Tibooburra

We witnessed quite a bit of lightning and thunder last night but not one drop of rain! Selfishly, we really didn’t mind as we would have struck closed roads. There weren’t many morning tea spots so we stopped on the side of the road!

      

  

We hit the Silver City Highway and noticed that the Wentworth - Broken Hill pipeline works are underway. What a huge project this is and we can’t imagine the cost!

In Broken Hill we found the dump point and filled our tanks with water and spoilt ourselves with a bought lunch at the Information Centre. 

We then headed north and found the road to Packsaddle excellent and enjoyed the scenic drive. We decided to stay at Packsaddle as it was getting late so we set up in the picturesque spot behind the road house! However, it turned out to be a great spot as we met some interesting people, had a drink and meal in the bar and even got an invite to a wedding tomorrow!! Everyone is so very friendly and we were especially interested to chat to the Roads & Maritime blokes - pity they didn’t warn us the unsealed bits from there to here at Tibooburra were very rough!

                 

               

We had morning tea at Milparinka and looked through the museum and old buildings. Actually not much has changed since our last visit about ten years ago!

           

Darryl and I have had some restless nights with fridge troubles and I’ve got defrosted things I have to cook - but now we’re in a powered site, everything should be restored! Darryl did find his lead for his solar was not working so when we thought we had heaps of power going in, actually none was 😳. We do hope that is the problem and not batteries or fridges!! 

The white cockies also think this is a good place to rest - and they give us an early morning wake up call! 

                        

We had a very pleasant evening around the fire and entertained a lady travelling by herself - how Tops & I admire women that do this outback travelling by themselves. I’d be too scared. Today we did a self drive tour of part of the Sturt National Park and got a good overview of the country and learned some of the past exploits. We’ve never seen so many kangaroos - to say we’ve seen thousands would not be exaggerating!! 

                   

                    

Just before we took this photo there were dozens under this tree. The ones in the National Park look better than the ones along side the road as they are very hungry due to the drought conditions.

We had lunch at Dead Horse Gully then returned to camp to do some jobs before we head off to sample the drinks in the two pubs here 🍺🍹. This town commemorates Sturts epic journey and there is a replica of the whale boat he carted up here ready to sail on the inland sea. He had a very distressing time up here and went home a disappointed man.

                                 

                                   

Tomorrow we’ll pack up and head to a Cameron Corner and from there to Innaminicka. How far we get depends on the road conditions. We’ve enjoyed our little break here at Tibooburra and love the welcoming signs they have - depicting explorers, stockmen and miners. 

            

                   

 

We trust everyone is well - I’m not sure of internet access for a while so there may be a gap between blogs. 

Love from Darryl Marg Dennis & Tops. ❌❌❌❌

Birdsville and more

After what seemed to be a long preparation time, we finally set off on our trip to inland Australia. We enjoyed our first morning tea with yummy Grays donuts at Euston - thanks to Dennis & Tops. It’s a lovely spot there by the beautiful Euston Club - it certainly looks like a very upmarket spot to visit. 

     

  

We lunched at Pooncarie then crossed the Darling River and hit the dirt roads - well really more of a track -we felt a little like Burke & Wills except we weren’t carting a bath tub, a cedar dining table & oak stools, gallons of rum, enema kits, numerous camels and horses amongst other things!!

        

                                   

We found Bindara - our station stay on the Darling and were able to set up in a lovely spot right by the river. Burke & Wills group actually camped at this place and dried meat for their next step along their ill fated journey. Fortunately the river is flowing but at this stage no fish!! 

           

Today we travelled to the Kinchega National Park - somewhere Darryl’s wanted to visit for ages and it was well worth the very rough road to see it. We visited the old woolshed and how we would love to step back in time and see this as a busy woolshed shearing thousands of sheep. 

         

  

We toured around the National Park and saw the relics of the old homestead - we can’t actually work out how the buildings deteriorated from when the house was abandoned in 1956 till now as now it’s only rubble. 

                             

We took the River Drive and saw several of the camp sites and saw where the paddle steamer Providence blew up and killed 5 men. That was the worst disaster on the Darling. We also saw the weir and the birds certainly knew where to fish! 

     

 

Back at camp, we’re now sitting around a lovely campfire - we’ve got a generator going as our fridge has defrosted another meal 😢. There wasn’t much sunshine today!! 

Tomorrow we head off through Broken Hill where we’ll refuel, restock the beer supplies and head off north towards Tibooburra to stay either at Silverton, Packsaddle, Milparinka or Tibooburra. Stay tuned to see where we end up. One station we wanted to stay at is closed presently as the lack of rains mean they are flat out keeping their stock alive - makes us realise how tough some people outback are going. 

Our thoughts this Anzac Day were of the various services we were missing, especially where our grandchildren were involved. Lest we forget.

We hope everyone is well and keep tuned for our further exploits. We send our love to everyone,

❌❌❌❌❌❌ from the travellers. 

Birdsville and more

After what seemed to be a long preparation time, we finally set off on our trip to inland Australia. We enjoyed our first morning tea with yummy Grays donuts at Euston - thanks to Dennis & Tops. It’s a lovely spot there by the beautiful Euston Club - it certainly looks like a very upmarket spot to visit. 

     

  

We lunched at Pooncarie then crossed the Darling River and hit the dirt roads - well really more of a track -we felt a little like Burke & Wills except we weren’t carting a bath tub, a cedar dining table & oak stools, gallons of rum, enema kits, numerous camels and horses amongst other things!!

        

                                   

We found Bindara - our station stay on the Darling and were able to set up in a lovely spot right by the river. Burke & Wills group actually camped at this place and dried meat for their next step along their ill fated journey. Fortunately the river is flowing but at this stage no fish!! 

           

Today we travelled to the Kinchega National Park - somewhere Darryl’s wanted to visit for ages and it was well worth the very rough road to see it. We visited the old woolshed and how we would love to step back in time and see this as a busy woolshed shearing thousands of sheep. 

         

  

We toured around the National Park and saw the relics of the old homestead - we can’t actually work out how the buildings deteriorated from when the house was abandoned in 1956 till now as now it’s only rubble. 

                             

We took the River Drive and saw several of the camp sites and saw where the paddle steamer Providence blew up and killed 5 men. That was the worst disaster on the Darling. We also saw the weir and the birds certainly knew where to fish! 

     

 

Back at camp, we’re now sitting around a lovely campfire - we’ve got a generator going as our fridge has defrosted another meal 😢. There wasn’t much sunshine today!! 

Tomorrow we head off through Broken Hill where we’ll refuel, restock the beer supplies and head off north towards Tibooburra to stay either at Silverton, Packsaddle, Milparinka or Tibooburra. Stay tuned to see where we end up. One station we wanted to stay at is closed presently as the lack of rains mean they are flat out keeping their stock alive - makes us realise how tough some people outback are going. 

Our thoughts this Anzac Day were of the various services we were missing, especially where our grandchildren were involved. Lest we forget.

We hope everyone is well and keep tuned for our further exploits. We send our love to everyone,

❌❌❌❌❌❌ from the travellers.