Day 22, Monday 18/7/2016, Olive Downs Camp, Cameron's Corner to Darling River, North Bourke

 We got quite hot last night. It's 10 degrees C this morning. Siân's phone got confused between SA and NSW time, so we ended up getting up at 0600hrs instead of 0630hrs.

Happy birthday Madi!

We left camp at 0745hrs NSW time, not long after sunrise, driving through the Mount Wood section of the NP as well. It is all jump-up country and gibber plains from Olive Downs to the Wanaaring-Tibooburra Rd (ie mesas and rocky plains). There are kangaroos everywhere and we saw two huge ones having a boxing match!

The scenery changes back to low pink sand dunes with yellow flowers and claypans as we head east and there are so many animals along here! Kangaroos, emus, huge cattle, galas, wedge tailed eagles, crows, sheep, goats, a huge wild boar and a feral cat.

As you come into Waanaring, the landscape is flat orange dirt with shrubs. Just like around Broken Hill. Wanaaring is a tiny town with a local park, several houses, a fire station, tiny school, general store that is also a cafe, a post office and a caravan park. They loved that we did our grocery shopping here. We had lunch, filled the water tank and the girls had a shower and washed their hair. There was a white hose attached to a tap in the park that they said we could use to fill our water. It's bore water and safe to drink. We always treat it as well. The Paroo river in Wanaaring was huge and full. 

I could barely stay awake between Wanaaring and Bourke. So exhausted! There were a few items we couldn't get at Wanaaring so I did a mini shop at Bourke as well. There was a nice grocery store just north of the town, and we also filled up with fuel. This was the first fuel up for the defender since Lyndhurst (the other end of the Strzelecki).

May's Bend on the Darling River north of town was easy to find, thanks to our GPS/hema/iPad set up. It is also sign posted and is just a couple of kilometers north of Kidman Camp. It is beautiful! A free camp right on the river which we shared with two other groups, but there was plenty of room. Thanks Wikicamps!

The weather was quite warm, and we enjoyed relaxing with a river view. I was kept busy uploading photos and videos, enjoying visits from neighboring dogs, and since we had signal, catching up with people.

Jordan did a search for Jandra times. With lots of rain forecast we opted to do the 9am trip tomorrow. 

One of the rear wheels on the Pajero is making a loud grinding sound. Col had a bit of a look but there's nothing he can do right now. The brakes seem to be the cause.

Most of us read for a bit, then had an early night.

 

Day 21, Sunday 17/7/2016, Montecollina Bore, Strzelecki Desert to Olive Downs Camp, Cameron's Corner

 It was -2 degrees C overnight but warmed up quickly to 6 degrees C this morning. 

Col saw a dingo sitting next to our cold campfire this morning when he first got up. The toilet paper was shredded, and the calico bag for the dunny was missing.

After breakfast and packing up camp, I cleaned up the dingo mess. Jack and Siân came for a walk with me to search the dingo's lair. We found plenty of dingo scat, but no bag.  We were packed up at 0745hrs but didn't leave until 0800hrs because of the fruitless bag search.

Driving north along the Strzelecki 'highway' are endless fields of yellow wildflowers. 

Then heading east towards Merty Merty corner, the creamy clay coloured sand changes firstly to pink, then orange. We were driving over small dunes on the eastern track, but with a smooth clay base. Lots of yellow flowers on every dune.

There was no yellow bus west of the corner. It's now a brand-new cattle yard with a sign saying 'no camping'.

We got to Cameron's Corner at 1100hrs. There were motorbike riders everywhere. The Pajero was topped up with fuel and we had pies, sausage rolls and coffee in the roadhouse. Jordan was hilarious at the corner marker post, running from state to state (SA, NSW, QL).

Siân opened the gate for the dingo fence, and we were in NSW corner country by 1200hrs. Third time lucky. Our two previous attempts were in 2010 and 2012, both of which were closed from flooding. Once through the fence into NSW there were about 30 emus and hundreds of kangaroos. I enjoyed the smaller track that took us into the 'coat of arms junction' otherwise known as Olive Downs. 

We went for a lovely short nature walk near our camp here and saw loads of kangaroos in the gibber hills. We've now left the sand dunes of the NW corner of NSW and have entered what is referred to 'jump up country'. Gibber plains and mesas.

Just ran out of water from our 60L tank. Lucky we have 2 more 20L containers.

Everyone seems exhausted today. We've just paid our NP self-registration fees and sat down to a nibbles plate that includes Gina's quince paste. Jack has pulled out the backgammon/chess/dominoes case but Jordan was hoping for a poker night.

After dinner and a bit of a chat, we ended up having an early night.

No fires allowed here.