We packed up and left White Cliffs on the sealed road to Wilcannia – a nice change from the dirt and mud coming into town! The countryside became greener with large cattle stations – and a lot of cattle on the road.

A quick fuel and coffee stop at Wilcannia. The Cooee for Coffee café had a really great coffee and lemon slice.

Wilcannia had some lovely old buildings some of which had been restored but others that needed a lot of work.

Reaching Cobar, we stopped for lunch and then fare-welled the others – we had really enjoyed their company on the trip and hoped that they had too. Another farewell group shot – this time under the mining sign at Cobar.

Heading north out of Cobar the road was good and the countryside took on a greener tone, with grassy paddocks and eucalypt forest. We saw quite a few emus foraging in paddocks and more wild life as we headed to our overnight stop at Nyngan weir.

When we arrived in the late afternoon, there were already a few vans parked for the night, one of which was running a noisy compressor. They did turn it off at sunset though, so the peace and quiet of the area remained.

The site was quiet and far enough off the highway so that the traffic noise was negligible.

At one point during the night, a carload of hoons tore through the campsite blasting the car horn and yelling out to pack up as a big fire was heading our way. The swearing and laughing as they raced off back to town, gave it away though and no-one was taken in by their idea of a funny joke.

Next morning, we headed off to our final stop at Cowra.

Travelling south, we decided to stop for lunch at Parkes, but to our surprise, there was nowhere to park and the town was inundated with hundreds of Elvis look alikes. It was the annual Elvis festival. Short ones, tall ones, skinny ones, fat ones, young ones and old ones – all having fun and boosting incomes for the town.

We were staying at the Cowra Showground and drove past the entrance three times before finally driving in and finding a nice, grassy spot. There were amenities and it was a short walk to town if you wanted to go that route.

We drove out to the beautiful Japanese Gardens and spent a few hours wandering around, before heading back and getting ready for dinner at the Services Club.

Next morning, we took in some of the sights of Cowra, including a terrific holographic movie depicting the infamous breakout of the Japanese prisoners of war camp, before hooking up the caravan and heading to the M1 for the drive home.

It was a fantastic journey and we got to see places and experience things we hadn’t done before, with a great bunch of friends. Can’t wait for the next one.