The long one

The Barrier Highway from above: red shoulders, grey scrub, and a road that does not turn.

Day 6 was the biggest drive of the trip: 618 kilometres from Bourke to Broken Hill, straight down the Barrier Highway through Cobar and Wilcannia. Two more towns to add to the list of places with no Optus coverage. The tally is growing.

Ten seconds of the Barrier Highway doing what it does: flat country, big sky, weather on the way.

Cobar

The red-brick Cobar Court House, with a gabled facade, cream trim, and a wide veranda behind a picket fence The Cobar Court House, a handsome brick structure from 1887.

The red-brick Cobar Police Station, with COBAR POLICE STATION lettered across the gable And its matching police station. Cobar keeps its civic buildings in good order.

Cobar is a copper town, born in the 1870s when a waterhole on a stock route turned out to be sitting on one of the richest copper deposits in the colony. The Great Cobar mine ran for decades, and the wealth it produced built a main street full of solid red-brick confidence like this.

An Ampol fuel pump showing $99.26 for 33.32 litres, with diesel at 297.9 cents per litre Diesel watch: $99.26 for 33.32 litres at 297.9 cents a litre. Steady at the new, lower altitude.

Wilcannia

A weathered and cracked Wilcannia tourism map on wooden posts, with a list of common local plants and animals still legible The Wilcannia tourism map has seen some summers. The common locals list survives: spinifex, coolabah, wild orange, river red gum, emus, kangaroos.

A large drooping tree shading a grassy roadside park, with the travelling party and vehicles in the background Lunch stop under a pepper tree. The first one I have ever seen, which apparently is remarkable.

A hand holding a cluster of small round pepper tree berries The berries. A pepper tree, Schinus molle, is actually Peruvian, but it has made itself thoroughly at home in the outback.

The old Wilcannia bridge, a weathered steel truss bridge with a lift-span gantry, spanning the Darling River The old Wilcannia bridge over the Darling, built in 1896, with its centre lift span for letting paddle steamers through.

That gantry on top of the bridge is the interesting part. When the Barrier Highway reached the Darling in 1896, the river was still a working highway itself, so the bridge was built with a centre span that could be raised to let paddle steamers pass underneath at high water. It is one of only two lift-span bridges left on the whole river system, now retired from road duty and open to pedestrians. The river trade is long gone, but the machinery that deferred to it is still up there.

Broken Hill

A weathered orange billboard reading Welcome to Broken Hill, home of the world's largest acrylic painting on canvas Welcome to Broken Hill, home of the world's largest acrylic painting on canvas, 100 metres by 12. Something for the list.

The Range Rover and caravan parked up at the Broken Hill caravan park under an overcast sky Parked up in Broken Hill. The weather turned on the way in.

Caravan triage

Not everything made the distance gracefully. The inverter has blown a fuse, and the primary water tank has developed a slight leak. Both get attention tomorrow.

A close-up of a 300 amp main fuse in its holder The culprit: a 300 amp fuse for the inverter.

The underside of the caravan, with a small puddle of leaked fluid on the concrete below And the evidence from the water tank.

On the bright side, the check engine light that has been glowing on the Range Rover has gone out of its own accord. I choose to read that as a good sign rather than a worse one.

Halfway through the trip, and the biggest driving day is behind us. Four nights in Broken Hill from here.