Dave's Odyssey - Outback New South Wales

The car as camper

The last week of August, Dave drove to Outback New South Wales alone in our white station wagon.  The station wagon was set up to provide a place to sleep, in the event no accommodation was available or if Dave wanted to "camp" somewhere.  He left on Monday and returned on Friday before noon.  On the first day, he drove 12 hours from Copacabana to Cobar (point A to C on the map).  Monday night I called every hotel in Cobar, but everything was booked.  Cobar is near to the mines - present day miners sleep in the hotels during the week.

Dave drove down the road to a roadside rest area where a few other people were already camping.  He slept over night in the sleeping bag and on the air mattress in the back of the wagon.  On Tuesday morning, Dave drove another 8 hours from Cobar through White Cliffs (point D) on to Tibooburra, his destination.  It's 200 km of dirt road from White Plains to Tibooburra.  He spent 2 nights at the Tooles Family Hotel .

While in Tibooburra, Dave went fossicking.  He said he found metal cans left by the miners a century ago.  The soil is red with iron.  The car still oozes the red soil from crevices.  Dave saw a mother emu and young just a few feet away, red and grey kangaroos, wild pigs, lizards, sheep.  He didn't take many pictures - and the ones he did take were corrupted.

Dave on his return

Dave chose to drive "The Cut Line" - 400 km of dirt road from Tibooburra to Bourke - for his return journey.  He said it was amazing.  He saw kangaroos boxing in the middle of the road.  They would stand there and watch as the car approached, before eventually moving off the road because there was no human around for miles.


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