With our freshly serviced van we headed from Coloundra to Nindigully. By the time we got there the pull out fridge was firmly stuck in place. A phone call to AOR and the exercise of a little leverage under instruction and out it came. A cold beer was back on the menu.
The Nindigully Pub is a favorite and we had the free campground pretty much to ourselves. It was founded in 1864 and for a while it was a coach stop. Despite the fact that it’s in the middle of nowhere it continues to thrive. The food may have something to do with it, it’s great, but it’s also to do with the ambience, the Moonie River and the free camping. There is a good article on it <HERE> and you can find a blog of mine from a previous visit <HERE>.
A little over 30km away is the wheat belt town of Thallon with some painted silos.
Our intentions for the next three nights involved following the Darling River down some black soil roads. They are just impassable after rain so we put in a big day through Bourke, the back of which is the proverbial outback, to spend the night just out of Cobar. And that’s where we discovered a leak under the van. Facetime with AOR, flat on my back under the van. I was talked through the process of isolating the affected plumbing. For the moment there is no water to the tap on the drawbar but everything else is working. It’s a brand new van, this series of irritations should not be happening. But the response from AOR has been very supportive.
Then it was the Barrier Highway to Wilcannia. Once again on the Darling River but on a sealed road – not trying to teach a caravan to skate. There were some very big loads on the move. Once again the radio came in handy and the standard of pilotage was high. The instruction “One at 6 metres. Take a spot” means get right off the road and wait until it passes. We passed half a dozen at 6m and one at 8.
Along the way we crossed the border into NSW. Back in my Melbourne days we occasionally saw cars with NSW number plates. It was obvious from the way they were driven that NSW stood for No Sense Whatever. Out here in the far west of New South Wales the locals tell me that it stands for Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong which is where the state government focuses all its attention.
The last hamlet in Queensland was Hebel, home to another classic outback pub.
The birding around Wilcannia is excellent although paradoxically the billabongs don’t have a lot of water in them.
Back home in Western Australia the coast just north of Port Hedland has been battered by Cyclone Zelia. Homes have been lost, livelihoods have been wiped out, stock are swimming for their lives. We are told that Broome got off lightly but the road in is closed. The supermarket shelves will soon be bare. If you’re flying there take a sandwich or two and a roll of toilet paper.
bobmcgee 