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.
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.
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