23 June 2019
So how did you enjoy the previous post? We had a great time doing all the things we did and we hope you enjoyed our photos etc.
Today we left the Ridge and headed further south and west enroute to Bourke. We first came across the tidy rural town of Walgett, recently made famous because the local sole supermarket burnt to the ground. We decided to stop here for morning tea to help the struggling community. We parked just off the main street and headed for the local coffee shop to drop a few dollars in return for a few drops of barista coffee. Apparently the word was out, everybody was here to drop a few dollars just like us. With a queue far too long for us we exited the shop knowing that at least we had tried to help.
Just over the bridge, on the western side of town, there was a really good spot for both morning tea and an overnight camp. We chose the morning tea option as it was nowhere near nighttime, and pulled up near, not under, some old red river gums and enjoyed a cuppa standing in the warming sunlight of the clear winter's day.
The Darling River starts at the confluence of the Barwon and Culgoa Rivers about two thirds of the way to Bourke from Brewarrina, our next stop. Brewarrina is an inland riverside town on the banks of the Barwon River. The journey to there from Walgett is fairly nondescript with miles and miles of flat, blacksoil plainlands currently in bad condition due to the drought. Occasionally a non-active cotton farm pops up with its dry irrigation channels and above ground dams. Mostly the paddocks are sparsely populated with sheep and cattle on the hunt for anything other than the dry, withered grasses of the plainlands.
Lunch was held in Brewarrina at a cafe that, I have to say, produces a pretty good steak sandwich and coffee. Sadly for Julie they only served steak sandwiches, without the steak, thus producing a salad roll once again. Apparently, if you have a salad roll, that entitles the customer to eat more than half of my cherished potato chips that came with my steak sandwich. The things you learn.
Next it was off to visit 40,000 year old fish traps created by the local aborigines over millennia. This ingenious system traps fish, irrespective of the height of the water in the Barwon River. I found these very sophisticated and complex array of fish traps absolutely fascinating. It shows a detailed understanding of river flows and fish behaviour perfected over thousands and thousands of years. It also evidences that the Aborigines in this area were not totally nomadic but had worked out a sophisticated way of harvesting the fish stocks of Australia's inland rivers in such quantities as to sustain their population for thousands of years.
From Brewarrina to Bourke the countryside remained the same - dry, flat and drought effected. We pulled into Kidmans Camp Van Park, located on the northern outskirts of Bourke, you could say in the backyard of Bourke, around 2:30pm and set up for a couple of days. The park was busy, however, once again, Julie was able to negotiate a site at the back of the campground completely private with our backs to the 70 or so caravans filling the grassy sites of this lovely van park. We settled in for the afternoon doing the washing and readying ourselves for the trip along the Darling River towards Wilcannia some 320klm south west of us.
26 June - after the sun finally decided to wake up at around 7:15 am, we ate our breakfast outside in the near zero degrees crisp morning start to the day. Just a short distance south of Bourke the bitumen came to an end and the black soil floodplains of the Darling River formed the dusty roads in front of us.
Our planned camp, Yanda Campground, was just a mere 50 minutes south of Bourke - hardly worth getting up for really. We arrived at the camp, fully set up then wandered over to pay the National Parks Director-General his annual bonus.
It was during this walk we both realised that the Director-General had cancelled this years fly eradication program. Bloody flies! Julie had had enough of these little creatures earlier in the year during our travels to WA and back. I had had enough of Julie having enough of these little creatures too. So we packed up and headed further south to Rose Isle Station Stay on the Darling. Spoiler alert - the flies remained with us during daylight hours until after Wilcannia when they blissfully disappeared once more.
On the way to Rose Isle we came
Arriving at Rose Isle Station at 12:30pm, we met the owner and enquired about a bush site for a couple of nights.
She said "take your pick, there is only one campsite taken. There's the quad, jump in and have a look. Don't drive too fast as this one is our third this year as the others have been written off by campers". So away we went driving the property checking out all the sites in a quad bike. Yeehaa.
Site number 8 suited us just fine so back we went, paid our money and set off to the banks of the Darling River to set up camp for two nights. We also had access to very clean flush toilets and showers in the shearers' quarters a 2 minute drive from our camp. Bonus!
A starter pile of firewood is provided to each site however when we walked 100 metres in any direction stacks of great firewood lay on the ground. It just required dragging to the fireplace to be stacked up for the evening's fire. It was so easy to gather even Julie got involved!
Around 3:30pm I lit the fire and slowly fed the uncut branches into the fire for the next 4 hours while the sun went down on a wonderful day.
Next morning we headed off to Gundabooka NP, some 40klm away, along good dirt roads dotted with feral goats, numerous kangaroos and emus.
Gundabooka NP has the Valley of the Eagle walking track which rises 350 metres out of the Darling River floodplain to a trig point.
At the top there are magnificent 360 degree views of the floodplains below. Yes there are eagles, huge eagles, that circled above us like vultures, as we scrambled up the steep shale covered track to the top. An interesting fact we discovered was that the well known bushranger, for those who have heard of him, Captain Starlight aka Frank Pearson, was captured in a cave in the hills above Julie in 1868.
Well today's effort deserved a beer and that beer was back at the caravan, some 70klm away. Again we were all alone camped beside the Darling at Rose Isle Farmstay. We lit the fire and gathered around it as the temperature quickly dropped towards freezing by sunrise the next morning.
Under perfect blue skies we left Rose Isle Station, but not the Darling, as we headed south along dusty dirt roads.
The tiny outback town of Louth soon provided us with a nice place to stop for morning tea.
It was here that we crossed over the Darling River to tack down its western side to Trilby Station - another farmstay. The journey was very short at just 60klm so we arrived early.
We met Liz the friendly owner who handed us a thick laminated folder and pointed us in the direction of the riverside camps saying we could pick any site that wasn't occupied.
Away we went down the grey dusty track which wound its way for several kilometres between huge old red river gums passing the private airstrip along the way.
Negotiating around some of the trees was a bit technical in places but they all managed to miss the van. After inspecting several sites we chose Crouthers for its beautiful river views and maximum sun potential for our solar panels.
After setting up we went for a walk along the river rating the strengths and weaknesses of all the sites along way. Each site had its own fireplace and a large pile of starter firewood. I supplemented this by taking to a fallen limb with my bush saw.
Around 4pm I lit the fire, pulled up our chairs, and sat back to watch all the birdlife doing its thing before sunset at 5:20pm. The sun, having also done its thing, went down and with it the temperature. After twilight the skies lit up with millions of stars. The Milky Way was just so bright and clear. Meteors occasionally streaked across the sky. The stars were so beautiful that we left the fire to die down and we sat with our seats retracted all the way back and just looked up at the magnificent sight.
Next day the skies were cloudy, something we were not used too. It also rained a bit but only enough to settle the dust and not enough to create black sticky mud.
Around 11am we called in on Liz and grabbed another laminated folder containing a mud map of the property and a 3+ hour long self drive set of instructions together with detailed information of how they manage the property.
The final thing to see before retracing our steps was Liz's husband, Gary's, family home where he grew up. The property is so big they have numerous houses around it for the occasional use of the family during mustering etc. Each house is fully set up with clothes, food, bedding etc and can be immediately lived in by just opening the door. Liz and Gary have decided the original Newchum family home is no longer required and now allow farmstay visitors to go inside and look around and we did just that. The cupboards are still stocked, the dining table is fully set, clothes are in the cupboard - it is just as it was in the 1960's when they last used it.
Arriving back at camp, I did a stock take of the remaining firewood from last night and, with the additional wood dropped off by the farm's handyman (what a great place), ascertained there was more than enough to see us through. The fire was lit, the local birds were doing their late afternoon thing and so were we.
Just on sunset thick clouds started to block out the last remnants of the day's sun. It had been cloudy all day so I decided to top up the caravan's battery by running the generator for a couple of hours. We had dinner and sat around the campfire. The early evening's twilight and the darkening clouds weren't sitting well with me so I decided to roll out the awning in case of rain. It rained. It then stormed, albeit for only a short time thank goodness.
The campfire flickered away while we huddled under the awning watching the dusty, dry black soil of the Darling's flood plain slowly turn into a thick, sticky mess. The rain finally stopped not before we caught the edge of a storm and, with everything wet, we retired into the van to wonder what the tracks and roads would be like tomorrow. The day dawned, the skies were clear and the wind negligible. We packed up and were able to drive the track from the campsites to the homestead without any issues - phew.
We said our goodbyes to Liz. Earlier in the morning her husband had taken off in their plane to muster sheep with their (adult and very talented) kids. The road south from Trilby Station to Wilcannia was black soil all the way. About 250klm of it. 95% was dry and in good condition but the remaining 5% was a nightmare. Thank goodness for our 4WD and off-road caravan. Some parts of the track had clearly received heavy rain creating long stretches of sticky, slippery mud.
Driving was quite hazardous through these stretches. At one stage the Discovery decided to take control when traction was completely lost on a particularly slimy stretch but the caravan was not told of the car's decision so it tried to overtake us. Wrestling control back, I was able to accelerate enough to stop the van passing us not before it fully filled the mirrors on one side of the car then the next. Fortunately the slimy track worked in my favour and the van didn't flip.
After several more stretches of slimy black soil we arrived in the tiny town of Tilpa where we stopped for morning tea. I spent this time trying to clear the car and van wheel arches of sticky congealing mud. The front of the van was covered in the sticky mud too. Off we went a 100kgs lighter thanks to the mud I removed, to travel further south, this time on the eastern side of the Darling. The mud sections became more frequent and longer. Eventually we pulled into a terrific National Park camp, Coach and Horses, for lunch. Again I took to the car and caravan and removed kilos and kilos of thick sticky mud from the wheel arches and the front of the caravan.
After lunch we continued our journey south towards Wilcannia. Red soil soon replaced the black floodplain soil and with only a few more slippery patches we hit the bitumen. I was exhausted after the drive as the constant scanning of the road and the technical long muddy sections required full on concentration.
With such fond memories of our earlier visit in the year for Julie's birthday (see previous blog) we checked into Warrawong on the Darling caravan park just before Wilcannia, set up on site number 9, just like last time, and I set about removing as much mud as possible from the car and caravan. With the hose going full bore and with my bare hands I was able to remove huge lumps of sticky black mud from the wheel arches and the outside of the car and caravan. After three full hours most of the mud was removed. I had to shovel the piles of mud over the edge of the bank to make sure the site was relatively clean.
Late afternoon we sat back to enjoy the pretty sunset, no flies, no mosquitoes and no searing heat (see previous blog). A couple of elderly ladies camped beside us in their caravan. They clearly had little idea about where to park their van in a caravan park as they reversed within one metre of the caravan on the other side of them. They could hardly open their door to get into their van. Anyway after setting up they scratched their heads, looked at each other and neither of them could work out exactly what the cause of the problem was so they just shrugged their shoulders and when for a walk with their two little dogs. Talk about funny. We ended up having 10 metres between our awning and their van and no one on the site on the other side as the fuse on the power had not fixed on site No 10 since we were here last March - bargain.
After a very cold night we emerged before sunrise to breakfast outside in the cold of the crisp clear morning. The two ladies next door, two sites over (nearly) were up before us quietly packing up and left while we were half way through our cereal. After a leisurely morning breakfast we too packed up and left, leaving behind half the Darling River's floodplain in our site. We filled up at the local fuel stop and on the owner's advice we changed our plans to journey down the eastern side of the Darling River towards Menindee Lakes.
The dirt road was good most of the way. We travelled at around 65klm per hour on average as the road was changeable. With no wind and the slow speed the car recorded an impressive 11.1klm per 100klm for the entire trip.
Morning tea was held literally in the middle of nowhere on a flat deserted dusty plain.
Eventually we arrived at Copi Hollow, a super quiet van park on the shores of Lake Menindee. The whole park was full of empty permanent caravans waiting for the upcoming spring and summer water ski season. It's run by the Broken Hill Waterski Club. Given the instructions to "pick a site, any site" we did just that and set up for the night after ordering a bag of firewood for the upcoming evening's entertainment.
We have been to Menindee Lakes and Kinchega NP before but we wanted to visit old campsites and the Darling River once again. So with the caravan happily setup by the shores of Lake Menindee we headed off to Kinchega NP and the beautiful riverside campsites along the shore of the Darling. Our old site, No 6, was empty and just as beautiful as before. We regretted not deciding to camp there for the night but we had already decided to leave those fond memories where they belong - in the past. Continuing along the banks of the Darling we came across a large echidna foraging beside the road.
Eventually we came to our planned turnaround point of the weir across the Darling. The river all but stopped at the weir, the previously fertile feeding grounds for pelicans, cormorants and other fish feeding birds had all but dried up. A far cry from when we were here last. And as we turned around, we came across two camper trailers setting up in "our" old campsite. Even though we had passed by just half an hour or so before, they had already created a campfire and were settling in for the night.
Returning home we pulled up our camp chairs to the edge of Lake Menindee and set up our campfire pit and lit the fire. Over the next few hours we were treated to the most remarkable sunset you could imagine. From grey clouds to a bright red sunset we sat mesmerised by the spectacular display nature put on for us. Eventually the skies fully darkened and the Milky Way lit up the sky once again. All too soon the temperature told us it was time to go inside as the firewood had run out and the wine bottle was empty.
Next morning a cold clear crisp day welcomed us. At zero degrees the local bird wildlife remained unperturbed. For an hour, sorties of cormorants flew from their night's roost past us as we ate breakfast overlooking the lake. Between these airshow displays, pelicans hunted for breakfast over the glassy cold surface of the lake. 1000's of little diver birds also dined together in unison at the bottom of the lake. The place was literally heaven if you were a bird.
The sun eventually made its presence felt, the temperature rose and the day slowly lit up before us. We packed up and set sail south following the Darling along yet more black soil floodplains. The road was in good condition but started to undulate more as it traversed more and more red sand dunes.
Morning tea was head at Karoola Reach, a most stunning bend in the Darling River. We had our coffee in the warming rays of the winter morning sun while drinking in the most picturesque landscape of the winding Darling River below us. Age old red river gums stood precariously on the vertical banks of the river like sentinels guarding the precious flow of the green coloured waters of the Darling below. Numerous species of birds enlivened the trees with their bird calls while the river maintained its age old journey slowly south.
All too soon we were back in the car tracking along beside the Darling. The dusty red dirt road gave way to bitumen that signalled civilisation was not too far ahead. Putting off civilisation for as long as possible we pulled off at a riverside camp some 20klm from our destination for the day, Wentworth. Here we had lunch while I aired up the caravan and car tyres from the low pressures better suited to the corrugated dirt roads we have travelled for the last 600klms.
2 July - Wentworth is where the Darling River joins the Murray River. The caravan park, and more importantly, by sheer chance, our campsite, literally overlooked the confluence of these two majestic rivers. We set up five metres from the water's edge and spent two nights here watching with both contentment and sadness that our Darling River Run had literally come to an end.
Within 30 meters of where we were camped, Charles Sturt tied his whaleboat up the bank having proven that the Darling did flow into the Murray. I wonder what the caravan park fees were way back then. The clear blue skies and and light winds made for a pretty afternoon sunset. A huge variety of birds rely on these rivers to sustain their noisy lifestyles above the happy campers below. They all came out to entertain us as the sun went down with the temperature.
Next day we walked from our campsite to a park with a viewing tower over the junction of the two rivers. For the visually impaired, Julie expertly applied her sign language expertise showing where the Junction was. (Un)fortunately no one was around to benefit from her wealth of knowledge in this area, not ever Charles Stuart.
A clever piece of gardening in the park provides a great optical illusion that actually matches the landscape behind the levy banks they are planted on.
Later that same day a walk located over the Darling River from where we were camped took us to the actual confluence area - fascinating.
Just as fascinating was Julie's breadth of sign language again. This time it was telling the visually impaired that she was standing beside an aboriginal canoe tree. You couldn't see her full signing as there was a sign saying "Canoe Tree" in the way but she was so clear in her signing even I could tell it was a canoe tree.
Along the walk there were several Scar Trees like the Canoe Tree, some used for shields and others canoes. Julie was so busy signing she threw out her hammer-swinging-into-old-an-old-air-conditioner shoulder out.
Heading back to camp, we once again settled into our comfy camp chairs to watch the birds and sun set for the last time over the Darling.
It is fair to say we have loved the Darling River Run. We could have easily stopped in many more of the beautiful camps along its course but sometimes it's best to leave something to experience in the future if we ever pass this way again. Given half a chance we would come back. Despite the cool (well, to be honest, it was freezing cold at times), we ate breakfast and dinner outside each day to make sure we made the most of the spectacular views.
We have about a week to get home so we expect there will be quite a few one-night-stands as we travel through NSW towards the Gold Coast. If something interesting happens I'll do another post. We're aiming to navigate a way home to pass through towns and we haven't previously visited and roads we haven't previously travelled.
Seems like a good place to end this post .... so I will.
All is good with the car and caravan. All is good with both of us. All good then.
Bye for now,
JeffnJulie
..... The Grey Gonads
So how did you enjoy the previous post? We had a great time doing all the things we did and we hope you enjoyed our photos etc.
Today we left the Ridge and headed further south and west enroute to Bourke. We first came across the tidy rural town of Walgett, recently made famous because the local sole supermarket burnt to the ground. We decided to stop here for morning tea to help the struggling community. We parked just off the main street and headed for the local coffee shop to drop a few dollars in return for a few drops of barista coffee. Apparently the word was out, everybody was here to drop a few dollars just like us. With a queue far too long for us we exited the shop knowing that at least we had tried to help.
Just over the bridge, on the western side of town, there was a really good spot for both morning tea and an overnight camp. We chose the morning tea option as it was nowhere near nighttime, and pulled up near, not under, some old red river gums and enjoyed a cuppa standing in the warming sunlight of the clear winter's day.
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| Morning tea stop near Walgett, NSW |
Lunch was held in Brewarrina at a cafe that, I have to say, produces a pretty good steak sandwich and coffee. Sadly for Julie they only served steak sandwiches, without the steak, thus producing a salad roll once again. Apparently, if you have a salad roll, that entitles the customer to eat more than half of my cherished potato chips that came with my steak sandwich. The things you learn.
Next it was off to visit 40,000 year old fish traps created by the local aborigines over millennia. This ingenious system traps fish, irrespective of the height of the water in the Barwon River. I found these very sophisticated and complex array of fish traps absolutely fascinating. It shows a detailed understanding of river flows and fish behaviour perfected over thousands and thousands of years. It also evidences that the Aborigines in this area were not totally nomadic but had worked out a sophisticated way of harvesting the fish stocks of Australia's inland rivers in such quantities as to sustain their population for thousands of years.
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| 40,000 yo fish traps |
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| Look fish traps, over there! |
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| Campsite in Bourke's backyard |
From Brewarrina to Bourke the countryside remained the same - dry, flat and drought effected. We pulled into Kidmans Camp Van Park, located on the northern outskirts of Bourke, you could say in the backyard of Bourke, around 2:30pm and set up for a couple of days. The park was busy, however, once again, Julie was able to negotiate a site at the back of the campground completely private with our backs to the 70 or so caravans filling the grassy sites of this lovely van park. We settled in for the afternoon doing the washing and readying ourselves for the trip along the Darling River towards Wilcannia some 320klm south west of us.
For us, Bourke was a very pleasant surprise. Operating as a major inland port from the early 1850's the town is steeped in history.
The old port infrastructure still exists today and is currently being done up. The cemetery is filled with the graves of early settlers and current day famous Australians. Dr Fred Hollows, the famous ophthalmologist, is buried here - a fact we were not aware of. Our second day was filled with exploring some camps along the Darling River, visiting the wharf precinct and spending some time wandering the huge old cemetery, segregated based on religion, and visiting the grave and monument to Fred Hollows.
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| My darling beside the Darling |
The old port infrastructure still exists today and is currently being done up. The cemetery is filled with the graves of early settlers and current day famous Australians. Dr Fred Hollows, the famous ophthalmologist, is buried here - a fact we were not aware of. Our second day was filled with exploring some camps along the Darling River, visiting the wharf precinct and spending some time wandering the huge old cemetery, segregated based on religion, and visiting the grave and monument to Fred Hollows.
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| May's Bend in June - free bush camp |
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| First bridge over the Darling |
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| Port of Bourke |
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| Afghan Mosque at Bourke cemetery |
On returning to camp the rest of the day was spent setting up for some of the upcoming bush camps along the Darling River. The water tanks were filled up, washing done, beer and wine carefully placed in the fridge and fuel put in the tank and jerry cans. Everything was ready.
26 June - after the sun finally decided to wake up at around 7:15 am, we ate our breakfast outside in the near zero degrees crisp morning start to the day. Just a short distance south of Bourke the bitumen came to an end and the black soil floodplains of the Darling River formed the dusty roads in front of us.  |
| Bull dust pits heading to Yanda Campground |
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| Fully set up at Yanda Campground |
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| Flies! - just a sample of what was to come |
It was during this walk we both realised that the Director-General had cancelled this years fly eradication program. Bloody flies! Julie had had enough of these little creatures earlier in the year during our travels to WA and back. I had had enough of Julie having enough of these little creatures too. So we packed up and headed further south to Rose Isle Station Stay on the Darling. Spoiler alert - the flies remained with us during daylight hours until after Wilcannia when they blissfully disappeared once more.
On the way to Rose Isle we came
across a tree and a plaque identifying where, in 1829, Charles Sturt discovered there were flies at Yanda Campground further north, because he could hear Julie swearing in the distance, so he turned around and headed down south.
Arriving at Rose Isle Station at 12:30pm, we met the owner and enquired about a bush site for a couple of nights.  |
| Yeehaa! |
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| Rose Isle Campsite on the Darling River |
Around 3:30pm I lit the fire and slowly fed the uncut branches into the fire for the next 4 hours while the sun went down on a wonderful day.
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| The end of a great day at Rose Isles Farmstay |
Next morning we headed off to Gundabooka NP, some 40klm away, along good dirt roads dotted with feral goats, numerous kangaroos and emus.
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| Kangaroos showing us the way to Gundabooka NP |
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| Start of the Valley of the Eagle walk |
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| The walk |
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| Views from the top |
Three hours 20 minutes later, having survived the circling eagles above and the slippery shale covered track below we headed off on the unsealed roads to the Mulgowan Aboriginal Art Site some 30 klm away. Uncertain whether the effort to get there was going to be rewarding enough we ended up being really impressed with a well presented and interesting cave system, along the edge of a gully, filled with very different aboriginal art to all the other sites we have seen around Australia.
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| Another kangaroo shows us the way home |
Well today's effort deserved a beer and that beer was back at the caravan, some 70klm away. Again we were all alone camped beside the Darling at Rose Isle Farmstay. We lit the fire and gathered around it as the temperature quickly dropped towards freezing by sunrise the next morning.
Under perfect blue skies we left Rose Isle Station, but not the Darling, as we headed south along dusty dirt roads.
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| The road south to Louth |
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| Louth for morning tea |
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| Louth |
We met Liz the friendly owner who handed us a thick laminated folder and pointed us in the direction of the riverside camps saying we could pick any site that wasn't occupied.
Away we went down the grey dusty track which wound its way for several kilometres between huge old red river gums passing the private airstrip along the way.
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| Away we went down the dusty track ... |
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| Our camp at Trilby Station on the Darling River |
After setting up we went for a walk along the river rating the strengths and weaknesses of all the sites along way. Each site had its own fireplace and a large pile of starter firewood. I supplemented this by taking to a fallen limb with my bush saw. Around 4pm I lit the fire, pulled up our chairs, and sat back to watch all the birdlife doing its thing before sunset at 5:20pm. The sun, having also done its thing, went down and with it the temperature. After twilight the skies lit up with millions of stars. The Milky Way was just so bright and clear. Meteors occasionally streaked across the sky. The stars were so beautiful that we left the fire to die down and we sat with our seats retracted all the way back and just looked up at the magnificent sight.
Next day the skies were cloudy, something we were not used too. It also rained a bit but only enough to settle the dust and not enough to create black sticky mud.
Around 11am we called in on Liz and grabbed another laminated folder containing a mud map of the property and a 3+ hour long self drive set of instructions together with detailed information of how they manage the property.
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| Automatic gate opener - one of 9 gates on the self-drive at Trilby Station |
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| Driving through one of the many huge farm paddocks. This one is naturally treeless. |
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| Lunch at the highest point on the Station |
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| Two fencers lived in this - they misread a branch after a big night at the pub |
Arriving back at camp, I did a stock take of the remaining firewood from last night and, with the additional wood dropped off by the farm's handyman (what a great place), ascertained there was more than enough to see us through. The fire was lit, the local birds were doing their late afternoon thing and so were we.
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| Fire's lit - now for the rain to ruin it. |
The campfire flickered away while we huddled under the awning watching the dusty, dry black soil of the Darling's flood plain slowly turn into a thick, sticky mess. The rain finally stopped not before we caught the edge of a storm and, with everything wet, we retired into the van to wonder what the tracks and roads would be like tomorrow. The day dawned, the skies were clear and the wind negligible. We packed up and were able to drive the track from the campsites to the homestead without any issues - phew.
We said our goodbyes to Liz. Earlier in the morning her husband had taken off in their plane to muster sheep with their (adult and very talented) kids. The road south from Trilby Station to Wilcannia was black soil all the way. About 250klm of it. 95% was dry and in good condition but the remaining 5% was a nightmare. Thank goodness for our 4WD and off-road caravan. Some parts of the track had clearly received heavy rain creating long stretches of sticky, slippery mud.
After several more stretches of slimy black soil we arrived in the tiny town of Tilpa where we stopped for morning tea. I spent this time trying to clear the car and van wheel arches of sticky congealing mud. The front of the van was covered in the sticky mud too. Off we went a 100kgs lighter thanks to the mud I removed, to travel further south, this time on the eastern side of the Darling. The mud sections became more frequent and longer. Eventually we pulled into a terrific National Park camp, Coach and Horses, for lunch. Again I took to the car and caravan and removed kilos and kilos of thick sticky mud from the wheel arches and the front of the caravan.
After lunch we continued our journey south towards Wilcannia. Red soil soon replaced the black floodplain soil and with only a few more slippery patches we hit the bitumen. I was exhausted after the drive as the constant scanning of the road and the technical long muddy sections required full on concentration.
With such fond memories of our earlier visit in the year for Julie's birthday (see previous blog) we checked into Warrawong on the Darling caravan park just before Wilcannia, set up on site number 9, just like last time, and I set about removing as much mud as possible from the car and caravan. With the hose going full bore and with my bare hands I was able to remove huge lumps of sticky black mud from the wheel arches and the outside of the car and caravan. After three full hours most of the mud was removed. I had to shovel the piles of mud over the edge of the bank to make sure the site was relatively clean.
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| The happy couple back in Wilcannia in front of our campsite |
Late afternoon we sat back to enjoy the pretty sunset, no flies, no mosquitoes and no searing heat (see previous blog). A couple of elderly ladies camped beside us in their caravan. They clearly had little idea about where to park their van in a caravan park as they reversed within one metre of the caravan on the other side of them. They could hardly open their door to get into their van. Anyway after setting up they scratched their heads, looked at each other and neither of them could work out exactly what the cause of the problem was so they just shrugged their shoulders and when for a walk with their two little dogs. Talk about funny. We ended up having 10 metres between our awning and their van and no one on the site on the other side as the fuse on the power had not fixed on site No 10 since we were here last March - bargain.
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| Sunset in Wilcannia |
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| A kangaroo showing us the way to Menindee Lakes |
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| The road to Menindee |
The dirt road was good most of the way. We travelled at around 65klm per hour on average as the road was changeable. With no wind and the slow speed the car recorded an impressive 11.1klm per 100klm for the entire trip.
Morning tea was held literally in the middle of nowhere on a flat deserted dusty plain.
Eventually we arrived at Copi Hollow, a super quiet van park on the shores of Lake Menindee. The whole park was full of empty permanent caravans waiting for the upcoming spring and summer water ski season. It's run by the Broken Hill Waterski Club. Given the instructions to "pick a site, any site" we did just that and set up for the night after ordering a bag of firewood for the upcoming evening's entertainment.
We have been to Menindee Lakes and Kinchega NP before but we wanted to visit old campsites and the Darling River once again. So with the caravan happily setup by the shores of Lake Menindee we headed off to Kinchega NP and the beautiful riverside campsites along the shore of the Darling. Our old site, No 6, was empty and just as beautiful as before. We regretted not deciding to camp there for the night but we had already decided to leave those fond memories where they belong - in the past. Continuing along the banks of the Darling we came across a large echidna foraging beside the road.
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| The weir in Kinchega NP |
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| Pelicans Roost |
Returning home we pulled up our camp chairs to the edge of Lake Menindee and set up our campfire pit and lit the fire. Over the next few hours we were treated to the most remarkable sunset you could imagine. From grey clouds to a bright red sunset we sat mesmerised by the spectacular display nature put on for us. Eventually the skies fully darkened and the Milky Way lit up the sky once again. All too soon the temperature told us it was time to go inside as the firewood had run out and the wine bottle was empty.
Next morning a cold clear crisp day welcomed us. At zero degrees the local bird wildlife remained unperturbed. For an hour, sorties of cormorants flew from their night's roost past us as we ate breakfast overlooking the lake. Between these airshow displays, pelicans hunted for breakfast over the glassy cold surface of the lake. 1000's of little diver birds also dined together in unison at the bottom of the lake. The place was literally heaven if you were a bird.
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| Morning on Lake Menindee after last nights spectacular sunset |
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| The road south towards Wentworth |
Morning tea was head at Karoola Reach, a most stunning bend in the Darling River. We had our coffee in the warming rays of the winter morning sun while drinking in the most picturesque landscape of the winding Darling River below us. Age old red river gums stood precariously on the vertical banks of the river like sentinels guarding the precious flow of the green coloured waters of the Darling below. Numerous species of birds enlivened the trees with their bird calls while the river maintained its age old journey slowly south.
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| Karoola Reach of Darling River for am tea |
All too soon we were back in the car tracking along beside the Darling. The dusty red dirt road gave way to bitumen that signalled civilisation was not too far ahead. Putting off civilisation for as long as possible we pulled off at a riverside camp some 20klm from our destination for the day, Wentworth. Here we had lunch while I aired up the caravan and car tyres from the low pressures better suited to the corrugated dirt roads we have travelled for the last 600klms.
2 July - Wentworth is where the Darling River joins the Murray River. The caravan park, and more importantly, by sheer chance, our campsite, literally overlooked the confluence of these two majestic rivers. We set up five metres from the water's edge and spent two nights here watching with both contentment and sadness that our Darling River Run had literally come to an end.
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| Our campsite in Wentworth |
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| The end of the Darling |
Next day we walked from our campsite to a park with a viewing tower over the junction of the two rivers. For the visually impaired, Julie expertly applied her sign language expertise showing where the Junction was. (Un)fortunately no one was around to benefit from her wealth of knowledge in this area, not ever Charles Stuart.
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| Julie signing :) |
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| Notice the confluence behind us - Darling River on the left and Murray River on the right |
A clever piece of gardening in the park provides a great optical illusion that actually matches the landscape behind the levy banks they are planted on.
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| Look closely at the houses - all an optical illusion |
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| Junction Island - looking for some confluence |
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| Julie sitting in a confluence - Murray River on the right and Darling River on the left |
Just as fascinating was Julie's breadth of sign language again. This time it was telling the visually impaired that she was standing beside an aboriginal canoe tree. You couldn't see her full signing as there was a sign saying "Canoe Tree" in the way but she was so clear in her signing even I could tell it was a canoe tree.
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| Julie signing about a canoe tree - note the detail provided by the thumbs |
Along the walk there were several Scar Trees like the Canoe Tree, some used for shields and others canoes. Julie was so busy signing she threw out her hammer-swinging-into-old-an-old-air-conditioner shoulder out.
Heading back to camp, we once again settled into our comfy camp chairs to watch the birds and sun set for the last time over the Darling.
It is fair to say we have loved the Darling River Run. We could have easily stopped in many more of the beautiful camps along its course but sometimes it's best to leave something to experience in the future if we ever pass this way again. Given half a chance we would come back. Despite the cool (well, to be honest, it was freezing cold at times), we ate breakfast and dinner outside each day to make sure we made the most of the spectacular views.
We have about a week to get home so we expect there will be quite a few one-night-stands as we travel through NSW towards the Gold Coast. If something interesting happens I'll do another post. We're aiming to navigate a way home to pass through towns and we haven't previously visited and roads we haven't previously travelled.
Seems like a good place to end this post .... so I will.
All is good with the car and caravan. All is good with both of us. All good then.
Bye for now,
JeffnJulie
..... The Grey Gonads
