The day after the next day

Well, Gordon got released from hospital late yesterday afternoon but too late to get the train and bus to Cobar. And having finally confessed to feeling crap, he stayed in Orange just like I'd suggested.   He's going to travel today, assuming he feels OK; its a six hour trip.

But that gave me a bit of time to sort stuff. I was up at 0630 and out by 0645 on my bike, looking round the town to see what is what and have a gander round the place. It was relatively cool too, a mere 25º so just right for a ride.

Ian had pointed out various things yesterday  on way to collect the bike, so I went back for a closer look.

Cobar is a big mining town, with gold, silver, copper and lead all being extracted. I think times have changed in terms of what is currently being mined, but mining is  still very much  a thriving industry. 

Fort Bourke is a lookout above an open cast mine ( disused) so I went up there and checked it out. Its one big old hole in the ground.

The lookout also gives views of the surround and the mallee scrub, which is surprisingly thick and hard to navigate ( Malle is a type of eucalyptus scrub I think which is common in these semi arid areas of Oz) 

Various animals live in it, including domestic cattle which roam freely, feral goats, mallee hens, emu, roos and of course snakes and goannas.

But I wasn't the only one to have visited recently. I thought the beer bottles they'd left looked pretty good in the early morning sun.

Ian also told me of two suburbs that are no longer there, having been abandoned and swallowed up by the scrub and sand. But if you look, there are still signs of habitation, like various derelict walls and telegraph poles that mark where streets used to be. Its quite surreal but it made for a good Sunday morning explore.

One thing that has always amazed me about the outback are the flood markers. 

Here is a vast area of flat arid land and in the case of Cobar, no natural water source ( no river, hardly any rain, no bore, and very little vapour precipitation.) Yet all along the highway are depth markers and floodways because when it does rain, the ground is so hard packed that it can't soak in and so just spreads. The last time it rained here was on Christmas Day but that was only 25mls, so no floods.

And the goats. Well apparently they now get rounded up from time to time and flown ( live) to the Middle East for meat.  But only the black goats; the rest are just left to get on with being feral and eating what little vegetation there is. It's something to do with religious requirements. So goats, if you don't want a one way trip and you're black, leg it from the man .

By 0900 the sun was getting hot so I rode back to town, bought some food, then pottered about in the shade  for most of the day.  

I couldn't make out why I was so hungry until I realised that apart from a brief scoff last night, I hadn't eaten for two days. It's funny how basic things pale into oblivion when there are more pressing things to deal with.