Off to See the Wizard - Kimba to Home

KIMBA TO OLARY

Kimba is a town I have been aware of for a very long time, as my favourite cartoon as a kid was “Kimba the White Lion”.  It is a nice, bright, vibrant little town, in contrast with those surrounding it.  The main street is fresh, the houses are tidy, with nice gardens.  You can see that it takes pride in itself and has some community minded people.  Having the initiative to create the free camp was a great idea, as I’m sure most of the travellers would wander up and down the street, buying a coffee and maybe some other bits and bobs, as well as supporting the supermarket.  Having said that, we didn’t, which is pretty sad….. next time.

We wanted an early start, as now that we had really set our mind to getting home, we just wanted to get home, if you know what I mean.  Therefore, we were on our way before the shops had opened.

We did have a couple of stops first.  The silo art was a must.  This one was painted in 2017, which makes it one of the first.  Of course, this is a draw card for people to visit as well.

Yes, we were able to add a photo of the ute and van in front of it to add to our collection.

Kimba has been placed on the map for many years due to its own “big thing” - The Big Galah.  It was always just painted pink and grey, and had been looking rather down at heel.  I read that it has had a refresh.  When we saw it, all I could say was “Wow!”.  I had assumed it would just be painted pink and grey again, but this is so much more.  It really is beautiful.

And big, once you see it next to the ute.

I didn’t realise, but Kimba is the halfway point between the east and west coasts.  Yep, another caravan photo had to be taken.  

Enough of the photo opportunities,  we had some miles to eat up.

Further along, we noticed what looked like mining.  It was Iron Knob, which is an iron ore mine, funnily enough.  It has been operating since 1900 and the iron ore from here helped create Australia’s steel industry, supplying ore to Newcastle, Port Kembla and Whyalla. It has also been exported.  The mine was closed for a time, but is now operating again.

Another feature beside the road is this row of water tanks with graffiti, ads and all sorts of painting.  We have stopped and taken a photo of the bike here on a previous trip.

And then we were back at Port Augusta.

We had made it back to the start of it all, when we turned north into the part of Australia we had never visited.  Now we would just be backtracking until we arrived home.

One final look at the sea before heading inland, with rain falling on the Flinders Ranges in the background.  During our travels we had seen the Timor Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Great Australian Bight, the Souther Ocean and Spencer Gulf.

Back through Horricks Pass, our first steep windy road, since the Hammersly Ranges in northern Western Australia.

Wattle.  It must be spring.

Look how lush it is.  It must be spring….and South Australia, having a stone ruin.

Canola in flower.  It must spring.

Back to Peterborough.  We had considered stopping overnight here, but there was still plenty of daylight and Mick was feeling fine, so we had a late lunch and kept on our way.

While we were stopped we came across this fellow riding a postie bike dressed like Where’s Wally.  He is raising funds for Soldieron.org to assist veterans with their mental health, as so many sadly take their own lives after having been to war zones. Of course, Mick and he got talking postie bikes and we threw him a few bob.  He has ridden around Oz and now is doing another half circuit.  Coincidentally, they interviewed him on our local radio station earlier this week, as he has just ridden through our area.  He has raised $52,000 so far, which is commendable.

We finally called it a day at the tiny locality of Olary.  Don’t you love the railway station.  There is a free camp opposite the pub.  Three vans parked up for the night.  

We popped over to the pub for a drink and got chatting to the publicans.  It turns out the pub had been closed for six years and they have bought the building and worked rather hard to get it up to scratch and opened earlier this year.  They still have a lot they want to do, but it is a nice place to visit.  Another of the campers came over too, and we ended up staying for dinner, which was delicious, and sat and chatted with the other campers.  It was a really enjoyable evening.

For mid week, there were quite a few in there.  There is a lot of road works going on in the area, so a few of the workers called in.  We got chatting to a young farmer.  They had just finished shearing that day.  They shore 14,000 sheep.  It took 8 weeks, which was much longer than usual, but they had issues with wet weather and it is so hard to get shearers at the moment.  Their property is 380,000 acres.  Those numbers are a bit hard to get your head around, compared to the size of properties over here.

The highlight of the day was our time in the Olary Pub.

OLARY TO COBAR

In the morning, I had a wander around the tiny village.  

What appears to have been the post office has burnt down. 

Apparently, the population was three, now that the pub has reopened, it is five.

There are some funny little old buildings and one just one nice home, which was obviously the hall in a previous life. Of course I forgot to take a photo of that one.

The camp site is right beside the railway line.

After another fairly early start it wasn’t too long until we crossed the border into New South Wales and returned to our home time zone.

Through Broken Hill, only stopping for fuel.

Then through Wilcannia, once again only stopping for lunch and fuel.  We noticed that the post office, which we have been watching get slowly restored as we have travelled through on various trips, had had its forecourt paved since we left home.

The Darling River was rather high, covering the lower parts of the park.

Everything was looking so lush, with lots of water lying in paddocks, and there were loads of wildflowers.  We didn’t expect to see drifts of them in this area.  They were lovely to see.  I suppose we haven’t been here before at this time of year and in such a good season.

You usually see quite a few feral goats on the roadside in this area and we commented on our way in July that we hardly saw any.  Well, we made up for it on the way back.  There were so many.  Fortunately, they generally seem to have pretty good road sense, unlike sheep and kangaroos.  

After a very long day, we arrived at Cobar, our destination for the night.

We free camped in the rest area of joining the large Cobar sign on the east side of town.  It looks rather spectacular in the night time, all lit up.

The highlight of the day was getting so far in one day.

COBAR TO HOME

Another early start, as we hoped to reach home in the day.

Driving through Nyngan, the Bogan River was in minor flood.  Walking tracks we had been on earlier in the year were under water.  The river was still rising at that stage, and with the subsequent rain it is probably still high.

We called in to Nevertire, as I spied the water tower painted.  I commented on our way to the Mundi Mundi Bash, back in April, that Nevertire was looking rather sad.  Well, things have changed.  

The artwork on the water tower was only completed in July 2022.

No wonder we hadn’t seen it before.

I love how it almost has a paint by number feel to it and how each side (not that a circle has sides) represents a different part of the local community.  By driving to see the water tower, we also saw more of the back streets.  There are some really nice, tidy houses there, that you are unaware of as you just drive along the highway.

Not only is the water tower painted, there is a new business “The Rural Trader” just about to open.  It looks like it will be a really nice, upmarket cafe.  What a pity it wasn’t ready to be tried out.

On the side of that building, facing the highway, there is also a new mural, completed by the same artist as the water tower, “Allfrey”, but in quite a different style.

The pub was looking nice and fresh too.  Here’s hoping the fortunes of the little town are turned around and people call in and support the businesses.

It was time for morning tea when we reached Trangie and we called in to a really cute little cafe on the corner of the highway.  Yummy homemade slices went down a treat.

Then it was just driving over familiar roads until we reached Bathurst, which even had a faint rainbow to welcome us.

It was nice to be home.

We had travelled half way across Australia in three days, and from nearly the other side in five days.  Not a bad feat.

The highlight of the day was seeing Nevertire looking alive……and getting home.