We shopped in Forbes for fuel and groceries before setting of up the highway towards Barraba.
We called in to the Parkes Dish for morning tea and to Dubbo to fill up the fresh water tanks. While we had lunch at Brocklehurst, I planned the next leg of the journey. Gilgandra would be suitable but, as they have a very unfriendly policy towards grey nomads, I decided that nobody in the town, including the caravan park , would be getting our custom. The rest areas on this stretch of the Newell Highway are all just pull-offs so we decided to try for Coonabarabran.
It started to rain while we were having lunch and the rest of the afternoon was occupied driving in the rain. We couldn't remember when we last had to do this. The caravan park owner at Coonabarabran said that they were desperate for good rain as they have had a dry spell of several years. We had a cosy evening.