It was supposed to be a three rivers walk but ended up two rivers and a late night walk. The first river was the Castlereagh in Gilgandra. As I was perusing the river, an older man with a tired durry (smoke) threatening to burn a lip or two, said g’day. The g’day was a giveaway that he would be able to answer my question.
I told hm that I heard on the radio that our rivers have flat bottoms while Europeans have v-shaped bottoms and this is not good for water storage, was this correct? ‘Yeah’ he replied, “the water either runs away or soaks into the sand flats so yet another water problem we face. ‘Ave a good one mate’, he said, happy that he could put me right on my bottom issues. Whatever their bottoms, I find the water between sand flats, decorated with gums, a beautiful sight.
The river in Galargambone was a carbon copy and when full and so wide, is a mirage showing much more water than is really there.
In Coonamble we couldn’t find our river so we waited until Lightning Ridge to complete our promised minimum walk distance of 10kms. The streets were poorly lit so I had a cognitive exercise to complete as well.
Tomorrow we meet up with a local friend who may enlighten us on all things Lightning Ridge, that is, if he hasn’t something better to do.

We didn’t want this teacher but a pity
Somehow it got right under this, our skin,
Exposing us to our fragility
Deciding whose to lose and whose to win
We have to be relentless to defeat
This virus that has taught us to control,
Those challenges that we are meant to meet
Like when to wait and when make actions bold.
It’s taught us we can be our own clinician
By helping doctors with our diagnosis,
Our own hygiene is not up to physician
Together – we can work out our prognosis.
If we can learn these lessons from our teacher,
The others have less reason then … to feature.