Camping at Cooper creek-Windorah-the place of the big fish.

This has been a most idyllic campsite on the banks of the Cooper Creek, renowned for fishing.  Silver perch inhabit the creek which continues to flow as a result of the 2010 Queensland floods. Over the 6 days we camped here the creek went down about 8 inches.

Murray caught 2 fish and 1 turtle-turtles are everywhere and unfortunately they are attracted to the prawn bait. It is most upsetting to catch one-and Murray was able to extract the hook and it swam away, but that was the end of fishing for the day.

It is a pity that you will get greedy fisher people. One day 2 vehicles with grey nomads arrived and I got chatting to them and the men asked where the fishing spots were-I showed them-well after that they came every day and fished all day taking away over 12 fish each, each day – more than they needed. We and 2 other fellow campers caught what we needed for a feed each day.  Interesting, that at any time of the day fish could be caught.

The bird life here was abundant-eagles, cormorants, herons, egrets, pelicans. Each afternoon the cormorants spread their black wings out to the afternoon sun- legend has it that are showing us how big the fish are that they caught. They do make a racket at night though. There are also green parrots, small finches and ferral cats-we saw a huge one with a long thick bushie tail. Turtles also sunbathe on the river banks.

A trip into the township of Windorah to visit the local sights, well not much a population of 60, Windorah boasts a post office, information centre, a library of 2 shelves, a museum, a garage-the owner is blind but can change a tyre in a matter of minutes, a general store and the pub/liquor store. This town is a popular stop for fuel before you start the Birdsville track.

One morning we were woken to the sounds of screaming-over 60 people and 35 4WD’s were on the one lane bridge having their photo taken-they were part of the Desert Duel team-led by Belinda Green-Miss World in the 1960’s. People pay $2800 for a 10 day trip across country. Apart from the road trains-the longest are 3 stock trailers; very little traffic comes over the bridge.

This will probably be the last time we can camp close to the river/creek as the closer we go north the more likely good of ‘spotting’ crocodiles!