Art deco towns and back roads.

Of the two roads north(ish) out of Narrandera, one goes via the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area - the fruitbowl of Australia; while the other grinds up through the major town of West Wyalong, which is west of a smaller town called Wyalong, which means the latter should really be called East Wyalong and the former Wyalong. Oh, forget it.

Anyway, we took the first route. Both will get us to where we want to go but the MIA sounds more attractive. We stopped for morning tea at Leeton, a cannery and rice processing city designed by Walter Burley Griffin. It's all art deco shopfronts and theatres and guesthouses. (Griffin also designed Canberra and the Essendon Incinerator. Shame about Canberra.)

We stopped for a picnic lunch at another town, taking a stroll down the main street looking for a takeaway coffee. We found one. And a vanilla slice with passionfruit icing.

The car purred on into the afternoon and we turned north towards Rankin's Springs. We were well away from the main highways now, on a quiet back road with very little traffic, just us and the flat plains. William dozed in his baby seat and the soft sun made gold out of his closed eyelashes.

Then occasional jagged hills appeared on the horizon, floated towards us and receded to the rear, like islands.