate milk at Emmerdale Roadhouse, fairly much in the middle of nowhere. There is a powered campground here and the roadhouse, with food and fuel available, and to be honest, that is about it. Actually there is a for sale sign on the fence, so if anyone fancies a lifestyle/business in the middle of nowhere then maybe contact the agents.

Actually, I met a fellow who was camping there, and we had a bit of a chat about the car and the weather, and where he'd been travelling. He was a photographer, and he asked me to move the car to a spot next to some groundwater so he could get a reflection shot of the car with a road train, that happened to be parked there in the background and the wide-open nothingness behind them. He was going to edit the pics and let me know how they turned out, but I haven't heard anything lol.

An hour and a half later, Wilcannia is the next stop along the way; it's the only town we have to pass through and a good fuel stop too. There are two fuel locations in this place one out of the way down a side road that has a long line of 4x4s and caravan waiting at it (probably all want diesel) and another on the main through road that mustn't do diesel as it wasn't busy. Wilcannia looks like a sleepy little place, very tidy, but quiet. A lot of closed businesses here too. Broken Hill is probably their closest place for services, but that is still 197 kilometres away.

And so Wilcannia visited, and back in the car for the 197 kilometres to Broken Hill. Clouds started rolling in, and the road actually started getting a few corners and hills as we got closer to the town, which made a bit of a change to the long flat stretches.

After checking into the hotel (no big security fences or security shutters on the windows here, too), I took a drive up to the top of the mine to see the Miner's Memorial, The Line of Lode. It was freezing up there, and the cafe and facilities were closed for the day, but the memorial is accessible even when it is closed, so that was a good thing; it also offers a wide view over the town from up there.

After that, it was a drive over to the other half of the town; it is kind of split in two by the mine site, and a visit to a local landmark, Bell's Milk Bar, for hot chips and a chocolate milkshake!

Then back to the motel for a bit of a while to edit some posts and have a break before heading out for a dinner search and night-time sights.

 

Miner's Memorial from downtown at night