After a refreshing break, we pressed on into the real outback.
This is lizard country and we saw several dead Shinglebacks before we sighted a Sand Monitor and then a second.
We came upon two dead kangaroos on the road, one on each lane and only a few metres apart, with a Wedge-tailed Eagle eating from one. It flew ponderously into a nearby tree where I saw three other eagles. They were all at great risk from traffic so I stopped and removed the carcasses onto the verge so that they could eat without being run over.
We had a particularly hard time for the last twenty km into Cunnamulla as the headwind was so strong that I had to change down to fourth gear and travel with the pedal to the metal flat chat at 70 kph (40 mph).
We reached Cunnamulla in time for lunch and booked into the caravan park to charge up the batteries and to do the laundry.
This is George King (my great-great-grandfather) country. His second property "Weelamurra" is about 50 km (30 miles) south east of Cunnamulla. It has taken us four days driving in a truck on mostly good bitumen roads but he and his family used to travel here from Gowrie when the only means of transport was on horseback or in horse-drawn cart. One wonders at the perseverance of those people taking on unbelievably hard things to do just to make a quid developing the country.
We had a chat with a local who expressed some resentment at the news media telling everyone the drought has broken just because it has rained in the south east. The country here is dry as a bone. The overnight rain has made the grass on the roadside verges grow green again and all the animals, both domestic and wild, are seen eating right at the ege of the road. Happily most of them are too wary to do anything but run into the bush when a vehicle passes. The kangaroos are not so lucky because they come out in the twilight and don't see the trucks until it is too late. Cunnamulla is a pleasant little town, a bit far from everywhere else but the people are friendly and the town is well cared for.