Dags'n'Dogs Outback Adventure - week 5 ... The Darling River run

Week 5 -

Night 28 Menindee - Packing up in Broken hill, we did all the familiar top ups of water, fuel and beer and headed off on the 120km journey to our next stop at Menindee. Menindee lake was bone dry and just a dust bowl so we detoured slightly and decided to camp on the banks of lake Pamamaroo, about 20 kms from town. Arriving around lunch time, we had plenty of time to set up camp, pull out the trusty Stihl Chainsaw, cut some firewood, take the dogs for a walk along the lake, throw in a fishing rod and kick back and enjoy the sunshine. It also meant that with heaps of wood, a good fire going and plenty of hot coals, we could get our roast in the camp oven and enjoy a roast leg of lamb with roast spuds n gravy for dinner. The sunset was spectacular, the bird life amazing and the weather perfect.

Night 29 - Wilcannia

Leaving Lake Pamamaroo in the morning, we headed briefly into the town of Menindee, picked up a few supplies at the store, had a quick look around connecting Menindee into the Bourke and Will expedition and headed back to start our Darling river run.

The unsealed road was reasonable, patchy in places, corrugated in others and the terrain was becoming all to familiar, flat and very dry. We took our time and made the 150km journey without any issues, at least that's what we thought at the time.

Arriving in Wilcannia we passed a sign to the BP depot where fuel was advertised at $1.57 per litre but we continued on through the town, having a look around as we do. On the highway out of town, the Liberty was selling fuel for $1.78 per litre so we continued our look around, back through a few more side streets and found our way back to the BP depot. Speaking with the bloke at the pump, he gave us a tip on a place along the river where we could spend a night or two about 10kms out of town. We took his advice and found a lovely spot on the banks of the Darling river where we stopped and set up camp. This is when i notice a small water leak coming from the plastic fitting on our external tap which then consumed my life for the next hour or so. Not having anything that resembled a spare fitting, in the end I used some silicon rescue tape to help hold the fitting together and slow the leak under pressure and turning the water pump off in the van unless needed stopped it leaking otherwise. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing the usual activities, helping to remove the carp from the Darling river, one carp at a time, lighting fires, cooking meat for dinner and emptying aluminium cans of beer into my mouth so the can could be recycled etc.

Night 30 - Louth

Waking up to watch the sun rise and just for something different, i decided to make a fruit damper for breakfast and without bragging, it was GOOD! It was a cold fresh morning and with a cup of coffee (Tea for Denise) and a piece of damper still hot straight from the camp oven, smothered in melting butter and then a drizzle of honey, it was good!

We continued our Darling river run and the track continued to change from good to bad, smooth then corrugated and back again. We saw a bit of wild life on the way, Kangaroos, Emu's, Sheep, Goats and even a close call with an Eagle but the drive was uneventful with bits of it captured to form a video from the dash.

The Darling River run, 4 hours+ driving cut down to 2 min highlights

We stopped along the river a couple of times just to have stretch but the river did not look in a very healthy condition the further up we went. We stopped briefly in Tilpa but continued on to Loath where we found a nice spot for the night on the banks of the river in the town common. We walked the dogs from our camp to pub, stopped and had a beer, checked out some of the memorabilia and picked up a little firewood on the way back. It's starting to sound like a job now.... but we lit the fire, cast in a fishing rod, set up the chairs and set about doing some hardcore relaxing by the fire.

Later that afternoon, a local old timer cruised round the common in his ute checking to see if the bins needed emptying and stopped by to have chat. Turns out the water in the river was only recently released as an emergency environmental flow (in time for school holidays) and basically, the reserves upstream were empty and there was no more water to come without help from mother nature. We chatted about the fishing with reports there were a few yellas caught recently, he thanked us for stopping in and supporting town earlier and was on his way. See, you never know who's watching!!!

Night 31 -33 - Bourke

Leaving Louth, we completed the 100km drive to Bourke and were lucky enough to get the last site at the Mitchell Caravan park which we took for 3 nights. I removed the cracked plastic adaptor on the external tap and crudely sealed the pipe while we headed into town to try and find a replacement. For some reason, i expected Bourke to be a regional hub but the number of shops and services were somewhat disappointing. We hit the Bourke Mitre 10 who were fantastic in trying to solve my problem but they did not have a fitting that would work. We had a good old chat about where we had been, how long they had been there, why it never rains and got some local advice on things to see and do but i just wanted to get my van fixed. Apparently there is no caravan repair place in Bourke so i had to make better my crude repair and live with it for another 500 odd kilometres. That evening we went to the bowling club for dinner, had a play on the pokies with a few drinks and had an authentic Australianized Chinese dinner from the restaurant upstairs.

Our second day in Bourke saw us visit the Back o Bourke exhibition at the visitor centre which was very interesting and well worth seeing as well as catching the Bourke Outback show. We visited the old Bourke wharf and Crossley Engine, took a drive out of town to the old lock and weir and had dinner at the Servicemens club in town. It was while we were packing up the following morning that I discovered that somewhere between Menindee and Bourke, as well as cracking the water tap fitting, we also lost a piece of our PVC drain pipe. The foam i used to protect it was still there so it looked intact but a 20cm piece of pipe had vanished from under the van. No time to fix it now, it would have to wait until the next hardware store and caravan park.

Night 34 - Nyngan

Leaving Bourke, we headed south with plans of getting to Cobar and having a look around the old mining town but being a Saturday, we were not expecting much open. When we got there, we were a little surprised to find quite a few shops actually open including a nice little Antique collectable shop Denise had seen on the internet. We went for a stroll down the main street in town stopping for lunch at Subway and passing under the longest veranda in Australia at the Great Western hotel. We stopped for a look around the Cobar Heritage Museum housed in what was once the Copper mining companies main office and we dragged the caravan up to the Fort Bourke lookout to check out the view of the still active goldmine.

On the way out of town we stopped at the Mining heritage memorial park before deciding to press on towards Nyngan with hopes for a free camp overnight. Using Wikicamps, we found a nice free camp down by the Nyngan weir and managed to get a great spot right next to the river. Fishing rods in, fire going, T-bone steaks on the BBQ with jacket potato's in the coals and all we had to do was enjoy the serenity.

For the last week or so, the weather had been generally high teens, low 20's during the day, dropping to mid/low single digits once the sun set and Nyngan was no exception. We watched the sun set that night without a breath of wind over the river and in the morning, as the mist covered the water, we (i) stoked the fire back up for the billy and a feed of bacon and eggs on the BBQ plate for brekkie.

Night 35 - Dubbo

If theres one thing Nyngan is famous for, it's for being in the Bogan Shire and what would a Bogan shire be without a "BIG BOGAN"? Well, it turns out they have one. Over five metres tall made from steel and in the main street of Nyngan. Of course we stopped to have a look and take a photo.

Moving on and with our outback adventure drawing towards and end, we pushed on towards Dubbo and out to the Terramungamine reserve on the Macquarie River. There is a free camping area that we made use of for the night and a reserve with some old grinding grooves in the river stone believed to have been made by the local indigenous tribes sharpening their axes and hand tools.

Waking in the morning to clear skys and -4 degrees, by 7.45am the temperature had risen to -2.9. It was a cold start to the day and the fire offered the only source of warmth. Our plan for today was to only travel as far a Dubbo, some 20km away, find a caravan park and fix the van with it's leaks, have a look around for a day or two and start the journey south and back to Melbourne.

More of that in week 6.