Just 20 km after leaving Warren we joined the Mitchell Highway at Nevertire, where they are building the largest solar array beside the Mitchell Highway. There must be upwards of one hundred people working on this project, judging by the number of cars parked there.
We refuelled in Nyngan at $1.49.7 after doing 976 km with still another 60 litres left in the tank. Also purchased some tech screws to replace the rivets that had come adrift on the strap attaching our grey water tank tap to the chassis of the van. From here we joined the Barrier Highway as we continued further west. We stopped briefly just near the Florida Rest Area, to gather some disused wooden railway sleepers lying beside the railway track. They make the most amazing coals so we carved up some with the chainsaw. Our decision before leaving home was to ensure we were parked up for the evening by about lunchtime or soon thereafter each day. And today was no different with just 273 km in total. Our drive took us further west towards Cobar, where we stopped briefly just to stretch the legs before continuing for another 63 km to spend the evening camped at the Meadow Glen Rest Area. It's a large area and being the first to arrive, we were able to get the best position away from the highway and behind some trees.
By 5:30 another seven vans had turned up to spend the evening, and the road noise from passing trucks also dropped off just after dark.
Another shortish days drive again today for our fifth day on the road, of just 196 km to spend the night camped at the Victory caravan park in Wilcannia, where powered sites are just $25 or $15 for unpowered. It's a very popular park with over fifteen vans spending the night here.
So sad to see the level of water currently in the Darling River just behind the caravan park.
We have previously stayed at Warrawong on the Darling but I find their fees of $28 for an unpowered site to be a rather excessive, especially when we use all our own 0nboard facilities. We could have stayed at the rest area 15 km west of here, but its quite small and very close to the highway, and I would imagine quite noisy with trucks passing throughout the night. There has been quite a lot of bad publicity circulating about spending time in Wilcannia but from our experience last night and on recent occasions I think this criticism is unjustified. Two of the lovely stone buildings in town.
Before leaving we refuelled at the BP service station that's located in one of the back streets in town. It's normally fifteen cents a litre cheaper than the Liberty station located on the highway in the centre of town. We were now on our way towards Broken Hill. From here the only excitement for us was where the road climbs over the Thackaringa Hills. Of course, there are no passing lanes here, but then there's not much traffic to contend with either. It wasn't long after that until we crossed the border into South Australia. Cockburn is located almost right on the border and is only just within South Australia. In its heyday, in the late 1890s the population of the town grew to over 2000 people but today there are just 25 living here. This once busy railway town was the location where locomotives and crews would change. The remainder of our drive today was quite boring and featureless apart from the lovely railway station at Manahill.
The countryside consists of mainly saltbush with the occasional trees lining some of the dry creeks. For our whole drive today we have battled severe north westerly winds since leaving Wilcannia. The weather bureau had predicted winds of 37 kph with gusts reaching 51 kph and we can attest to that. As we approached Peterborough the heavens opened up and with it the temperature dropped to just 6 degrees at 3 pm.
Another trip to Birdsville to attend the Big Red Bash, just like we did last year. Because of recent weather events, our planning for this year's trip involved four different options. And just like last year, this trip will be a leisurely drive taking just on a fortnight to reach Birdsville. Our preferred option was going via the Birdsville Track. We have driven the track before, but that was over twenty-five years ago, and we wanted to revisit Farina. Our last visit here was in 2013, on one of our many trips along the Oodnadatta Track. So with all that in mind, we have been patiently waiting for the South Australian outback roads to open. Thankfully the Birdsville Track opened with caution if towing just shy of two weeks before we left home. Providing there is no more rain, we won't have to revert to plan B, C or D. Over the past month, the van has been receiving some TLC, which included a wheel alignment and the installation of our Maxtrax's on the rear of the van. Apart from that bearings were checked only 5,000 km ago so they will be fine until we return home. Our Landcruiser has just received its 80,000 km service along with a wheel alignment, and we have just purchased a set of Staun tyre deflators, that will speed up reducing tyre pressures on all our eight tyres. Ros has been much busier than I have, attending to shopping and preparing slow cooker meals that she freezes, as a back or if we just want a quick meal. I think we must be jinxed, because on the vast majority of occasions that we are heading away on a trip, it's normally raining, just like it was this morning. Thankfully we hooked the van up yesterday afternoon otherwise it wouldn't have been a very enjoyable exercise. Our late start had nothing to do with this mornings weather, or like having to call the NRMA to replace our 4wd's battery like we had to on one of our previous holidays, it's just that we haven't too far to travel today. Our route will take us south past Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Taree. The rain continued on and off during our trip today and was quite heavy at times. It's not the ideal situation when out and about especially travelling with the van in tow. Tonight's camp is the Lions Park in Bulahdelah, beside the Myall River on the southern outskirts of town. Its far enough away from the highway to ensure we have a peaceful nights sleep. We are also happy to leave a donation to help with the upkeep of the park.
Weather-wise, much the same conditions that we experienced yesterday on leaving home with another damp, cold and grey morning while our vans diesel heater kept us nice and toasty. Again there was no real rush to be on the road too early for our second days travel. Our drive today is just over 320 km with the vast majority of this along the Pacific Highway. So after a pleasant and peaceful evening, we rejoined the highway to happily sit in the left-hand lane as we continued to travel further south towards Raymond Terrace. The traffic congestion increased from here as did the rain, as we crossed the Hunter River at Hexman, and continued until we reached the Golden Highway. We are again using John Renshaw Drive and then the Hunter Expressway before joining the Golden Highway as we make our way westward. A coffee stop at Jerry's Plains, where we often camp, is about 40 km to the west of Singleton. Our route then took us onto Denman and through Merriwa. We can't begrudge the farmers the rain but it just makes towing a van rather difficult and even more so when the roads are in the state they're currently in. An hour later had us arriving in Cassilis where we spent the night. The bowling club here offers powered sites, with all the facilities for $12 for two adults, but we just parked on the adjacent oval and donated some money anyway, while we enjoyed a few beers the club.
Tonight we ate one of our meals that Ros makes in the slow cooker before we leave home. She makes quite a variety of meals that we store in those through away packs you can buy from Woollies and Coles. Tonight's curried chicken meal is one of our favourites. We also have them as a backup, just in case the weather turns nasty and we are not able to cook over the fire, which to us is one of the pleasures in going away camping in our van. Same weather conditions yet again this morning, so on went the diesel heater before we dressed and had breakfast. Today we travelled onto Dunedoo, where we joined the Castlereagh Highway on our way to Gilgandra. From here we joined the Oxley Highway, to spend the evening camped on the outskirts of Warren. We have previously camped at Bob Christensen Reserve, so have decided to spend the evening here again. Its quite a large area, with no facilities except for several covered tables and benches, and sits beside the Macquarie River. On our last visit we camped on green grass. Unfortunately the drought has really taken hold here and its just so sad to see the effects on the surrounding country side.
