the real Outback NSW

Travelling through the station roads from West Euabalong to Gilgunnia we past working dogs tied to the ‘grids’- cattle stops, we assume due to signs indicating fox bait was laid. The dogs were left with a large bowl of water- at first I thought the dogs were dingos.

We camped at Gilgunnia along with 3 other caravanners, 2 big rigs and a cattle rig. I left a flower… (see yarn bombing)

On we drove to Cobar- only stopping at the ‘I’ for a brochure pickup.

It is getting warmer, the roads are flat, and I saw cotton growing for the first time. An overnight stop at Kinchela gave us an opportunity to see camels, billy goats and live foxes!

Anzac Day – and we arrived in Bourke. The only activity was at the local BP Station as we queued along with 6 caravaners for fuel. 1^st impressions of Bourke-a smaller version of Alice Springs-all shops and the library were boarded up with coloured roller doors. Every 3^rd vehicle were the ‘police’ .

At the ‘I’ we bought a package – a trip on the paddle steamer-Jandra and a tour through the Back o Bourke Exhibition Centre. This was very worthwhile, and we most impressed with the displays-the technology-hands on interactive displays. We ‘drove’ the Jandra down the Darling River-slowly amongst  the old trees in the river, listened to the locals talk about life in the1930’s, became covered in indigenous words falling softly  from the ceiling, as I stood under the projector the words danced all over my body. Did you know that Edward Dickens lived at the Back o Bourke-(Charles Dicken’s son)

In February/March this year Bourke and the surrounding areas were flooded-caused by rain and water being released into the Darling River. The trees along the Darling River show the depth of the floods, reaching 14 meters.

We visited the Bourke Weir – here the bird life was phenomenal -the water was alive with fish-mainly carp-which you are now forbidden to just throw up onto the bank-you have to kill and bury or burn. It has been proven that birds that eat the carp do not digest the roe and this is excreted by the birds and consequently more carp are produced.

We stopped off at the IGA to buy some wine and were only able to ‘window-shop’. Too bad, if you didn’t bring your reading glasses-yes all the liquor is behind a huge glass cage-and you pay through a glassed hole-like the bank teller. (Thinking about this glass cage-it must surely be reinforced glass)

I wonder what the next adventure will bring-we are now heading to Nhulunbuy – the end of July!