Sunday on the road again!

 No rain! And a steady 10 degrees!

I have had a fantastic day - steady driving but a lot to see and think about. 

Turned off the Cobb Highway at Pretty Pine onto the Moulamein road - this certainly brightened the landscape! 

 

From Deniliquin to Moulamein is approximately 120k of isolated country driving. I had a total of 6 cars pass me and it feels like you are really in the outback. The countryside is low and flat with scrubby eucalypts, Blue bush and Salt bush covering much of the land - the low bumpy blue bush predominating. Salt bush can grow up to 1.5 metres high 

Heaps of wildlife today - roos, goats, cattle and occasionally sheep.  Saw my first emus! So well camouflaged in the brown-grey landscape. Some road kill, although not as much as I would have anticipated. Sadly an emu and a very hairy Billy goat were among their number. 

Ravens and choughs congregate on the road attacking the roadkill, barely rising out of the way as the car approaches.  In about 10k I saw 4 gorgeous Wedge-tailed eagles.  This handsome fellow was huge: he was sharing a 'roo with a flock of ravens and was reluctant to leave his dinner only managing to make the paddock beside the road. I thought he might come back but he just stayed still, watching me before finally lumbering into the air.  In my rear vision mirror I could see the ravens returning but the wedgie had lost interest.

 

 

 The road is so straight - now and then red dirt tracks leave the road and disappear amongst the trees and tantalising signs on gates over cattle grids such as Waneroo and Gumbayara  Station remind you that this is still agricultural land. Occasionally a homestead or a shed is visible in the distance.

 

This Moulamein road is a traveling stock route and signs announce "Cattle on road" as you approach a mob. There's a small mob today moving at a snails pace, back and forth across the road shepherded by a drover, not on horseback but in a comfortable looking ute. At night he runs an electric line before and behind the cattle to hold them in place. One man doing the work of several in days gone past! 

 

I am curious: is the mob going anywhere specifically or moving up and down the road because feed is scant back at their property? It is so nice to see this old tradition of traveling a mob on the "long paddock!"

 

I turned onto the Sturt Highway at Balranald and traffic conditions changed dramatically! Huge transporters thunder down the road at a furious pace - some doubles but also treble containers. It's the highway for the grey nomads too; so many caravans beetling along at a pace. The speed limit is 110K. I am constantly overtaken. I have the cruise control on 105k - on these long straight roads it doesn't seem too fast! 

 

Time for coffee! The Discovery Centre at Balranald is warm and welcoming with a friendly lady behind the counter happy to chat about the region.  It's one jumping off point for Mungo National Park and popular with people enjoying the river systems. Alas, the tiny museum next door is closed - it's Sunday. 

 

But outside - one of the original Bills Horse troughs. Around 700 of these horse drinking troughs were installed around Australia for working horses to drink at, in memory of the horses who served in World War 1 who did not return.  A trust set up by George and Annis Bills financed them and many are still to be found especially in country towns. 

 

 

The border with Victoria and South Australia is "blink and you'll miss it!" but shortly afterwards signs begin informing you of the strict quarantine conditions applying in SA. Soon I stop and have to declare that I have no fruit or vegetables but my boot and back seat is still inspected. 

 

The sky has really darkened as the afternoon wears on and I run into short sharp showers. But after the showers - a rainbow!

 

 

Overnight at Renmark - river boat paradise. Tomorrow I will reach the Flinders Ranges and my real adventure will begin!