Day 24, Wednesday 20/7/2016, Darling River, North Bourke to Gulargambone

 Rain was coming in patches, so we timed it to pack up in-between. There was an amazing sunrise and some beautiful mist rising off the river.

We left a bit after 0800hrs. It will be only tar driving now. An interesting tidbit is that we drove on dirt all the way from the Stuart Highway to Bourke!

I really like Brewarrina. We stopped at our usual little 'Muddy Waters Cafe' for coffees, hot chocolate and a milkshake. The cafe has beautiful timber floors and is decorated with old museum pieces. We decided to give the fish traps a miss this year.

The army drove by and waved to us. Our car looks as if it belongs in their convoy.

I just remembered that we have nibbles and happy hour this afternoon at 1630hrs with our hosts at the farm stay. So, we had a toilet break and bought some alcohol at Walgett.

The guy in the bottlo wanted to know where the rain was. He said they'd had more than enough in the last four years. The rain hit right as we were leaving Walgett.

There must have already been plenty, as water laying everywhere along the side of the road. 

I'm so glad we changed to cabins tonight, as the camping area was like a swamp at Gulargambone. It's a cute little town on the Castlereagh River.

David and Bernadette were as lovely as Wikicamp's reviewers say. Siân spotted some wine called 'Galah Piss' that she bought for her parents.

After moving into our units, everyone piled into our unit to have lunch, before going our separate ways for showers and rest until happy hour.

There was a whole crowd already sitting around the group fire when we arrived. They were all grey nomads and for some, it was their 5th time here.

Thankfully the rain disappeared for the evening. They all knew of our booking and were waiting to see us put up our tents on the flooded grounds. Too funny! They were disappointed we had moved to the cabins. They were all in either vans or motorhomes. David says he would have let the kids set up their swags in the camp kitchen. The communal kitchen/lounge area is very cozy and homey with a lot of Australiana touches.

Jordan, Siân and I went to the paddock behind it to see the animals and we were invited in to feed and pat them. There were alpacas, goats, sheep, geese and chickens. Col and Jack weren't too interested in that.

Col and I hit it off with Alan and Anne and had a wonderful night chatting. They are from Shoal Bay. A very entertaining night and a fun party to finish off our trip. The kids didn't hold back on their celebrations either.

'Sparra' a local farmer was there with an emu egg from his property. I loved it so much that he let me keep it. 

Despite being in a bed, I barely slept. I had another nightmare that I was at work, then another one that I had just given birth and was trying to clamp the cord! Crazy stuff!

Day 23, Tuesday 19/7/2016, Darling River, North Bourke

 Happy birthday Chelsea!

It was a lovely paddle cruise on the Darling River. The staff were amazingly friendly. Siân got to drive the boat, and Jack tooted the horn.

Jordan and I were dropped back at camp after the cruise, while Col went with Jack and Siân to get new rear brake pads for the Pajero. They ended up being stuck in town for a couple of hours and went sightseeing and out to lunch. Jordan and I were pretty jealous of that. They had half the lunch food in their car, so we were left with vegemite sandwiches.

I made Jordan come for a walk with me along the river. We were hugging beautiful trees and found a lovely camping spot around the bend further north that I'll have to remember for next time.

The kids had a poker evening while Col and I read and cooked.

Heavy rain is forecast now until after we're home, with all of central NSW on river flood watch.

Sure enough, it's now raining. We seem to always have a rain cell follow us home. To match my mood. I've been having work nightmares the last couple of nights.

We decided to see if there were cabins available at Gulargambone rather than setting up in the rain. Yes! All booked. he's a lovely man. A nice way to acclimatise ourselves to the return home.

We lay in bed reading with the relaxing pitter patter of rain on our tent.

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 22, Thursday 12/07/2012, Bourke to Lightning Ridge

I awoke at 6am to go to the bathroom and could see lightning to the south and clouds closing in from the north. Col and I decided to wake everyone up early as we thought they would prefer to pack up now rather than when the weather closed in.

It absolutely bucketed down while we were at the bakery in Bourke, with flash flooding in the streets. We didn’t end up leaving Bourke until 9:30am, so lucky we started so early.

At Brewarrina the Darling and Barwon Rivers flow through what is thought to be the oldest manmade structure on earth!! They are estimated to be about 40 000 years old and still work today! They’re not much to look at but you can’t just pass by such an amazing anthropological artefact. There are some great educational signs along the pathway now that explain it all well.

Peter and Anthea have decided to head back to Tamworth today and will part ways at Walgett. This wasn’t much of a surprise with the ongoing rain and mud. What was a surprise though, was that Bruce took this opportunity to bail also. We were a little shocked considering his previous excitement at visiting Lightning Ridge.

We made sandwiches in a park at Walgett, and then parted ways with Freemans and Williams. It will be sad not to have our big group farewell dinner at Tamworth.

Pockrans and Parkes are off to Lightning Ridge now. Michael is crying at the parting of our group which I think reflects how everyone is feeling. It’s hard parting ways when we’ve lived together and relied on each other for the past month. I miss them already!

It was a quick 1hr drive north from Walgett to Lightning Ridge with a huge emu polulation along the way. Lightning Ridge is larger than I expected. We found the new “Opal Caravan Park” that was recommended to us by other travellers at Bourke. It is very clean with good facilities and just far enough out of town to feel a bit safer. Best of all though, was that it was straight across the road from the 42 to 46°C thermal pool.

There was one cabin left which we booked (given the adverse weather). We didn’t really like the thought of swags with flash flooding. Lisa and Stuart had a bed each and the 4 kids shared a couple of beds (bunk) while Col and I slept in our roof top tent in the cabin driveway.

First on the agenda of course was a soak in the artesian spring. It was overcast but not raining. It was a short walk across the road from our cabin. So hot and relaxing but you weren’t able to stay in too long as you’d quickly overheat.

Then it was back to the cabin for showers and a glass of wine on the deck. Cheers to mum who just announced her retirement! Woohoo!

It was a lovely relaxed and scrumptious dinner in town. We went to Bruno’s Pizza and totally stuffed ourselves with food and wine, then headed back to the cabin for a coffee before retiring to bed.