After leaving White Cliffs we were still way out west and needed to put a few kilometres under our belts. We had to be home by Saturday in order to fulfill our volunteering duties at the Tilligerry Habitat on Sunday, so we decided to head for Hermidale just short of Nyngan. Luckily this journey was all on sealed roads because we were expecting to drive for six or seven hours and the dirt roads slow down progress and can be very tiring. 

The first large town we reached was Wilcannia which was a pretty place on the banks of the Darling River, the indigenous population had a very nice life there until the white folks turned up and spoiled it. Ian told me that when he visited Wilcannia thirty years ago it was a town with a very tense vibe but work has obviously been done on all sides and, on the face of it, the community appear to jog along nicely together. I couldn't help notice that, in the shops and petrol station I visited, all the employees were white so, in my opinion there was still a way to go.
Our fuel supplies were getting low so we were forced to buy some diesel in Wilcannia. Fuel can be ridiculously expensive in remote towns like this so we have got in the habit of filling up our tank and three jerry cans at the cheap petrol station near home before we set off. Whenever we reach a large town or city we look for a United Petroleum garage using the sat nav and top up with their reasonably priced fuel whether we need to or not. That way we pretty much avoid being forced into filling up at remote town prices. With the distances involved in outback travel, it cannot be avoided altogether but we have got it down to a minimum.

 Next coffee stop was Cobar, a big, prosperous copper mining town which was home to the Big Beer Can. We did not stop there long as we were keen to get to our destination and got back on the dead straight road from Wilcannia to Hermidale. When we joined the road the sat nav just said destination 300km, it did not indicate a roundabout, a turning or anything along the route. I drove the next 200km just using the steering wheel as something to lean on then, when Ian took over he had to negotiate one slight bend before we reached our destination. The road was littered with dead kangaroos but although we saw hundreds of wild goats, we never saw a dead one bringing us to the conclusion that goats have better road sense than kangaroos, you may think this is a boring fact but we had to talk about something to keep ourselves awake.
We had planned to park up behind the Hermidale Hotel which offered camping for $10 a night but when we arrived it looked like a bit of a dump so we backtracked a couple of hundred metres and free camped behind the rest area where we were able to build a camp fire. 

After a full day on the road the previous day we decided to only drive for a couple of hours and head for Eumungerie, near Dubbo. The first stop on the road was Nyngan which was a beautiful town with thoughtfully restored buildings and an immaculate park.

 We also found to our delight that Nyngan was home to the Big Bogan - what fun! We were back on the grain train route again past the big silos and, as we left Nyngan, we saw a train being loaded up. That probably explained why Nyngan looked so wealthy compared to its neighbouring towns, the grain was brought there from all around to meet the train turning the town into a bit of a hub for the surrounding areas.
It was a very pleasant drive from Nyngan, past cotton fields with thousands of bales of cotton beside the road awaiting collection and through neat, manicured little towns. Eventually we reached the Oxley Highway which had signs warning of road trains (I just held my breath whenever one of these went by but Ian told me they are nothing compared with the road trains that thunder through the Northern Territory) and onto Eumungerie.
We set up camp in the recreation ground along with a few Grey Nomads who have sold their homes and travel the road permanently with stickers on the backs of their vans declaring 'We are spending our childrens' inheritance' I don't know what happens when they are too old or silly to travel any more, presumably they expect to be looked after by said children - good luck with that! 

 After dinner at the Drover's Dog Pub and a good night's sleep we headed for home. We had been away for three weeks but it felt like longer as we had covered a huge amount of ground and ticked off a number of places we wanted to visit.