The drive to Dubbo, NSW – 3 days, 1,500km and a big bogan

With less than a month left before we were getting back to Sydney, we were keen to head back over to the east coast to enjoy some time on the beach before arriving back in Sydney. We decided to go via Dubbo so we could explore the Western Plain Zoo on the way through before hitting the coast. With more bad weather coming our way we decided to try to outrun it by covering the more than 1,500km it would take us to get to Dubbo in a few days. With the sun shining as we left Streaky Bay, we were all in good spirits as we drove past rolling fields of wheat, clearly in agricultural country, passing through the top of the Eyre Peninsula. We weren’t quite sure where we were going to stay tonight but Kat had been given a recommendation by a random guy in the skate park at Streaky Bay when she and Em were there. We looked it up and it sounded good so we headed for the Stoney Creek Bush Camp just outside of Wilmington. It was a pretty long drive that day so we were relieved to arrive about 4:30pm. It was an awesome place, set in the bushland, with fire pits at each site, a playground, and a camp kitchen complete with table tennis and darts. After setup, Oli got stuck into some new books while Em and I set and lit the fire. It was so nice to be having a real campfire again, having not really had one in a couple of months. We then tracked down a few marshmallow sticks and got straight into toasting some marshmallows before dinner. Kat and I even enjoyed a couple of cheeky ones too. We cooked a BBQ over the fire and after dinner Em and Kat enjoyed a story around the fire before bed.

Wanting to take full advantage of the fire, I got another one going in the morning which was a welcome source of warmth as it was still pretty cold until the sun rose a bit higher . We enjoyed breakfast around the fire before showers and pack up. Ready to go, we headed to the camp kitchen for a quick game of darts and then table tennis together before getting in the car and heading off. We stopped in Wilmington on the way out as we had been given a voucher for a free second coffee from the local cafe so figured we might as well. As luck would have it there was an op shop next door so Kat and the kids went inside to see what they could buy this time. As usual, the kids emerged with new things, Em some bunny ears which stayed on her head for the rest of the day, and Oli found a toy claw. Finally back in the car we were about to head out of town when we passed a toy museum which looked pretty interesting. Although we had a bit of a drive ahead, we figured it would be worth a look. We hopped out and rang the bell but there was no answer. After a few more tries we gave up and headed for the car, but then a guy appeared who could open the museum up so we headed back and went inside. It was an amazing collection of toys, which took Kat and I back to our childhoods, with Scalextric tracks, Matchbox cars, Meccano and heaps of other things. We spent about half an hour there before finally pushing on towards Broken Hill.

It was another lovely drive today, with the sun shining. After a brief stop to look at a giant gum tree just out of Orroroo, we stopped again in Peterborough for a photo at the town sign for mates of ours who lived in a place with the same name over in England about 10 years ago. We were almost at the end of the drive for the day when we reached the SA/NSW border. It was strange to finally be heading back into our home state, and made the looming end of the trip even more apparent. After a quick stop at the border, we pushed on to Broken Hill, and after swinging by the giant red bench for a quick photo we drove out to the racecourse where the town offered cheap camping. Not feeling like cooking that night we decided to track down a pizza place for dinner. Figuring we were all pretty hungry, we planned to order three pizzas but the guy at the counter said they were pretty big and maybe we should just go with two. I was not convinced, always worried I wouldn’t have enough to eat, but once the kids pizza arrived I realised I had nothing to fear. The pizza was a pretty standard size, but the amount of topping was unbelievable. A simple ham and pineapple pizza still had about 1.5cm of toppings, and we had ordered a pizza called ‘the kitchen sink’ which had pretty much everything you could imagine on it. When ours arrived, with a good inch of stuff loaded on top, we knew we would be stuffed. We ended up taking about three quarters of a pizza home with us which fed us again the next night!

We woke the next morning to more sunshine, and the sound of horses trotting around the track. The stands provided a great place to not only enjoy our breakfast but also watch the horses training. Knowing we had a big drive ahead of us, we packed up quickly and drove off around 9:30am. By the time we swung by the supermarket to restock we didn’t leave Broken Hill until closer to 10:30am, and set off on what turned out to be our longest drive of the trip so far. Just over 600km later, we arrived in Nyngan and after a very efficient check in we drove down to a lovely big patch of grass by the Bogan River and set up before heading to the camp kitchen to reheat our spare pizza for dinner. It was a great kitchen right on the river bank, and there were a few people water skiing up and down the river so we enjoyed that spectacle over dinner. After dinner Em was playing on a tall stool and when she jumped down to head to bed landed awkwardly and hurt her ankle. It wasn’t the first time she had hurt her ankle on the trip so we hoped it would not be anything too serious. I carried her back to the tent and got her into bed as the rain started to fall.

The next morning the rain was gone and we headed over to the camp kitchen for breakfast and journals by the river before packing up. Unfortunately Em’s ankle was still bad so it was back to carrying her around everywhere like we had to at Florence Falls when a similar thing. On the way out of town we stopped in central Nyngan to check out the Big Bogan, a massive and proud statue of a bogan with his stubbies, singlet, thongs, fishing rod, trucker cap and tattoo of the southern cross. I channeled my inner bogan as I posed next to him before we went for a walk through town. We ended up hanging there for quite a while so before we knew it we were ready for lunch. Having not prepared anything today, we decided to just buy it and enjoyed some takeaway burgers in the park before heading off towards Dubbo.