Cutting across

There is no doubt that Sea Lake on an early Tuesday morning is the epitome of the quiet country town. One can only assume that it comes alive at some point (possibly trading hours...whatever) after securing take away coffee and questionable edibles we shot off down the Calder at exorbitant speeds (they can do 110 up here yet down south 80 is the new norm.....why?) tracking the train line littered with yet more unadorned silos. From now until evermore an unpainted silo is will be seen to be a wasted opportunity.

The direction southward was an extra leg on a long day on the road, yet worth it because the depiction was very close to home ... a focused Kelpie forever looking outwards to the next adventure on the behest of its guider.
A very interesting criss cross of country roads was then undertaken. As most of the highways generally seem to spoke out of olde Melbourne town, cutting across the top of the state from an obscure locale to somewhere in the general direction of the capital was a navigators challenge. Luckily for us there is a thing called Google Maps which can help here. Unluckily for us the internet is not fully available whilst traveling the barren distances of the back roads which adorn our vast brown land. Have no idea what our forebears did ...except maybe their expectations were not to spend only one day to travel between Sea Lake to Wagga Wagga (via Nullawil).

Experiencing a transition from the dry Wimera to the less dry Riverena was fascinating (if you could be bothered to notice the difference in vegetation and the fact that there is irrigation everywhere) we passed through Kerang, stopped on the banks of the Edward in Deniliqin for lunch (they have a thing about utes here) and headed off at the total unwarranted behest of our apps to cut through the radiating lines of roads without bothering to query their logic. Yay for technology! (So we assumed)..
We survived...
Possibly may have got there 5 minutes earlier but only through some serious desert rally driving and a sheer determination to get to the pool on time for a cooling dip.

Under a significant Big Sky we pushed the Outback through the outback where the bitumen turned to miles of dirt, grids replaced fences and AM radio replaced podcasts. Beautiful country and an experience to remember was the outcome.
Apart from one unfortunate instance where the voices fronting the maps lost their bearings in a one cell town (horses no longer count) all went well and with a controlled disregard for speed limits (very quiet and well built roads justifying behaviors) we arrived at our pool fronted and exceptionally well appointed B&B in perfect time to realize that no eateries exist in the locale, so it was up to us to fend for ourselves.

Henceforth ensued shopping, swimming (in a blue enhanced cooler with the setting sun spiking through the palms pasting a dazzling display of mirroring reflections), BBQing, and a spa sesh before the inevitable crashing, exhausted but happy in the contemplation that we'd survived the longest drive of the trip.