Animals

It rained today. The sides of the road had puddles even though the more westerly areas are arid. When it wasn't raining, it was pretty good. The scenery changed to dryer and dryer vegetation. The trees got smaller and sparser, the soil got redder, and was more and more visible, the whole landscape got flatter until it was completely flat and you could see the curvature of the earth. 

There were a lot of warnings on the road about soft edges, so I only pulled over in designated stops. Even there, there were indications that several people had got bogged in the first one, so from then on, only bitumin stops were deemed appropriate! Which was unfortunate. There were some lovely pictures I could have taken. The Barrier Highway has a huge number of really good rest stops now, but they are in hollows or have a hill strategically placed so that the scene I wanted to take was blocked from view - every single one!

Unfortunately whenever it wasn't raining, there were too many animals. At least a thousand goats - they have become even more prolific than several years ago. About ten emus, including one small solo emu that looked like it was half grown. Gee it was gorgeous. It was all fluffy and its neck looked like an alpaca. And then there were the kangaroos - probably at least 200. This was the middle of the day - from about 12:30 - 2:30 - when self respecting kangaroos are asleep, and they were licking up any puddles that had formed on the road, and they wouldn't move! Of course, these animals weren't all together - they were spread out in bunches of two here, four there, and, in the case of the goats, maybe up to twenty.

I visited the scenic lookout at Cobar, the Fort Bourke Hill, which overlooks the open cut gold and copper mine there.

I'm spending the night in Broken Hill.