The Murrumbidgee River was amazingly clear and most unlike our dirty Murray water. We were the only ones camping at the whole site so it was lovely and peaceful. A fishing attempt only resulted in a couple of carp! 
From here we travelled for an overnight stay at Pooncarie and set up on the Darling River - which was at pool level after the good rains up north. We enjoyed a drink and chat at the Pooncarie Pub.
Our next destination was Nelia Garri Station also on the Darling River. We had stayed here previously and found the place just as lovely with spacious sites among the beautiful red gums. It was the long weekend and the place was full, but there was enough space that we were not impacted at all. We had a drive out the back of the property and enjoyed chatting to Bob and Arnie. The chainsaws got a workout as we were able to cut wood for the campfire - such a bonus.
Still on the Darling, our next destination was Dunlop Station. We were fortunate to set up camp by the woolshed and had flushing toilets and an iconic shower - (powered by a generator) close by. Dunlop is being lovingly restored by owner Kim and the tour of the homestead, old store and woolshed was very thorough and interesting.
We were able to cut firewood here too and enjoyed the warmth of a big campfire and made the most of it with scones, damper and camp oven roasts - as well as the ever useful buckets of hot water. We toured the property and were interested to learn that there was once irrigated pastures grown and that a weir was built in the 1980’s.
Darryl was pretty happy to see the black cockatoo which is a symbol of the Outback Beds.
Our water supplies were getting low so a decision was made to stay overnight at Bourke. We travelled from Louth to Bourke on the western side of the Darling, as we’d been on the eastern side a couple of times. This turned out to be a beautiful trip, with the Warrego wetlands, the Darling pools and the Toorale homestead all being rather special. Toorale was once part of Dunlop station so it was interesting to see the homestead - which is now a part of the Toorale National Park.
At Bourke we stayed in the Kidmans Camp park and replenished some supplies, had a tyre repaired, filled the vans with water and I did a bit of washing. It isn’t the same staying in a caravan park, even though this one was very nice.
We left Bourke and headed north west along the Dowling track to have morning tea at the Warrego Hotel Fords Bridge, which is the only remaining mud brick hotel still in use. Sadly it’s days may be numbered as it was being manned by temporary staff while the owner was recovering from a fall.
We then turned northwards along a narrow track towards our next destination at Comeroo Camel Station. We never sighted a camel, but this was the most interesting property and it was difficult to believe we were at the Back of Bourke! It is a working cattle, sheep and goat station, of some 180,000 acres, owned by the Sharpe family since 1919. With permanent water holes, the Cuttaburra creek, and an artesian bore, the property features beautiful trees and after the drought breaking rains, feed was plentiful. It was more like a station in NT or the Kimberlys. There were plenty of birds to keep Darryl entertained, and Dennis was in tractor heaven with Bruce’s collection of tractors - and his fuel pump collection.
We were delighted to see flocks of cockatiels, Major Mitchell cockatoos, budgies and other species.
On our tour of the place, we came across this most unusual little frog - which we’ve identified as a Crucifix Toad.
It isn’t uncommon but only sighted when it’s rained as they can hibernate underground in dry times. Lucky I spied him as I could have squashed him!
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Bruce and Christine are building up their Kalahari goat herd and they were a delight to watch.
Bruce loaned us a trailer to collect wood so once again we had the luxury of a big camp fire and plenty of wood to get the donkey burner going for a hot shower. Speaking of donkeys, we also saw a couple on our tour.
This is the permanent water hole - some 4kms in length - no wonder there was such an abundance of wildlife!
The only down side of our stay here was 6mm of overnight rain which resulted in a very sticky red muddy situation - thank heavens for rubber boots! Things dried out quickly though and didn’t hold us up.
We reluctantly left Comeroo and travelled to the Queensland border at Hungerford as we wanted to see the padlocked gate. We think it’s quite a rare situation to not be able to cross borders due to COVID 19 restrictions! When we arrived at the gate, we found it open and manned by police as the previous night it had been rammed by thieves who stole a car, robbed the pub and because they couldn’t get through the gate, rammed the fence!!
.Wanaaring was our next stop and this little outback town provided us with a comfortable park plus a takeaway meal!! The hosts were very obliging and hamburgers delicious!
We travelled along the Cut Line which runs from Bourke to Tibooburra. The scenery changed and became quite stony and desolate - not like Comeroo at all!
At Tibooburra, we stayed in the Granites Caravan park and enjoyed a drink at one of the pubs in town. It was also an opportunity to catch up on some washing and to refill the vans with water. The road from Tibooburra to Broken Hill is almost sealed the whole way so we enjoyed a soft ride until Milparinka. We left the bitumen here and drove along a very rough corrugated track, through many gates ( I was the designated gate opener!) to our last station stay at Lake Pimpara. We wondered where on earth we were going at the scenery was desolate and we couldn’t imagine there’d be a lake at the end of our journey!! However, there was - this lake was filled by rains over Packsaddle way and even though the property is still desperate for rains, the lake was quite picturesque in this barren landscape. This property meets the Strzelecki and Simpson deserts towards the west so you can imagine what it’s like. Station host Ruth is a passionate community worker and we were fascinated listening to her talk about life at the station, her work with the Royal Flying Dr, her involvement in the Sturt’s Steps project and her work in restoring Milparinka. We were camped at the lakes edge and once again enjoyed plenty of wood and lots of bird life.
We plan to come back when the Sturt’s steps route is completed. Our run to Broken Hill was uneventful and we were happy to be camped at the racecourse at Broken Hill where we had excellent facilities, green grass and were allowed to have our camp fire. This was our last night as we felt we could get home in the one day - which we did easily.
To sum up this trip, it was first class in that we saw so much diverse country, we learned so much from station owners and fellow travellers - and it was so good to be out camping again.
