Tuesday October 30th 2012, Menindee to Robinvale

We wake to the most amazing moonset over the lake. By 7:30am we’re on the road and it’s a beautiful clear morning and we have 100kms to cover before Broken Hill and then another 261kms to Wentworth. As we drive, we munch on muesli bars and scan the road constantly for emus, there are lots and we’ve decided that if a bush moves then it’s an emu!

We fill up with gas and petrol in Broken Hill at 9:00am (whoops 8:30am CST) and chance an espresso coffee at McDonald’s…..bluhhh! But we do get to see the news on TV of Hurricane Sandy hitting New York.

At 9:45am CST we bid farewell to Broken Hill and head for the next rest stop 130kms away. A quick pit stop and change of drivers at Lake Popiltah and it’s another 130kms to Wentworth. It’s a delightful drive and we’re entertained by a particularly interesting ABC conversation hour.

We arrive at Wentworth at 12:38pmEST it is warm and pleasant. We stroll around the shops intending to visit the Wentworth Club, but we are seduced by Yabby Chowder and Garlic Focaccia at the Crown Hotel on the opposite corner. Yum! The free camp at lock 10 looks very dusty and has only one resident who is lolling about in his Speedo’s, not a pretty sight, we decide to continue on to Robinvale. It only takes us another hour and we discover that the Robinvale Riverside Caravan Park is an oasis. There are lawns right down to the river’s edge, there are willows, beautiful rose gardens and ducks with attitude. The amenities are delightful and spotless.  The river, having been joined by the Murrumbidgee, is very wide here.

After dinner we walk the half kilometre into town and buy an ice cream. We are fascinated that the town seems to have a large Pacific Islander population and a huge Asian supermarket, a magnificent pub that has been let go and now only the bar and bottle shop is in operation, an IGA supermarket but little else. We seem to come away from each town with more unanswered questions. What happened, why the downturn or the upturn and what on earth are those strange things growing for miles out of town that aren’t mentioned in the guidebooks?