Go the Maroons!

Another 532km down, something, something, something to go.

I’m stopping for the night in Forbes in a much nicer place than the flea trap I stayed in last night. It’s called the Lake Forbes Motel and has all of the mod cons one would expect of a place much more expensive. It even has an HD LCD TV for watching the State of Origin, although that was not a factor in picking it…honest.

I’m finding that the easiest way to figure out distances is to look for the McDonalds signs. They seem to be everywhere and always tell you how far to the next town. The roads are long and straight and remind me of those scenes in American movies where the vanishing point seems a million miles away. 

The countryside seemed to only have two modes. Mostly it was dry and brown with the stock standard gum trees but occasionally I would round a bend and vast green fields would be spread before me like some sort of giant golf course.

Bambi has had little to do today. She told me which way to turn as I pulled out of the motel, then just told me to drive straight on for a few hundred km’s while she sat back and had a coffee. The only time she woke up was to tell me to slow down when I reached one of the infrequent little towns that had annoying 60km speed zones to stop me from running over the school kids.

I stopped for my morning coffee in Narribri and was very impressed with the town. It has the Australian Cotton Centre (I almost stopped) a theatre and a nice little river running through the middle of town. Lunch was a couple of hours later at a truck stop in Gilgandra and was regretting it on the road a short time later. I think the complete lack of interest from the woman on the grill should have been a clue. give me a few fried bugs or intestines on a stick any day.

When I left Gilgandra I studied the map and figured that Forbes seemed like the best overnight choice. Sadly I had forgotten about the “Dish” in Parkes. It wasn’t until I saw a sign on the road saying it was coming up (in a couple of hundred km) and just knew that I would have to stop. I did stop, but only made it about 15 minutes before the visitor centre closed. I just had enough time to have a quick look around and buy a fridge magnet. I did take a couple of photos though. For those getting this by email the photos will be on my blog page at www.planettrekker.info if you want to see what I’ve seen.

Once out of the Dish it was just a quick but confusing trip through Parkes itself and then a dash along the road to Forbes. I am now set up with some salad I bought from the local Woolworths (eating healthy, who would have guessed?) and ready to watch Queensland dish it out to NSW again. I may just have to keep the cheering down because I am now deep in Blue territory and the natives may not take to kindly to it.