Coonabarabran

Friday, 21 September 2012

The trains didn’t bother us last night (don’t think there were any) and the trucks on the nearby Newell Highway weren’t really a problem either, especially once the thunder started. We had a lot of thunder last night, an enormous amount of thunder, actually. Thunder also means lightning to match, which we also had plenty of. Fortunately, the centre of the storms seemed to bypass Goondiwindi by a couple of kilometres, which meant we didn’t receive too much rain.

Having stayed hitched up, it was an easy pack up this morning and we were on the road before 8.00 am for the drive south to Coonabarabran. The traffic wasn’t too bad to start with, but the road did deteriorate the closer we got to Moree, then became very bumpy, with a poor surface between Moree and Narribri. Because of the road condition and road works, this was the section of road where the traffic did really build up, with quite a few trucks coming up behind us. I must say that the truckies today were very well behaved and we didn’t hear one naughty word! The highway bypasses most of Moree, so it wasn’t necessary for us to drive through the town, nor did we need to stop there.

The country around Moree/Narribri is extremely flat, with grain and cotton being the major crops. There is no way a farmer would set out to plough his “top” paddock before lunch – most likely it would be before the end of the week! The sky was very thunderous and threatening looking all morning, but we were lucky to escape the rain. After Narribri, the flat paddocks gave way to scrubby hills – the bush looked very pretty with the wattles and brooms in flower.

We are staying at the John Oxley Caravan Park n Coonabarabran – quite a nice park, with large grassy sites, some shady and some sunny. The town does have a Woolworths, so we were able to stock up on some essentials (the packet of M & Ms in the glovebox is nearly empty!).

The Swans flag is being faithfully flown today, in readiness for tonight’s game.