Bound for South Australia 2023 – Day Two

Cooyar to Pilliga

Oh my, how good is sleep when your head is not consumed with ‘what do I have to do at work next week?’. The night was cold, the doona was warm and the morning coffee just right. It might take a while for the internal alarm to reset though as we were wide awake to long before 5am!

First sign was a white flash in my right hand mirror. A sedan of minimalistic proportions had begun its overtaking manoeuvre. The chrome bulbar on the Kenworth towing a B-Triple trailer shone brightly with the afternoon sun reflecting magnificently, creating its own light. The outfit was a stunning site as it trundled towards us at a good clip.

No matter the two lane road, a B-Triple, Landrover towing a van and a tiny white car don’t fit. If something didn’t happen now, the Forensic Investigators would write; “White car on incorrect side of the road hit head on with Kenworth, being then driven backwards into a Black Landrover. Pick the number of dead!

As it happened the gods gave me just enough time to see the brain dead fool, jag left off the road and brake hard allowing the last ten inches of space he needed to splice the gap between the Kenworth and us.

Only once before have we come so close to not coming home under our own steam. Shaken but not stirred! I congratulated the truckie via CB on his efforts of avoidance, he returned the sentiment. We both thought the car driver was a dick. G described him more appropriately. I think he may have worked for Hema!

So the day ended poorly yet started quite nicely. We snuck out of Cooyar at about 8.30am trying not to wake the growing group of motorhome owners, all headed to the Dalby muster. As we left the town we noticed a massive horse event day in the making at the showgrounds. The population of Cooyar had multiplied. One suspected in good country style as the grog flowed into the following night, the population had again multiply with the worldwide shortage of swags taking hold.

As predicted ‘that F$%*&#@g Hema the third’ lived up to its reputation. Working perfectly for the first hour or so, it then pulled Pilates move, pointed it’s butt to the sky and blew nothing but hot air. For a moment G decided it needed to go out the window. Thank god it was shut, and the box of death lived another day.

About Millmerran, ‘that F$%*&#@g Hema the third’ jumped from the grave and put on a faultless performance for the rest of the day if you can excuse about four wrong turns into the middle of somewhere.

With a keen eye upon getting back into the car after a fuel stop, G announced she had seen a snake under her seat. She was reasonably sure it was a green tree snake. She was not sure though.  Being the good husband, but completely inexperienced snake catcher, I launched into action. None of this long wire thing to twist the snake around. No, it was bare hands for this wildlife warrior.

Tension built; within but a few seconds I had eyed the culprit and with hands as swift as lighting, bagged the little beauty. He would never again terrorise the Landrover.  He was yummy and just what I needed for a snack.

Goondiwindi came and went, as did lunch in a town that closes down on a Sunday. We entered NSW and promptly forgot all about day light saving time bouncing along in good time towards our goal.

We slid through Moree, Narrabri and ended up in the Pilliga Forest. Well almost. We realised our mate from the Hema camp had got it wrong again. Still, all the years my dear old dad spoke of the Pilliga Scrub now meant something despite it now having an evolved name moving form Scrub to Forest. It appeared to still be a large area of stunted trees desperate for a cup of water.

The last 60 odd kilometres were sprinkled with some good dirt road. We marvelled at the way Puma silenced the corrugations and just powered on until………..”Roos”. The call went out instantly making the speed drop until we entered the town of Pilliga.

The chicken Snitz and chips at the pub was….. Well we were pretty hungry so a toasted cheese on cardboard would have gone done OK.

We ate, said hello to ‘dog’ who had seen far too many litters, and retired to a cooling night. Tomorrow is another big day. The holiday will start soon.