Thu 15th May – Day 7: Cobar to Wilga

We sauntered out to the Cobar Meteorological station for the 9:15am daily weather balloon release, just as the clouds began gathering. They showed us the daily process of collecting all the data – rainfall, humidity, solar, particulate matter etc while the kids shivered in the brisk breeze.
Hitching up the trailer, we headed for the Great Cobar Heritage Centre where we spent an informative hour or so wandering through the museum – amazingly everything was able to be touched, picked up and thoroughly examined so you will see pictures of kids riding in 1890 buggies, or sitting on ancient ploughs.
The lookout at Fort Bourke Hill wasn’t as spectacular as some we have seen but it gave the kids the idea of what an open cut mine is all about - the site of the New Cobar Gold Mine, Cobar’s first gold mine. Back on the road for a short time before turning onto the dirt where the land quickly flattened out and became quite desolate, skeletons littered the adjoining parched paddocks and we identified roos, sheep, cattle & goats that had succumbed to the lack of water. We saw our first wild emus and 100’s of grey kangaroos fleeing from our man-made dust storm.

The Coach and Horses bush camp at Wilga was deserted save for 1 other car and we quickly set up camp as the storm clouds gathered and the lightening followed the thunder in rapidly decreasing time frames. We got everything up before the rains began and so luxuriated under our awning drinking cold ‘corona’s’ while the other couples (another car pulled in behind us) remained car-bound (we did invite them over, but they preferred the safety of their cars!). The rain only lasted a short time and the boys took the opportunity to try their hand at fresh water fishing – lures galore – needless to say they returned 2 hrs later and asked ‘what’s for dinner’! Later that evening the stars came out in full glory and we set up the camp chairs in a clearing under the river gums, red wine in hand and gazed.

Coach & Horses Campground – Paroo Darling National Park ($14/night)