#1: [28-Dec-02]

08-Jun-2024 -- North Bourke NSW 2840

This is one of the easy confluences. It is only 600m off from the Mitchell Highway, about 13 km from the town centre of Bourke. I was a little bit surprised when I found out that the first and last visit was from 2002, more than two decades ago (sounds a bit more than 22 years)! David Thompson brought his family to the confluence; his children must be full grown adults by now. I tried to do the same with my wife (Miley) and my son (Sunny) because this is an easy one with the hope of giving them an easy start of a (possibly) lifelong journey.

That morning was sunny but slightly windy, still a bit chilly at 10°C. We drove a short distance from Bourke and found that the confluence located behind a closed gate. However, the lot of land next door is open with no gate. It is a livestock truckyard but somewhat empty. There is a private property sign, but I thought that a phone call to the property owner only makes them more confused, plus a chance of waking them up early on a Sunday morning. I drove for 2 minutes along the track next to the fence between two properties, still a fair way from their yard with one livestock trailer. We then climbed through the barbed wire fence to walk the 35m to the confluence.

Sunny, 4.5 years old, is not familiar with the farm life and then hold straight on the spiky barbed wire. I quickly pulled his hand off, but his palm was still scratched and bled a bit. A memorable detail that he will find interesting when he reads this twenty years from now.