Location: ///sulks.ending.weaves

Another small country town worth lingering a little longer than you intend.
I imagine in the height of summer amid drought & dust, this place may struggle a little to tempt you to do anything other than drive right thorugh with the air-cond blasting. But not today.
Today it is green and temperate and promises a neat morning stroll amongst its many murals.

And the town has a little histroty. In 1862, the infamous bushrangers, Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall, ambushed a Cobb and Co coach at nearby Escort Rock, carrying out Australia’s largest eva gold robbery.
77 kilograms of gold and £3,700 in cash, which I imagine was a king’s ransom in the day.

Long before that this land was occupied by the Wiradjuri people. One of the largest Aboriginal groups in NSW, they occupied country all the way east to the Blue Mountains and south to the Murray river.

I found it interesting (from a Zen perspective) that the name Wiradjuri means essentially “no”or “not having”, and that several other tribes in the area were similarly were named after their individual words for “no”. The concept of no (Mu in Japanese) holds a special place in Zen koan practice, and it left me wondering why they chose this particular expression to represent themselves.

Today was a bit of a trip down memory lane for Kelly as she grew up frequenting many of the locations we passed through. Here in Eugowra she struck up a long covo with the lady serving coffee at the Fat Parcel, who it turns out used to compete against her at the local swimming carnivals. Much catch-up gossip was downloaded.

It is indeed a small world in Kelly country.