First Post - bit technical, bit of drama, but we made it to Bourke.

Today was Day 4 and I think we are still finding our rhythm. We are in Bourke. Its good to be here; the main street is lined with some beautiful old buildings, there is this huge timber wharf structure hanging out over the very attractive Darling River - attractive because of its meander, the huge river gums lining its banks and the squawking birdlife which filled the sky, also the day was beautiful; sunny and mild. I feel like we have finally escaped the city and pace can slow down a bit.

That's the Post Office above, and then the courtyard of the Old Court House. Heres the Darling, you could climb down and under this wharf, massive timber structure, couple of storeys high:

For the technical minded (Dad!) we had a new hitch/coupling fitted in Lithgow on our way up. Cem was worried about the standard ball and cap coupling of van/car and it perhaps bouncing off if it got rough. He had read about the McHitch and it so happened that McHitch are in Lithgow, which was our first stop to wave bye to Stephen and Susan. It was cold and rainy and a public holiday but Mr McHitch (Joe) was only too happy, without any previous notice from us, to put the rest of his work aside (that's why he was in on the public holiday) and fit the hitch for us immediately. Apparently this model has been on the market 3 weeks. Here are some photos of it. It is rather phallic don't you think?

We stayed on Sally and Johns driveway in Bathurst and had a fabulous evening with them and the kids. For those schoolies following, just look how grown up her 4 beautiful children are, they are adults! Jess, Ben, Adam and Brad, and so gracious were they in entertaining our 3 'babies' in comparison.

If anyone is planning on taking the kids to Dubbo zoo we can recommend our campsite at Goobang National Park, which is about 50km out of Dubbo. Very good bush camp site, great birdlife, kangaroos hopping by, great toilets, gas bbqs, open fire pits, good cycling for the kids. We had the whole place to ourselves this time. For us we were revisiting; we stayed here 18months ago when we went to the zoo. It was good to come back to somewhere familiar on our second night of the journey. You can use the map on the right to zoom right in and get the exact location if anyone actually wants to go there.

And now I guess I have to report on our slight drama coming into Bourke yesterday afternoon. We are not around to cop dads wrath and Kai has already made mention of it on his page, so I may as well spill the beans totally:
I was the driver yesterday, and so its my fault of course... I should have filled the tank in Nyngan where we stopped and had a lovely little picnic lunch in town, but no, after lunch, like city drivers, we hopped in the car and continued on our merry way to Bourke which is 200km away. Well before long we realised that our tank was very low. At about 100km out of Bourke the fuel light came on. Coolabah had no fuel. We then learnt at the next hotel that there was no fuel until Burke. Well, whether rightly or wrongly we pushed on. There was some place called Byrock (about 40 km out) that we figured we'd stop at and Cem would then get a ride into Burke and bring some diesel back. But we never made it to Byrock. We ran dry, which is not a good thing to do in a diesel fuelled car. I pulled onto the shoulder with the remaining momentum and almost before we could hop out of the car a huge triple trailer truck passed and pulled up on the road just in front of us. Well, we have two absolute saviours here. The first one, Rodney, the driver of this truck, who insisted on helping us. He was going to give us some diesel from his own tank when lo and behold our second saviour, Al, coming from Burke and driving of all things a huge diesel tanker (!) pulls up and fills our jerry can with premium diesel accepting no payment. But then the car wouldn't start, if you run dry in a diesel air gets in the pipes. There was no way these two guys were leaving us, it was dusk by this stage. Under the bonnet Al was able to do something (Cem witnessed it and reckons he knows what to do next time - there wont be a next time though!!!) that got the air out and after several failed attempts and with great relief the car finally started. Rodney then followed us into Burke, then once in town led us to the closest service station. What legends. It was dark by this stage. The alternative if it wasn't for these guys was not looking good and this sort of luck that we had certainly cannot be relied on, just so lucky. And it wont happen again, as I say, best way to learn is through experience.. Today I read somewhere that out here, if you have car trouble, don't worry, someone will definitely stop, that's just the way it is. Well, we can verify that one. And also: its always good thing to know how far you can travel once the petrol light goes on....
Here are these fabulous men:

Al

Rodney