Day 26 - Narrandera to Peak Hill

There was no rain at Narrandera this morning so we decided to drive to Dubbo and take our chances with the weather. We refuelled at West Wyalong and continued on to the Forbes Motor Museum. The Japanese funeral car was used for VIPs but only travelled around midday to avoid the curse associated with any shadow cast by the vehicle.






It was easy to park in town with the Bushtracker so we had a short walk and bought rolls from the bakery for lunch.




Not long after driving through Parkes the sky went dark and we were caught in a very heavy downpour that only lasted one minute. The cloud show to the north, west and east was constantly changing. As we approached Alectown parts of the sky turned red, reflecting a dust storm generated by the weather.





Alectown is the official address for the famous Parkes telescope. Up to 1,000 people lived there when gold was being mined, but now there are only a few houses and two churches. One woman has collected dozens of gnomes in her garden that can be seen from the highway.

We drove on knowing there is a caravan park at Peak Hill off the highway. The thunder, lightning and rain started so we pulled over and consulted BOM again. It looked like more storms were approaching Dubbo so we phoned the Double D Caravan Park at Peak Hill and they were waiting to guide us to a drive through site in pouring rain. We have stayed in this pet friendly park before and have always found the managers to be very helpful.

After having decided to stop for the night, the rain stopped! If we can avoid driving on wet roads with poor visibility we will, especially when hundreds of trucks driving the Newell Highway don't even slow down. I walked to the railway line that is being upgraded as part of the Inland Rail project, from Parkes to Narromine. That route was blocked so I went up to the highway where only one third of shops and businesses are operating. A large pink pepper tree had dropped thousands of corns making a pink carpet.






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