Friday May 5 Bendigo
to Mt Hope
There were a few complaints from our companions in the house
as our departure time was 0830 and we needed some cars moved in order for us to
leave!!! We did get away on time, filled
up with diesel and headed north. We’d
visited most places on previous trips – Echuca, Deniliquin and Hay. After that it was new territory, but not very
inspiring. Many miles of Hay plains…
very plain and plane! All grasslands
with a few crops – grain and cotton and the odd tree.
An electronic sign with a road closed notice confused us
enough to call the local information centre which resulted in us changing our
route, going through Goolgowi to Hillston.
Native pines lined the road which was a delightful change. From Hillston we had the eye out for a campspot,
but nothing inspired us and we ended up at the Royal Hotel in Mt Hope, a town
of 8 inhabitants. Free camping for
clients of the pub. We did our best to
help the economy and met a few locals and other travellers and generally had a
great evening learning about the history and current activities. The area was home to thousands of people in
the late 1800’s when there were some copper/gold mines operating.
Saturday May 6 Mt
Hope to Bert’s Camp
With no particular rush and after a chat with a grey nomad
who’s been “helping out” at the pub (anyone else interested in a job?), we
headed northwards at 0830. We’d been
warned that the road ahead had been reported as in bad condition with one of
the road trains reporting 6 wrecked tyres in one trip…so figured it was best to
get as many miles under the belt as possible.
Just before arriving in Cobar we visited a lookout over and
old copper/gold mine. That one was no
longer in use, but others in the area are.
The company that owns them provided a great information board with both
historic and current information.
“Someone” hadn’t turned the gas off at the bottle last time
we used it…months ago…and guess what? It
ran out this morning. Once again we were
grateful for the back-up of the trusty trangia this morning. In Cobar we went in search of a refill, but
on a Saturday morning that proved impossible.
We visited the Heritage Centre which included a very touching memorial
to all the miners (far too many) who have died in the area. The information centre and museum is housed
in a really impressive two story brick building that used to be the
administration building for the mines 100 years ago.
Next stop was Burke for lunch. We’d forgotten about the “Back of Bourke”
exhibition centre which was closed last time we were there and decided we’d
need to devote a day to it, and with bookings made in Charleville and the road
ahead threatening to be bad we decided we’d keep that spot for next time.
Motoring on, we continued to dodge sheep, cattle and far too
many feral goats and their very cute kids.
The live goats were very numerous, but unlike the roos, we didn’t see
one of them dead on the side of the road.
Someone has given them some road sense! The landscape was pretty flat, with
the occasional undulation providing
some curves in the road, but mostly it was pretty easy to overtake the plentiful monster road
trains. We saw a bit of cotton waiting
to be harvested, but mostly there was grazing land dotted with eucalypts,
wattles and callitris.
Our target for the day was to get to Queensland. We managed that and called a halt at 4pm when
thanks to Wikicamps we found a great spot, off the road with plenty of firewood
and a bit of old mine wreckage to explore.
Sunday May 7 Bert’s
Camp to Charleville
With no particular pressure and plenty of firewood, we lit
the fire to boil the morning billy and since it was a cold morning of course we
enjoyed the warmth as well. The road
continued to be sealed and in excellent condition so we cruised along through
more grasslands and sparse woodlands, arriving at Cunnamulla to a town with
lots of “Queenslander” houses, and particularly attractive but deserted CBD on
the Warrego River
. The locals take
Sundays seriously out here. The only
sign of life we saw was a huge line up of cars at the local Anglican Church.
Moving right along we next stopped at the tiny village of
Wyandra and followed the signs to “The Beach”
Indeed there was a huge sandbar on the Warrego River. We were briefly excited about a bright
looking coffee shop with flag flying, but no,
it was Sunday and closed!
After
a quick look at the old railway, closed in 1994, we continued to Charleville. The road did deteriorate and there were
quite a few roadworks, but not a patch on the state of the Alpine Hwy in
Vic! We hadn’t realized we would be
following the Warrego River, but we certainly have been and did all the way to
Charleville. In most places it had lots
of water in it.
Quite a luxury to arrive at our destination before lunch and
thankfully the supermarket and Information Centre were open – nothing else
though. We lunched and set up camp in
the Bush Caravan Park just outside Charleville.
Wendy enjoyed a bike ride into and around town and Rick enjoyed a relax
and prepared a roast dinner.
The camp hosts had lit a communal fire which we used to
cook. What a luxury! There were about half a dozen other campers
there and we did a bit of entertainment with harp and guitar. As Wendy was packing up the battery and lights
for the harp she provided a bit of excitement as for some reason there were
lots of sparks and smoke coming from the battery. No more light. A head lamp did a reasonable job!
Monday May 8 Charleville
It was a cool four degree morning, but with sunshine and not
a particularly early start it was just fine.
We had booked a tour of the local date palm farm for 9am. We met our tour leader and owner of the farm,
Mark, an ex Lutheran Pastor who had decided to establish a date palm farm after
trialling it in on a small scale in Ipswitch.
He negotiated with the council to use all the waste water from
Charleville for irrigation and purchased land to which the water had been flowing
for 80 years with no use being made of it.
Unfortunately the quality of the water, despite its mineral content is
not the best for the palms. Mark is
trying to solve the problem and is working with an ecologist, applying for a
huge grant to do research into crops suitable for the desert. We learnt a lot about varieties, marketing,
diseases, nutrition etc. as we wandered around the farm. We
tasted four different varieties of dates and finished the tour with a cup of
tea and a delicious date slice!
We refuelled the BT, checked tyres, filled the gas bottle,
stocked up on groceries, by which time we needed lunch and to get to the next
tour! At 3pm we went to the local
railway station/ Information centre/Bilby Experience. Fascinating endangered species, but thanks to
a couple of local guys, the Save the Bilby Fund was established and they now
have a positive future.
Back at camp we prepared for departure tomorrow, then on to
a Cosmos tour. We had the opportunity
to view a variety of astronomical phenomena through 14 inch telescopes. In some respects it was a bit like a trip
down memory lane as we used to do a similar thing with our students at
Wyperfeld National Park way back in the ‘70s with a 4 inch telescope. It was a fantastic experience and a great
tribute to the local council who established and funded it.
Back at camp we had the luxury of a communal campfire glowing
and had it all to ourselves to cook our taco dinner.
Wendy had a plan to solve the harp’s lighting problem,
taking a set of LED’s from the tent and applying them to the harp. Success!!
Lyn
2023-05-08
Interesting travels. Looks as though you've avoided the rains along the coast. Great that you've solved your harp problems.
Merran
2023-05-09
We were driving from Brisbane to Armidale on Saturday, we virtually passed each other!! Great to read about you adventures!!
Frosty
2023-05-09
Great trip so far. We went to some of the same places on our big trip.
Patricia Gordon
2023-05-09
Figs? How many kms are you doing each day? Snow at Hotham already.
Rod
2023-05-14
Those Hay Plains had a mythical status with Karen's mum. After a wet year, she said they were glorious. Our thoughts are as yours, quite drab. In Broome ready for a cruise, enjoying the blue skies awaiting on the Cape. Go well.
Maureen S
2023-05-15
Lost an opal earring at the back of the mount Hope hotel many years ago when we were camping. Didn’t find it did you?