To Dubbo

Well, the getting up and out thing didnt work today. We did get up but then faffed about, speaking to the boys ( who rang us) and generally taking ages doing nothing in particular. 

However, we were away by 0945, stopped just across the road for a Subway for lunch, and then kept going up through the Warrumbungle National Park before turning off down some dirt roads to Dunedoo. This is the hotel where we stayed last night, by the way...

I had a few fishtail moments on the sand, that horrible fine stuff that you cant really see until you’re right in it. But it was ok, and I just went with the bars and stayed up. But the road was actually a good route choice because it was empty; I think we saw  just seven vehicles all the way to Dunedoo.

It was hot too, that dry dusty desert hot , accompanied by a hot wind that gets to you after a while. But we had plenty of water and just kept swilling it so it was OK.

A measure of how dry it is are the empty creeks. Dry parched riverbeds, with not even a trickle of water for the cattle, and more cattle feeding along the verges. 

We did pass an emu farm at one stage, which was pretty funny with these giant chicken like things standing and staring at us. Then they suddenly legged it, en masse, across the non existent grass which they had grazed down to nothing,  great big feet lifting right up off the ground as they ran away. Thankfully, the lot we saw were behind fences which stopped them running across the roads, and we didn’t have any mishaps.

The Subways were scoffed at Dunedoo, a place where apparently there was a plan to attract tourists by building a three storey toilet block. I have no idea why and there is no evidence of it to date, but it wouldnt surprise me if it happened. Afterall, this is the land of the giant merino, a giant banana, and the giant prawn, so a giant toilet block wouldnt be out of place. But who would use it? There were few people about today, and few towns in the surrounding area, and its not the most obvious place you would travel to to park yesterday's meals.

There was also some peculiar art work along the main street. Peculiar because it was a bit out of place, but relevant at the same time. Metal sculpted local birds.They were quite good once I realised what they were - they did look a bit like some of the roadkill skeletons we've seen along the way from a distance - and top fact of the day: Dunedoo is derived from an aboriginal word for Black Swan, of which there were none to be seen. Just as well then that I've seen them on the Serpentine in London.

So after Dunedoo, we rode through a selection of very small towns, none of which were particularly memorable, except for Elong Elong, (so good they named it twice.) and eventually reached Dubbo by mid afternoon. 

It was only when I stopped that I realised that I was covered in red dust, courtesy of the gravel and red sand roads we had been on.  But the bloke at the campsite still let me in, so it can’t have been that bad.