BREWARRINA, NYNGAN & DUBBO

My last night at Lightning Ridge was spent with a couple of the fabulous Opal Caravan Park staff and a handful of friendly co-travelers sipping and chatting around the camp fire pit. I was tempted to stay another night...I would sleep on it and decide the next morning.

It's weird how sometimes my body makes a decision before my brain does. It seemed, ever so slowly, in a series of insignificant actions (like locking the hatch over the bed when I got up to make coffee), that the decision had been made to leave. It just happened. While at the Ridge I had been looking at a heap of options for our next destination. That morning I eventually picked Brewarrina.  It was one of the few places that still had water in the river and free bush camping. After paying $37 for each of the last five nights my budget was a bit out of whack, so a freebie or two would help. Before leaving I drove over to the washdown bay at the Opal and got rid of a few kilograms of red dust from both the Jeep and van before hitting the highway south to Walgett. From there it was west on the Kamilaroi highway. All sealed roads - yay!

Arriving at Brewarrina 220 kilometers later, l passed on the first camp and continued on through town to Four Mile Camping Reserve some 10km upstream on the Barwon River. It was beautiful. Just perfect! There was only one other camper in so I parked and took James for a walk along the track to say gidday and suss out where best to set up. They had a generator so I selected a flat spot with shade a few hundred meters away. It was late in the afternoon and as the sun went down the fish began to jump. You beauty! I didn't have any bait so threw out a popper (lure) for a while with no luck. No problem - I would catch some bait and have another go in the morning. After putting a bit of sausage, potato, pumpkin and salad leaves into my two nets (meat for shrimp, veggies for redclaw) I threw them in. I built a lovely big fire and sipped on wine while I waited for my foiled spuds and pumpkin to cook, then did the snags over the coals, added some leaves and had a yummy dinner. The starry outback sky was incredible.

First thing Tuesday I bounced out of bed and checked my nets. Three shrimp - pretty slim pickings but it would do. I baited up and threw in my line. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Nothing. The bloody fish were jumping all over the place. Some of them quite big. Ok, time for the popper again. But alas, no joy. After an hour I gave up. Bugger!

Later that morning a car towing a van drove slowly by. I waved to the female driver then noticed a Roller sticker on her rear windscreen. 'Hey Roller', I called out, 'I'm one too'. She stopped and introduced herself. Nahan. I had read some of her posts on the Roller site. We had a chat, introduced our fur babies to each other and I invited her to my fire at sunset. That evening for a couple of hours we had an interesting exchange of ideas on mankind's future, particularly in light of my just having finished Dan Brown's unabridged audio book Origin. It was funny when she went to leave though. Her huge mastiff dog had fallen asleep by the fire and simply would not wake up! I've never seen that before. Nahan tried everything before resorting to putting food right under his nose. That eventually worked.

FOUR MILE CAMPING RESERVE scores a 4.5. Despite the drought it is a very pretty spot. It stretches along the Barwon river for a kilometer or so with lots of flat spots on the edge of the river as well as further back in the bush. The road is sealed at the entry (where you can also camp) and that's where the toilets, cold showers, bins, jetty and boat ramp are. Phone (and apparently) TV reception are good. It feels safe. The only downside is it's about 6 km out of town. 

Over the past weeks I'd been aware that the rear set of tyres on my van were scrubbing on opposite sides but I really needed to get the wheels aligned before having new ones fitted. I figured if I could get them rotated l might squeeze a few more k's out of them. Wednesday morning I packed up camp - destination Bourke. On the way back through Brewarrina I passed an auto repairer, so pulled up and asked if he would rotate them. Yep, he would do it for $30. Bloody beauty! He crawled under to investigate why they were scrubbing and advised me I had a broken leaf in one of the rear springs and would need to go to Dubbo to get it replaced. Bugger, bugger, bugger! I called Jayco in Dubbo, sent them photos of the problem and headed south instead of west. By then it was early afternoon and Dubbo was a good five hours away. I booked the van in for Thursday and overnighted at a roadside stop at Nyngan. Bloody hell, was that noisy with trucks passing through all night!

We were on the road again early Thursday, dropping the van off around 10.30. Jayco would not only fix the spring leaf but fit two new tyres (the worn ones were unroadworthy), do a wheel alignment and also replace the battery in my brakesafe unit. It has been showing flat for a while. James and I went off to do a bit of sightseeing and shopping. By 3pm it was all done and my bank account was $930 lighter. Better than I expected I must say - and they did a great job getting it back to me the same day.

Over lunch at the Def Chef cafe I researched places to stay in Dubbo and decided upon Red Earth Estate, a winery adjacent to the Westernplains Zoo. I could overnight beside the vineyard with power for $25. With the van back in tow it only took ten minutes to get there. Not long after I arrived two couples came in and parked their vans quite close to me (the power and water outlets were co-located at the side of the tasting room). We got talking and immediately hit it off. That lead to a fabulous evening of drinking and hilarity. Even James enjoyed the company of their French bulldog, Louie.

Westernplains Zoo was top of my to do list for Friday. I purchased my 48 hour pass online for $35. That would work well as I could break the visit into two and James would not have to spend a prolonged period alone. It was 38 degrees and blowing a gale that afternoon so he was quite happy to settle for a few hours in the airconditioned van. There was hardly a soul at the zoo as I drove the Jeep between enclosures. The elephants were my favourite. Two mums with their babies were having a ball playing in their pool. They dunked and climbed on top of each other, rolled around and generally did what kids do in the water. I laughed and laughed.

The rhinos and African wild dogs were pretty amazing too, and of course the meer cats were gorgeous all tucked under a rock trying to stay cool.

Red Earth Estate would not be everyone's cup of tea as far as camping is concerned. I had the best spot and the sunrises over the grapes were stunning, but it was pretty tight when a few vans were in and all squeezed between the big shed at the rear of the restaurant and the vineyard. The owners, Chinese couple Lin and Hilary, leave at night and lock the front gate so it's very secure, which is an upside. They are a friendly couple and judging by the number of people who came in Saturday to taste wine, buy a bottle and enjoy Lin's signature dish, homemade dumplings, it's a pretty good little concern. I did a tasting and must say, David Lowe, their wine maker in Mudgee, has produced some excellent wines for them.

THARGOMINGA, BOLLON, LIGHTNING RIDGE & PUBS IN THE SCRUB (GRAWIN)

Before going to Noccundra I had it in my mind that given I was only a couple of hundred kilometers from the South Australian border I should go and check out the Dig Tree. After a weekend of dust, burrs, heat, wind and no phone reception however, I changed my mind. I was about as remote as I could handle and with the tourist season coming to a rapid end the thought of being totally alone in the hot and desolate outback with no means of communication made me feel really uncomfortable. So Sunday I headed back to Thargominda. Having four bars on my mobile was very reassuring. I was low on water and some stuff needed charging so I lobbed into one of the two caravan parks, put on the aircon and spent a relaxing afternoon watching the V8 Supercars race at Bathurst.

Thargominda is quite a neat little town (it reminded me of Quilpie) but I was keen to keep moving, particularly given the forecast of strong westerlies on Monday. I'd had enough dust! I gave the van a good clean out, washed the dust off the windows (why I don't know!), filled up with water (artesian unfortunately - it has a very sulphury smell and neither James nor I will drink it) and emptied the dunny, hitting the road around ten, bound for Bollon via Eulo and Cunnamulla.

James and I arrived there late Monday afternoon. We had covered 377 kilometers with a raging 50 kilometer tail wind which gave me my lowest ever towing fuel consumption of 11.3 litres per 100 km (average is 14 - 15). The downside of the howling gale was dust, visibility often being very poor. With temperatures hovering around the 40 degree mark it was a great day to sit in air conditioning,  listen to an audio book and knock over some serious k's.

Bollon is a delightful little spot and it's reputation precedes it. Several people I had shared my travel plans with highly recommended it as the pick of the free camp options in south-east Queensland. I was not disappointed. The expansive, shady, flat area that sits along the bank of the Wallam Creek is one of the best I have stayed at and a credit to the town. The 1.2 kilometer creek-side walk way provides easy access to the pub and main street, toilets and showers. Rubbish bins, water and fire places are provided and it has a dump point. Most importantly, it feels safe. There are very few free camps in Australia that offer what Bollon does in such close proximity to the town yet away from highway noise. Bloody good show Bollon!

I was only intending an overnight by the river so left the van hitched. The wind was becoming increasingly ferocious, but with the temperature in the van over 42 degrees I just had to open vents and windows to get airflow. The red dust was unbelievable. I was actually grinding it between my teeth! By 5.30 I was seriously in need of some cool air, so James and I wandered a few hundred meters to the pub, settled ourselves in the bar and enjoyed a couple of hours of bubbles, tv, conversation and airconditioning. Ahh the bliss!

The nights and early mornings in SE Queensland had so far been comfortably cool, and Bollon was no different. I did my usual weather forecasts check Tuesday morning and found that I would be pushing into headwinds if I traveled to Lightning Ridge that day. Wednesday was the opposite - a solid tailwind. Given I  felt so comfortable at the free camp, and my van was in dire need of a thorough clean following the dust storm, it was a no-brainer. We would stay another day. By mid morning I had a sparkling clean van and this weekly blog right up to date!

It was another 40 degree day though thankfully the wind had abated. James and I strolled over to the pub late arvo, as usual. The cool bar air was sensational, as were, of course, the bubbles. German barmaid Alex and I got into deep conversation. She had been in Oz for four years on a visa working, mostly on farms, but having met the love of her life in Bollon (of all places), she moved and got a job at the pub. Her partner was a roo shooter. They both worked at night shooting between 20 and 60 roos. Each roo had to weigh a minimum of 16kg and had to be gutted. By dawn the carcasses needed to be deposited in a coolroom from where they were collected by refrigerated truck every few days. The meat was for human consumption and her partner was paid $1 per kilo. The things you learn in a bar! Oh, and something else I found out....an ancient old bloke came in and bought two pouches of tobacco....it cost him $202. Fuck me! I didn't realize smoking cost THAT much!

When the sun went down it was a perfect, still, balmy, starry night. Rather than pull the webber out l lit a fire, cooked delicious pork spare ribs with spuds and pumpkin in foil and peas, all done on the fire. Yum! James and I were in our element. A fire, a river, a beautiful sky and a wine. I bet you are jealous.....

BOLLON scores a 5 out of 5. It's one of the best! Easily accessed, large, flat, shady, beside a river, fire pits, drinking water, rubbish bins, dump point, toilets, showers, close to town, phone, tv, dogs and quiet. Not only all that it's safe and it's pretty.

Wednesday was yet another beautiful day and I was in no hurry to leave Bollon. After a walk along the river to the cemetery at the end of the camping area, I packed up slowly, did a tour of the town on the way out and headed East on the Balonne Highway mid morning. Twelve kilometers later I took a right onto the Ballon-Dirrabandi Rd heading south for 92 km, then right onto B55 for a further 64 km to arrive at the tiny town of Hebel, just short of the NSW border.

Hebel pub is another one of those iconic outback landmarks. It's well written up for its quirky character - which it sure has - and its history. Opened in 1894 as a Cobb & Co stopover, it is also reputed to have been a hang out for the Kelly Gang. And it looks like it hasn't seen a re-vamp in a hundred years! When James and I got out of the car we were hit by the heat - over 40 degrees and an increasing wind. It was sooo nice in the bar. As usual,it wasn't long before I got chatting with the owner, Merv. He and his wife Kim (who was across the road serving in the coffee shop which they had just taken over), had only been at Hebel a few months. Merv was a delight - a genuine, laid-back dude with a really warm disposition - so much so that I was tempted to overnight there. A few other caravanners were also in the bar, en-route to Lightning Ridge, and they talked me out of it. Apparently it was forecast to be windier Thursday with severe dust storms. Ah well - I settled for a piccolo of bubbles and enjoyed the cluttered, somewhat crooked and haphazard ambiance along with the conversation around the bar, which was also loaded with advice with regard to the best place to stay in Lightning Ridge.

Lightning Ridge is only 54 km south of Hebel. The actual township is 5 km or so off the highway, and its central hub is much like other outback towns of its size (pop 2500 approx) with a few bizarre twists. The opal fields themselves form part of the town and they have to be seen to be believed - shacks, car wrecks, rusting discarded mining equipment, shafts everywhere and mullock piles cris-crossed with roads that are almost impassable. And that's just a couple of streets back from the main drag! I recalled it from my previous two visits. On both occasions, in the early nineties, I had flown in. The first time I remember well as I was training for my Commercial Pilot's Licence in a twin engine Partenavia and had four paying opal miners on board. We departed out of Moorabbin (Vic) late because they were late, and we ran out of daylight before we got to the Ridge. I had to land at Walgett and get overnight accommodation for everyone before doing the final leg into Lightning Ridge the next morning. The second time was a couple of years later. I was part of a Flyaway out of my home club, PAC (Peninsula Aero Club at Tyabb) and on our way back from a weekend at Oakey we landed for lunch and fuel. On both occasions I didn't get to see much except the town, but I remembered thinking it was a pretty bloody rough old space!

We wended our way to the Opal, the furthermost caravan park of the three in town (there is no free camping) and I paid for two nights, down the back, and out of the way. James is not partial to caravan parks as he's generally required to be on a lead at all times. I figured if we could hide he might enjoy a bit of freedom without detection. It was a huge park and I was surprised at how many vans were in given the grey nomad season is coming to a close. The sites were all drive through (yay), massive and well separated. The recently re-vamped park had some great plantings of Leopard trees which have amazing bark. The entire area was graveled, which meant no dust (another yay), and I must say, the facilities were bloody excellent! I unhitched, set up, turned on the aircon and TV, and relaxed.

Thursday was my birthday. Woohoo, I made it to 68! I can't believe I'm THAT old! So happy to still be here and even better, doing all this traveling around OZ. I'm soooo fortunate! Pubs in the Scrub was top of my bucket list for the Ridge, so I decided that's how I'd spend the day. After a visit to the Info Centre for directions and a bit of advice, James and I drove the 60 odd kilometers out to the Grawin Opal Fields. The road was excellent except when I actually turned into the mining area. OMG the roads were SHIT! The three pubs - Grawin Golf Club, Sheepyard Inn and Glengarry Hilton - are situated a few kilometers apart on an 18 km loop that takes quite some time to travel because of the road conditions. But man 0' man....is it interesting! The landscape looks like a cross between a bomb site, a tip and a wrecker's yard and is dotted by piles and piles of white rocks that have been dug out of the mine shafts. There are shanty dwellings all over the place and, not surprisingly, the pubs themselves are little more.

Of course I checked out all three pubs. Grawin was built by the locals in the 70's out of cypress pine and is the largest of the three. It's actually a pretty sound structure with a great bar inside, unlike the Hilton which is made of tin and drinks are served out of a small window that opens out to an open space with hand made outdoor benches and mismatched furniture. The local characters who live in the surrounding shanties look like something out of Deliverance - long beards, akubras, tatts, missing teeth and seemingly in need of a bath - but friendly and up for a chat. I had an interesting conversation with one old codger who looked like he wouldn't have a dollar to his name and he assured me he was a multi millionaire with a beautiful property on the coast, but he loved the opal field's lifestyle. When I asked him why the flag was at half mast he explained that  a miner had fallen down a shaft the previous day and died. You get the feeling that many of the long term miners out on the opal fields are eccentrics who are living on the fringes of society. There is, however, an unmistakable air of 'fair dinkum' about the place. I would love to have taken the caravan out and camp beside one of the pubs but I couldn't bring myself to torture my beloved van over those horrendous roads.

There's plenty to do in Lightning Ridge. I wasn't sure how long I would stay but every day I paid for another night. It's such a quirky place. The Artesian Bore Baths are a short walk from the caravan park. Open 24 hours and free, I spent my early mornings soaking in the 40 degree water (sometimes hotter) that comes from over a kilometer underground. In the late afternoons I drove to the Bowls Club for a glass of bubbles and a play on the pokies - and even won a $927 jackpot! Back at the caravan park James and I would take our chairs across to the community fire pit, light a nice big fire and spend the evenings chatting to the other travelers who gathered around.

Friday l visited Chambers of the Black Hand. The one hundred year old mine is a series of chambers and tunnels that owner and artist Ron Canlin has adorned with carvings, sculptures and paintings. Over the course of twenty years he has used a butter knife to bring alive the sandstone walls with over 800 images. After viewing the gallery area which is 11 meters underground, l did a tour of the old working mine a further 8 meters down. The guide, himself a local miner, explained the mechanics of opal mining and shared some history and stories. It was $40 well spent.

John Murray's art gallery is another attraction not to be missed. Renown for his iconic art work that generally depicts anything associated with the outback, he has painted murals on some of the main street brick walls. It's really good. There's some fantastic stuff beautifully displayed inside his gallery...but it ain't cheap...bugger!

There are a few touring businesses in town that take visitors to various places of interest, but it's easy enough if you have a 4WD to do it on your own. The Info Centre provides maps of the Car Door tours. Because the winches that pull the rock out of the shafts are driven by re-purposed automobile parts, there are thousands of car wrecks. With an abundance of car doors visitors can simply follow the numbers and arrows on the Red Door, Yellow Door and Blue Door circuits and take in the oddities of the locality. It's bloody easy to get lost in the tracks through the opal fields though. I had to GPS my way back into town even though it was just a couple of kilometers away!

QUILPIE, EULO, KILCOWERA STATION & NOCCUNDRA CAMP DRAFT

Quilpie, the world's largest producer of boulder opal, is situated on the Bulloo river. When I arrived it was stinking hot, and while my plan had been to free camp beside the river, when I checked it out l just didn't feel comfortable....no other campers, lots of wind and dust, and close to the Diamantina Development Road which was bound to be noisy. The easiest option was the caravan park in town. For $30 I got myself a drive-through site with power. Yay - air conditioning! At dusk James and I wandered across to the nearby bowling club where a tournament was being conducted, plonked ourselves in the midst of the merry drinkers and enjoyed a Pinot Gris. Next morning we had a long walk around town. Unlike some towns I had visited in the previous few weeks, it seemed to me that the residents of Quilpie had a strong sense of pride. Houses and gardens were obviously cared for, despite the dust and drought, and the sports precinct was green and lush. A lot of effort had also gone into the main street to make it attractive. I liked the place.

It was Sunday, NRL grand final day. Not my game - being a Victorian AFL is my footy code, but a grand final needs to be watched in company and the logical place for that to occur is a pub. Eulo, me thinks! It's where I'm heading and I can camp at the back of the pub. The 233 km drive was easy at 80 kmph, even though the road was remote and narrow. I didn't see a single other vehicle in nearly four hours. We arrived at Eulo late Sunday afternoon and despite the temperature hovering a tad below forty degrees I opted for the $10 unpowered site. I figured I would be in the pub for the evening so wouldn't use power anyway.

And that's how it played out. James ingratiated himself to Col, the publican (along with every other person who came into the bar) and I settled into a cold glass of bubbles. The bar filled up towards 6pm and I had a bloody good night with staff, locals and other visitors.

While I was originally planning just one night at Eulo, bar conversations (and subsequent research) led to me to take a 500 metre walk next morning to the Artesian Mud Baths. Ian, the owner, gave me the grand tour accompanied by his patter, and I was sold. I booked in at 4pm that afternoon. It would not have been nice driving anyway, a crosswind forecast of 50 kmph. And man did it blow! I had been hoping to do a couple of loads of washing given my pile of 25 undies was down to just 3, but the red dust in the air would have made the drying process a counterproductive exercise. After lunch in the pub and a tour of the town with Col in his truck, James and I were dropped at the Artesian Mud Baths where I enjoyed a couple of hours in a cool bath sipping on a beer (it was over 40 degrees). It was delightful, relaxing, rejuvenating and well worth $70. By the time I got back to the pub the wind had dropped so I did two loads of washing and it was dry by the time I went to bed.

EULO PUB is a good stopover with powered ($30) and unpowered sites ($10). There's plenty of room and drive through sites with concrete pads in the gravel area at the back of the pub. The amenities are nice and clean, there's a dump point nearby, the pub meals are excellent, Col and his staff very welcoming and, of course, you can have a mud bath! There's a big airstrip so you could fly in and stay in one of the cabins I rate it 4.5

My plan for the previous couple of weeks had been to head to Lightning Ridge. It's amazing however, how conversations with locals and fellow travelers often result in a change. In this case I made a decision to back track a bit and go west instead of east. Lightning Ridge could wait a week or two. Tuesday morning we headed down the Adventure Way to the very outback town of Thargomindah in the southwest corner of Queensland. That 127 km was the easy bit. From there it was a left turn to head south for close to 90 km along the mostly unsealed and pretty rough Dowling Track. No other cars, no phone signal, ruts, rocks and dust. Mmmm, I thought, is this a good idea? I crawled along and hours later arrived at Kilcowera Station. 

Kilcowera Station is a very popular station-stay property and an organic working cattle station although at the moment it has one bull and thirty-five cows. The drought has reduced the normal 2000 head to bugger all, and without rain the future looks bleak. Owner Toni Sherwin greeted me at her house and guided me to one of the camping areas, the grassy area around the old shearer's quarters. It was like a private oasis in the desert - acres of artesian-watered green grass - and I was the only visitor!

I spent three nights at Kilcowera. It was an amazing experience. Toni's husband, Greg, was away for a few days so it was just the two of us. We spent a lot of time together and I had the opportunity to experience life on a 200,000 acre drought stricken remote outback property first hand. James and I did a 60 km, six hour circuit drive to one boundary taking in the rough and varied terrain, views, mostly empty water courses, bores, caves, struggling mulga scrub and wildlife. I also checked out one of the two airstrips and Toni's Gazelle aircraft that she uses for mustering. Lots of groups fly in and are accommodated in the shearer's quarters.

KILCOWERA STATION is not a free camp. There are a variety of tariffs. I paid $30 per night for unpowered. I would highly recommend it. It would be a stunning place to stay a while when there is water cos there are lots and lots of streams, lagoons and dams. It would be great to camp at the lagoon when its full.  

Toni invited me to go out with her to check the water for the remaining cattle next morning. They were on her adjacent property, Zenoni. It was fantastic. Toni used her ute to round up the bull and drive it into another paddock, she fed the yabbies in one of the remaining dams chicken pellets and she showed me the Dog Fence . That fence is a continuous structure of 5,614 km stretching from the Eyre Peninsula on the South Australian coast to Jimbour, near Dalby in Queensland. A staff of 21 employees inspect and maintain it. It's really solid and taller than I expected.

Friday morning James and I said our goodbyes to Toni and after backtracking on the dirt road we headed further West into greater remoteness. Our destination for the weekend was Noccundra. The annual Noccundra Campdraft and Rodeo was being held a couple of hundred kilometers away and I thought it might be fun. I expected Noccundra to be a town, but it's actually just a pub, a waterhole and down the road in a vast expanse of flat red dirt absolutely covered in burrs, a showground. No phone coverage either, bugger. I'd had very sporadic reception at Kilcowera so hadn't checked in with family assuming I could do so at Noccundra. Luckily there was a phone box so I was able to make contact. I drove straight to the showground but decided the waterhole was a better overnight option. It was actually really nice and there were a hand full of other campers there as well. Late in the afternoon James and I wandered over to the pub where surprisingly I was able to buy a piccolo of Henkel Trocken - nice - and make my calls.

NOCCUNDRA WATERHOLE is an excellent free camp. Even in this drought there is plenty of water and apparently lots of Yellow Belly! It has many, many flat, shady spots along the bank and is very pretty. It's a short walk to the pub and toilets. I rate it 4

Saturday we went out to the rodeo. James refused to get out of the car. There were horses galloping all around us in preparation for their events, dogs barking (scary for James) and, of course, the burrs. They stuck to absolutely everything. I did enjoy the rodeo and we did stay the night out there, but given James refused to even have a wee I left at first light on Sunday and went back to the waterhole. James was very keen to get out of the car then!