Unfortunately everywhere we have travelled on this holiday the conditions have all been the same. Dry and dusty paddocks, trees dying and sheep and cattle either being hand-fed or trying to rely on what small amount of feed there is on the ground.
A brief stop just over 200 km later in Charleville before continuing a further 100 km to spend the evening camped in the small town of Morven.
The recreation ground here provides camping with toilets showers and some powered sites. We have camped here for many years either coming or going from Outback Queensland.
Fees are $10 for power and $5 without. Threads on Wikicamps are advising that people are stopping and not paying and even stealing the toilet paper. Unfortunately, we are hearing stories like this regularly. I'm not sure why but it could have something to do with a large number of people now traveling who seem to think that the world owes them everything.
We chose to leave a $10 donation to help with the upkeep of this wonderful facility, even though we didn't use any that were on offer.
Today's drive of just 93 km is the sort of day we really look forward too. We are just outside the small town of Mitchell and camped beside the weir. This spot has been one of our favourites since our first visit in 2009.
However, we have never seen the area so busy with over fifty vans parked up each evening. Luckily the camping area is large so at least you don't feel cramped in like being in a caravan park.
Even though its a small town it has some great facilities. There are natural hot springs to soak away those weary muscles, an amazing bakery, a great butcher and a clothing shop that Ros always spends money in on our visits.
Our two days injected just over $600 into the economy of the town with the purchase of fuel, meat, groceries, trips to the bakery and of course the lovely clothes Ros can buy that she is unable to purchase at home.
On our first evening the heavens opened up and we also experienced pea size hail. Once the hail started we both had a sense of deja vu after experiencing large hail in 2013 that required our first Bushtracker to undergo a full re-skin.
The road that links Mitchell with St George is only a minor road but of course the most direct route. It's narrow in parts but is all bitumen and a distance of 208 km. We didn't stop in St George but continued another 44 km south to spend the evening camped adjacent to the Nindigully Pub.
We arrived just around lunchtime so we decided we would have our main meal for lunch at the pub along with several cleansing ales. Ros chose and open grilled sandwich and I enjoyed my chicken vegetable wrap.
Here again, we have never seen so many vans parked up for the evening. There was a band playing while we enjoyed our lunch and they were on again in the evening and it looked like the pub was doing a roaring trade.
Our dinner that night was an assortment of lovely cheeses salami and crackers.
Another shortish drive today of just over 200 km. We continued along the Carnarvon Highway towards Moree. I must say the government certainly isn't spending any fuel tax on local roads out here. It was a shocker and they even displayed signs in many places indicating that the road was rough and it certainly was.
We passed through Moree and joined the Gwydir Highway for 23 km before turning onto Gum Flat Road that runs for 3 km towards Gum Flat Reserve beside the Gwydir River.
We camped here last year on our way to the Big Red Bash. This area was in a drought then but the current conditions are much worse than what we experienced last year. The river levels are much lower and the surface is mainly covered in algae and what little green grass there was is now all dead and dusty.
There was no one else here when we arrived but another couple turned up on our second day to camp several hundred metres away. We cooked over the fire on both evenings and stayed outside until the fire died down before heading inside to escape the cold.
A longer drive today that took us through Warialda, Inverell and Glen Innes. From here we passed down through Gibraltar Range National Park to spend our last evening away at Cangai beside the Mann River. Its another favourite of ours and when we arrived we were surprised to only find three other groups here.
Some statistics from our six-week trip away included traveling 6,009 kilometres at an average of 21.25 L/100 km. The cost of fuel amounted to $1,738.83 and our accommodation costs for this period was $147.00.
