Day #5
Short hop west to Wee Waa then SW onto the Pilliga road, by which time the sun was up -
Soon there were plenty of billabongs to support lots of bird life - flocks of cockatoos, galahs, ducks, ibis. The ducks had an unnerving habit of attempting liftoff then trying to out-fly you by madly flapping & quacking ahead in your exact line, at about helmet height -
Pilliga is not a place to linger - think Wolf Creek.
The road to Coonamble might have been empty of wheeled traffic, but it was like a furry obstacle tunnel, which kept the speed well in check. As well as the usual culprits, feral horses also appeared. Bloody hell -
A coffee stop at Coonamble, where they know how to build a proper verandah.
South down the entertaining Warren Road to its namesake, then onto a tiny road to Tottenham. Tottenham is the geographical centre of NSW, which might explain its excess of roadsigns -
Continued along the Bogan Way (true name) to Tullamore, for lunch in this cafe, decorated like your great-aunt's loungeroom. The proprietor talked me through her long set of Kimberley holiday snaps as I tried to find a polite interval to make my excuses -
Onto Trundle, which has a wide main street -
.... and a massive pub
-
Haven't seen one of these signs for a while -
After a couple of false starts, eventually found the Yarrabandai Road then took a short detour back to Ootha, to look at the Utes In The Paddock
http://www.utesinthepaddock.com.au/ -
On through Forbes and into Grenfell. While sitting in a wayside next to a petrol station, brain fade meant I didn't fill up after short-counting the remaining back-road kms to Temora via Morangarell :stupid: . Realised the mistake with about 70km to go with 60km to empty showing. In the gathering gloom, then rain
, this was the moment when the headlight globe blew
. The next ~hour was spent in the dilemma of much-reduced speed to conserve fuel, but not so slow that darkness would overtake me, all the while feeling vaguely lost. I know some Austourers love this sort of brinkmanship. Not me
.
Into wet Temora on fumes, just after dusk, I put 19.05 litres of lovely 98-octane into the Bender's 19 litre tank !
Day #6
Waited till after dawn, cold rain continuing, before starting on the headlight-less Bender.
A bit bleak on the Coolamon Road -
But at least lush greenery has reappeared, near Berry Jerry -
More u-turns in Coolamon vainly looking for Millwood Road, before giving up & heading toward Narrandera in the constant drizzle, then turning south on signposted Brushwood Road -
Quiet little roads passed in a partly-frozen haze
. Through Lockhart, Howlong, then over the border back into Victoria before winding up in historic Chiltern -
The end of the Slow Roads
-
Onto the mind-numbing Hume Freeway to Seymour, for a quick nibble outside its old jail. Would you believe this was still in use in 1962 ? -
Then to Yea before joining the conveyer-belt of afternoon Yarra Valley winery traffic home, where I fired up the Coonara and toasted my toes while smelling the roast lamb in the oven
...and the last fuel before Cobar, there's nothing at all along the way (or rather, there wasn't a few years ago).
Only joking, make that a strong flat white for me. 
. 
. It's a seriously remote place.