Nyngan and Mendooran

We left Cobar on Monday the 1st May and headed to Nyngan. We weren’t planning on staying there but we wanted to stop and check out the two museums there. As we were heading east from Cobar it was apparent, as we have seen previously that the goat population does not exist on that side of Cobar, certainly not near the road. I don’t know why that is. Once at Nyngan we firstly went to the Mid State Shearing Shed. This museum is right beside the railway line on the Highway running through town and cleverly placed is a great RV parking area beside it. There are also facilities that caravanners need. The Shearer’s Museum at Hay is huge by comparison but this one had some good things as well.

We then went across the railway line to the Nyngan Museum and had a good look there. We enjoyed both museums.

In the main street is a big RAAF helicopter.

Whilst we did not go and take a look at it this time I could not talk about Nyngan without showing a photo of the Big Bogan. We took this photo when we came through in 2017 whilst on our way to far north west Qld. Nyngan is on the Bogan River in the Bogan Shire and they decided they wanted to have a ‘Big Bogan’ like Coffs Harbour has a ‘Big Banana’. So they have the Big Bogan there, complete with stubbies, shorts, thongs, fishing rod and esky in the main street. Brilliant I reckon.

We got away from Nyngan by 11.30am. At that stage we were thinking that we would probably stay at Gilgandra. There were three free camps there but all were attached to pubs and there is a bit of an obligation to go and buy a meal or drinks when you stay in such a place. That would not normally be a problem but we weren’t in the mood to do that on this night and that was partly because we knew we want to stay at Denman Royal Hotel the next night where we were looking forward to going in for a meal there. So we left Nyngan and turned onto the Oxley Highway at Nevertire to head toward Gilgandra. We saw this silo art at Nevertire. It was not as good as other silo art we have seen. Around the other side of the silo was wheat and cotton but I did not bother getting a photo of that side.

The road was shocking really, so many potholes and broken bits of road. The next town was Warren and we stopped there for lunch. We got to Gilgandra and went for a walk up the main street. Linda found a shop she enjoyed and she picked up a tea cosy. We have certainly been spreading the love on our travels to support the bush. However, we decided to push on to Mendooran. There is a good free camp there with decent facilities. We pulled in and started looking for a good spot. As soon as we did I saw people talking in the distance who looked familiar and within a couple of seconds I recognised our friends, John and Sue who live not far from us. I have mentioned John before in my blogs several times because John is an expert mechanic and he is my go to man for anything and everything to do with caravans and my Landcruiser. I do recall John saying they were heading off on a trip about the same time as we were heading home. It never ceases to amaze me the number of coincidences and chance meetings that occur while caravanning. John had just received his brand new Landcruiser but he couldn’t bring it with him as it is still sitting in his garage unregistered. He would want fit it out with some things and run it in first anyway before taking it on this trip. So we had a good chat. It was quite cold and none of us had timber to have a fire so it wasn’t to long before we headed inside and turned out diesel heaters on and settle in for the night. They were also going to have an early start.

John had his tinny on his roof as they are doing some fishing at Borroloola.

The next morning Linda and I had a walk around town. Across from the free camp is the Royal Hotel at Mendooran. Further up the road is the Hotel Mendooran which I don’t think operates as a hotel anymore.

Across the road from the ‘Hotel Mendooran’ is the Blue Sky Cheeseshop. It stocks all locally manufactured products which includes cheeses of course, but also ham, jams, some woollen items and much more. Linda of course was delighted with the place and spent up on various things. If you are passing it is worth dropping in but also note the opening times and days.