This morning we packed the car for the second last time before we pack up for the big drive home on Wednesday. First stop, the General Store to buy another cask of water and some food in case we need it for lunch. Food and water sorted we popped along to Menindee Auto Repairs to see if we might be able to organise a replacement bolt for the LED strip light that is currently gaffer taped on at one end. The helpful mechanic engineered a bolt for us (he cut it shorter!), fitted it and checked that the other bolt is nice and tight and provided us with the sage advice that the tightness of the bolts should be checked periodically because dirt road driving will loosen the nuts!! All that for $10.00.
We set off out of Menindee on the Pooncarie Road knowing that it was not going to be a smooth drive! Blimey, the first few kilometres are sealed sort of. Yes, it was sealed at one time, but at the moment there are more holes in the bitumen than there is actual bitumen so that was pretty bumpy! And then we hit the roadworks. Its 164
kilometres from Menindee to Pooncarie and currently they are working on a $25 million, three year project to seal a 70 kilometre stretch of the road. The thing is they seem to be working on nearly all of that 70 kilometres all at the same time, so we endured road works for about half of the journey to Pooncarie. Great fun tootling along at 60km/hour just after the water truck has damped down the temporary side track.
When we reached the border between the Central Darling Shire and the Wentworth Shire there was an obvious demarcation of the road surface. As we departed the Central Darling Shire we left the unsealed road behind us and found ourselves cruising along on lovely, smooth, bitumen. Which was great while it lasted, but it didnt get us all the way into Pooncarie! Hopefully the Wentworth Shire has plans to upgrade this final section so that ALL of the road between Pooncarie and Menindee will be an proposition.
When we reached Pooncarie we found a sleepy little town on the bank of the Darling River which, like several other towns on The Darling River Run, used to be a thriving
inland port. Our first stop was at the public toilets. All that bouncing along on unsealed roads does take its toll on the bladder! The four of us had just finished when a busload of OAPs pulled up and descended on the facilities. Wow! What good timing.
There was an ‘Open 6 Days sign for a caf down by the river where the Old Wharf used to be. Hmmn, it seems Monday is the one day of the week that the caf is not open! So, we set off for a bit of a walk around town to stretch our legs. Gee, theres not much in Pooncarie. The claim to fame that impressed us the most was the memorial about the bitumen reaching Pooncarie. Im not surprised they were excited. The design and construction was carried out by staff of the Wentworth Shire Council and took place between 1960 and, wait for it, 1993!! Thats 33 years to seal about 100 kilometres of road. OMG, thats an average of three kilometres of bitumen being laid per year??!! Most exciting for them though, was that Slim Dusty came to town to help the Shire President open the road AND he
After our exploration of the town we finished at the Pitstop Caf where we had fresh salad sandwiches made for us. We are really trying to spend money in these little towns. There are so few businesses left in these towns to support the tourists that we feel an obligation to help them out and help future travellers out. The outback will be even more difficult to navigate without these little shops that sell food and drink and a little bit of everything else for people who are passing through. We ate in the picnic shelter beside the bitumen memorial and felt obliged to download Slims song to listen to it while we ate. It wasnt a chart topper.
