Day 1 – Saturday 2 September 2006 Sydney to Bourke

Saturday dawned a glorious spring day but plans for a crack of dawn departure were soon thwarted with packing the car and setting up the technology taking up most of the morning. Richard, providing logistics support soon had the communications gear and tracking systems working and eventually by lunchtime everything was stowed. Alex was in charge of photography and after a photo opportunity and video session outside the MacMahons Point apartment where we had been staying for the past week, with the Harbour and Opera House as backdrop we headed for the Harbour Bridge with cameras rolling en route to Bourke 750km north west of Sydney.

The route lay across the Blue Mountains to Dubbo and then some 200km of dead straight road to Bourke. We were guided by ken who sits on the dashboard and occasionally says inane things like “turn around” or “take the second exit” in a strong Aussie accent. After a coffee break at a great little café in Bathurst and narrowly missing several kangaroos north of Nyngen we arrived at Bourke around 9pm where we stayed in a delightful riverside inn built in 1873. Neither of us (nor the boys left behind) could actually believe that we had finally set out on the hair-brained journey through all points on the DFAT list of places to avoid.

Weather 27 Sunny
Distance today 780km
Distance since start 780km
X5s today 3
X5s since start 3
Creme Brulees today 0
Creme Brulees since start 0