Heading For Home

 After Noccundra, we headed towards Thargomindah along mostly single strip bitumen with the occasional double lane in most floodways. We prefer to move onto the dirt on single-lane bitumen and give the oncoming traffic the right of way because at least we are ensuring that we don't end up with a broken windscreen or stone damage to the front of the Chev. It may take us longer to get from A to B, but we aren't in any hurry anyway.

Our preference is not to stay in caravan parks, but we booked into the council-run park for three days. Firstly we had both contracted Influenza A, with Ros much sicker than I was, and secondly, we were still trying to dodge the masses leaving the Big Red Bash in Birdsville.

From here, we took the Quilpie road that bypasses Toompine, where the pub is currently closed. Most of the road is bitumen with about 20km of dusty gravel that wasn't bad enough to reduce tyre pressures. 

We spent three days camped on the western side of Lake Houdraman, where there are no facilities, and camping is $7.50 per person per night. We enjoyed our campsite with just two different campers over the three days while we were there, and they parked well over 500 metres away, which suited us right down to the ground. We shopped in town and enjoyed lunch at the local bowlo on one of our days. The eastern side, known as "The Lake", has powered sites, showers, toilets and even a bar. Sites here are $30 per night or $15 if you camp near the lake using the facilities.

A massive shout-out to the butcher in Quilpie. We'd heard that he sold lovely meat and the scotch fillet steaks we purchased and cooked over the coals were so tender and juicy.

The next port of call was Charleville, where we camped outside town at the CMCA park. Our Chev and van are insured with Ken Tame, and joining the CMCA is required if insuring with them. At just $3.50 for each of us, it's a no-brainer. You must be self-contained, and they have potable water and a dump point on site. Non-members can also stay for $10 pp pn.

We enjoyed lunch at the local RSL club on one of our days, both had our hair cut, bought groceries, and I topped the fuel at @$2.55.9 PL.

After two days, we moved on to Neil Turner Weir at Mitchell, a free site. We've never seen it so busy with over 40 vans camped here. We remember coming 14 years ago, and then you could count the vans on a single hand.

We headed towards St George 208 km southeast of Mitchell before joining the Carnarvon Highway towards Thallon. We've camped at the Nindigully Pub numerous times, so we just stopped for a photo shoot with the new van and truck before continuing another 34 km to Thallon.

We've previously camped at Thallon, where there is a camp adjacent to the painted silos. There is power available, and there are toilets and showers. Payment for the powered sites can be made at the local pub. It's been a bumper wheat crop this year, which has been attributed to the constant rain that had fallen, and when we arrived, they were filling wagons on a train, and numerous B double trucks were also carting grain.

Only a short drive today as we passed through Mungindi towards Garah. This 68 km has to be the worst piece of bitumen we have ever driven over. Luckily, we have such great suspension on the Chev, and Gen Y Hitch protects the van from all the jarring. We then passed through Moree and just 20 km later turned onto Gum Flat Road, which, after 3 km of dirt, leads to one of our favourite campsites beside the Gwydir River. It was interesting to see that the Wiki Camps people have used our drone photo I took in 2019, showcasing our 2016 Bushtracker and our 200 series Landcruiser for the site.

Our intention was to spend three nights here, but around lunchtime on the second day, it started to spit and with the dark clouds overhead, we decided to leave as this is black soil country, and we didn't want to be stranded for days or even longer.

It was just over an hour later before we arrived in Bingara. We've been coming here since 2008 when we picked up our first Bushtracker and were on our way home.

The area had recently been flooded as Copeton Dam released water because its capacity was over 100%, so instead of camping beside the river, we camped on the river stones about 60 metres away. We enjoyed four nights here before moving on to another one of our favourite campsites.

Cangai Bridge crosses the Mann River 20 km west of Jackadgery, just off the Gwydir Highway. It's our go-to camping site whenever leaving or returning from holidays as it's just 150 km from home. We arrived just at midday, and even though it was a Monday, we were surprised to find that we had the place to ourselves.

The Strezelecki Track

 Monday the 4th of July, we headed south 25 km to Lyndhurst to fuel up. The instructions for the automated fuel station required us to download an app called FuelCharge, and even though my mobile showed 4 bars, it still took nearly 10 minutes to download. Unlocking the bowser was reasonably straightforward after putting our Mastercard details in. The fuel was @$2.59 PL.

I inquired at the pub opposite the fuel outlet as we had been told that the bitumen stretched some considerable distance and was surprised to be told that the first 76 km was sealed.

We stopped at the "Dog Fence" rest area to reduce tyre pressures before continuing onto the dirt.

The track was quite stoney but with few corrugations. We came upon two grader drivers who were working on the track. We've often found that graders tend to bring the stones to the surface on their first pass, and over the next 40 km, the track was quite stoney.

We were initially going to camp at Blanchwater Ruins. 

But after making such good time because of the sealed section, we just stopped in for a photo before continuing onto Montecollina Bore for the evening. The bore has now been capped, and the camping area is quite vast. Two more groups arrived after we arrived to spend the evening.

There were no fires tonight as the wind was quite strong and cold. I put the drone up the following morning to take some sunrise shots even though the wind was starting to pick up. The camping area and surrounding countryside are pretty sandy, and some of the small outcrops of sand remind us of the luna scapes found in Mungo National Park.

We left just at 9 am and soon passed the turnoff to Merty Merty and the road that eventually leads to Cameron Corner and onto Tibooburra. With just 40 km to travel to Moomba, we encountered road crews laying bitumen. The lollipop lady had us stopping while trucks ahead were moving back and forth, laying a white sheet before putting down the tar.

We stopped briefly at the Moomba lookout catching up on emails and making calls as our phones were using the tower at the gas field.

The road for the next 53 km heading east from Moomba was the worst condition we'd experienced since reaching the dirt yesterday. The road would have been at least 60 metres wide, and the corrugations covered all the surface, so it was fun trying to find the best line to take whenever no road trains were approaching.

Once we turned north for the final 49 km, run into Innamincka, the road, while still dirt and recently resurfaced with new dirt, and was like driving on a highway.

We had planned to camp on the Innamincka town common, but because the Cooper was in flood and the causeway was underwater, the camping area was closed. We found a site without a view of the creek or its magnificent river red gums and were camped in the bulldust, which wasn't ideal, so we decided we would leave the following day.

Before leaving home, we'd picked up a tec screw in one of the tyres that we had plugged and then put it back on the van, and when we woke the following day, Ros commented that something wasn't quite right with the van and low and behold the very same tyre was flat again.

Lucky, I had all the necessary items to change the tyre in the bulldust, like the large tarp and the jacking plate, to ensure the jack didn't disappear into the dirt. Luckily we still had 60 litres in jerry cans that I emptied into the Chev and thankfully only needed 41 litres to top up the tank as the fuel was @$2.76  PL.

Also checked and found out from the fuel outlet that the 57 km stretch to the QLD border was now sealed since our last visit here in 2019, so I pumped up the tyres to bitumen road pressures before continuing into Queensland.

We were surprised when we arrived at the Wilson River at Noccundra that there were only a few vans here, although more did come later in the day and even more the following day.

Northern South Australia

Leaving Menindee, we made our way toward Broken Hill along what can be best described as a roller coaster of a road.

We drove through Broken Hill without stopping and stopped for lunch at Manna Hill before continuing onto Peterborough. We had a slight headwind for the day, and I was surprised when I checked my fuel consumption; we'd only used 22 l/100 km.

We are camped at a new RV stop in Peterborough that wasn't here on our last visit. It's on the western end of town, about a 15-minute walk away, allowing a maximum of 5 days. The only facilities are rubbish bins and a bottle collection site with proceeds going to the local youth centre.

It's for fully self-contained vans, but during our stay, we've seen sliders and camper trailers using the site and people flouting the rules by dropping their water on the ground. So I suppose if this continues, this site will end up closing just like so many other sites have because people just can't follow the rules.

We visited all the attractions during our stay and found the steam-train exhibit outstanding. Colin, our tour guide, worked for South Australian railways for 25 years, and he was a hive of knowledge, even having been on some of the exhibits during his career.

We've been experiencing problems adding Adblue to our Chev, and the small amounts we add do not show up on our vehicle's display. We have the necessary device to use at garages that fit over the nozzle but can only add a few litres at a time, so we drove to Jamestown on one of our days to pick up a 15-litre container of Adblue to take with us.

The days here are getting busy, and tonight there will be about thirty vans. The temperatures have also started to drop, with our coldest being -0.3 and daytime temperatures hovering around the 13-degree mark, although the wind chill factor makes the temperature feel about half that.

During our stay, we enjoyed two lunches out at the Junction Hotel after a recommendation from Greg, who owns a Bushtracker and who we met in Menindee. The meals are huge and very well priced. On our first visit, I thoroughly enjoyed my squid schnitzel, and Ros enjoyed her chicken schnitzel. On the second visit, the seafood basket I ordered was immense, and Ros enjoyed her spinach fettuccine.

Tuesday next week is the start of the Big Red Bash at Birdsville, and traffic has increased considerably during our time here.

We are also heading north with the traffic but will only be driving just 160 km to spend the night camped behind the Craddock Hotel. There is a gin distillery at Quorn that makes four different flavours, and we know the pub here does tastings and sells the gin, and we plan to enjoy dinner.

Flinders Gin comes in four flavours: butterfly pea flower, outback lemon-lime, farriers and quandong gin, and if they are to our liking, and they were so, we purchased a lemon-lime and quandong.

We both ordered and enjoyed the chicken schnitzel, which was quite large.

We ventured further north from Cradock, stopping in Hawker to purchase fuel at $2.50 per litre before continuing further north. We usually drive into a headwind, but for the past two days after leaving Peterborough, we've had an ever so slight tail wind which is really nice for a change.

We stopped briefly at Parachilna for a photo and could see that camping is no longer available across from the pub before moving onto Leigh Creek and having a brief drive around town.

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It was then just 25 km north towards Farina, where we stayed for the next two evenings. The bakery was in full swing after being closed for the past week due to COVID. On our way in, we stopped and bought two sausage rolls for lunch and a loaf of bread before making our way to the camping area. Fees are $10 per person nightly, and they have showers and toilets, but as usual, we always prefer to use our own.

Lovely clear days can mean only one thing, and yes, the following morning, it was just 0.8degrees outside and 2.3 inside the van until we cranked up the diesel heater. It was back into bed until the interior was at an acceptable level to get up and change.

We lunched again the next day with chunky meat pies from the bakery and enjoyed a beer with it.

This trip has coincided with the Big Red Bash so we are dodging the masses as they head to and from the Bash

Towards Menindee

A leisurely start this morning on our way south along the Pacific Highway. We sat comfortably at 100 km/h for most of our trip before a brief stop in Johns River for a light lunch and coffee.

More vans were heading north than the direction we were taking, which of course, is understandable as they are all escaping the cooler weather.

After Hexam, we joined John Renshaw Drive before taking the Hunter Expressway to Jerry's Plains Recreation Reserve. It's one of our favourite stopovers whenever driving along the Golden Highway, and we were surprised that there were only three vans here for the evening.

Thank goodness for our diesel heater, as it kept us warm before retiring for the evening and again the following morning with the internal temperature showing just seven degrees.

Our second night was spent at Bob Christensen Reserve just outside Warren, and yet again, it's another of our favourites. It's a vast area with absolutely no facilities. We stopped briefly in town to top up one of our tanks before heading towards Nyngan, where we refuelled at 224.9 Cpl. 

We joined the Barrier Highway heading west towards Cobar, where we stopped for lunch and topped up our Adblue. Our camp tonight was at Bulla Park rest area 119 km from Cobar. It's a large area, and we could camp about 200 metres from the road, although the trucks stopped quite early, so we enjoyed a peaceful evening.

Another lateish start with just 140 km to Wilcannia, where we refuelled again at 224.9 Cpl. We checked road conditions to find out that the western side of the Darling River was open to traffic with just one water hazard across the road to contend with. The eastern road side of the Darling was closed from Bourke to Menindee.

Our next three nights were spent camped right on the Darling River at Nelia Gaari Station 90 km south of Wilcannia. Your $20 per couple per night gets you hot showers, toilets and absolute river frontage.

It was wonderful to see the river so full and flowing as on our previous visits along the Darling River there have just been pools of water here and there.

Our next three nights were spent camped beside Lake Pamamaroo just outside Menindee and here again, it was lovely to see that the lakes surrounding Menindee are all full again after many years of being bone dry.

The sunsets here are always very spectacular and it's wonderful to see just how amazing nature really is.