Day 10, Tuesday 14/6/2022 Mirrool to Trundle, sunshine 4 – 13

It feels much warmer this morning. Elle and I have asked the boys if we can make the start time at 9:00am. We’re not getting any younger and the morning hijinks of the boys running around not wanting to hold each other up is getting irksome. We girls, don’t particularly fancy hitting the road half dressed with a toothbrush in hand and hair sticking up while the driver asks whether we turn left or right out of the park and if can we do a radio check, now. This makes things a little easier and we even have time for a quick look at the town. What a luxury. And the little town is as neat as a pin with fresh new gardens dotted about.

As we continue up the Newell Highway we see apostle birds playing on the roadside. At West Wyalong, we turn due north on the Condobolin Road. This is sheep and wheat country and the roads are lined with Murray Pines. The creeks are swollen and paddocks are wet from the recent rains. Sadly, the Utes in the Paddock display that we’d come this way to see is closed for improvements to the facilities. We fuel up and stop for a pie on the banks of the Lachlan River at Condobolin.

There are cotton tufts on the roadsides now, tiny escapees from the huge bales that are trucked along these roads. The GPS takes us on the wrong road to Trundle. This route is one-third longer, one lane wide, and severely potholed from the floods. The car has a moment of over-revving, but thankfully there are no warning lights. I hope this doesn’t signal the end of the trip when we’ve only just started.

We’re grateful to reach the ridiculously wide Main Street of Trundle which is about ten times wider than that last road! We pay our fees at the hardware store and trundle off to the Showgrounds.

Although it’s only 13 degrees the bright sunshine feels warmer. We sit outside for the afternoon. Elle tells us that Swift Stoves have put out a warning not to use Series 500 models as two have exploded in Western Australia due to a gas build-up. Whoops, I’m halfway through making the chicken broth for dinner. We use our electric hot plates, which frankly, I reckon are more dangerous than the stove. Portable hot plates only last a few years with all of the bumping around that they get during travel. Dinner is a bit of a production but delicious, it’s a Chicken Gravy and Corn Pasta. See, we don’t always eat junk on the road.

Accom: $15.00 (power, water, toilets, showers, dump point and a pleasant quiet spot)

Fuel: $113.28 (215.9 c/l)

Towing Kms: 208kms

I wonder where that name came from?: Humbug Creek