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- Jul 27, 2023, 8:55am
- ☀️ 10 °C
- Altitude: 88 m
- AustraliaNew South WalesBourke30°38’12” S 144°56’18” E
Louth - Home ( a mission)
July 27, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
We had a nice evening in the warm bunkhouse, and we had the place to ourselves. We were pondering our plans to get back by a reasonable time on Friday (today is Wednesday). As it was just over 1100km to home we made a tentative plan to make it to Tenterfield, stay the night there, then get up early Friday and grab Wanda before the cat hotel closed (she had to out that day - or else!).
We set off at 8.39am and decided to drive around the Trilby Station (this property is 127,621 acres overall) camp-site. There were quite a few camp sites, many with residents, both riverside (Darling) and a very nice Billabong. It's a great setup.
After this self-guided tour, we headed off. It was 25km to Louth, not a great deal there except for a memorial column built with much precision in keeping some sort of time, similar to a sun dial. So we kept heading east with nothing but flat grazing land with many fat cattle and sheep, as well as thousands of wild goats, our first roadkill feral cat, wild pigs, emus, but no 'roos. It was like this all the way through to Bourke. Here, we found an oasis of a cafe near the Old Wharf on the Darling River. We discovered that just east of Bourke is where the Darling starts. Fascinatingly, there are four rivers junctioning quite close to one another here, the Culgoa (which feeds from the north), the Barwon (which feeds from the east), and the Bogan (from the south). That all goes into the Darling, which goes into the Murray at Wentworth. Hence, we drove the Darling River.
A lovely cuppa and shared muffin, Jen took over the driving, and we continued east. Through Brewarrina, then onto Walgett, across much the same landscape. At Walgett, we grabbed 2 salad rolls and 2 ginger beers for lunch and drove out of town to eat. After lunch, it was Brett's turn to drive through the same type of landscape. It was along here that we spotted our first wild horse, yay! Collarenebri was next, nothing there, so we forged on to Moree.
Must comment on the towns between Bourke and Moree. They are pretty much ghost towns, not many people about, and businesses were only visually differentiated from either operational or non operation by their window and door covering. Operational - lockable steel grills. Non operational - secured timber boards, usually covered in graffiti. It is very sad and speaks volumes of the behavioural issues going on in these places.
Between Walgett and Moree, we got behind a Honda CRV who was going well, so we sat behind him right into Moree. A fuel stop here, a window wash, check of the tyre pressure, re-stocked Jen's sour worm supply. We pushed on.
On to Warialda, where we decided to deviate in a northerly direction to Coolatai, then a right turn towards Ashford. It was a shorter route, never before undertaken, to our destination, Tenterfield. The sun was setting quickly now, and it was 'Skippy alert' time - slow the pace. A nature break, driver change, on we went. Through Ashford, on to Bonshaw. Many little 'roos spotted, none threatened us, luckily.
At Bonshaw, we turned right onto the Bruxner Way (formerly known as Highway) towards Tenterfield. By the time we hit Tenterfield, it was 7.30pm. A team decision was made to push for home. Both of us are wide awake, having had dinner on the run, google- assist revealed just 3 hours to go, we went for it.
Just after leaving the town limits en route to Casino, we found ourselves behind the very same Honda CRV we were following between Walgett and Moree. We might have saved distance, but not time. It was a very good run through to Casino, only 2 'roos, and they were spotted together, about 20 k's out of Casino. No roadkill.
From Casino to Lismore to home, all smooth sailing, pulling up at a reasonably decent hour 10.40pm.
We unpacked most of our personal stuff, did some sorting, and left the rest on the truck for tomorrow.
All in all, we covered 5,565 km in 14 days. We got to see some wonderful things and could have spent so much more time seeing a lot more. We figured that if we were to see most things at each location (outside of Adelaide, of course), then we'd probably be just leaving Charleville by now.
The truck performed magnificently. We probably should've camped a bit more, but no regrets. It's amazing what we learned, saw, and did by doing a fly-by-seat-of-your-pants (don't know why we just didn't say "kind of unplanned") holiday.
Cheers!Read more
Traveler Wishing you both a wonderful trip. Please take care. Much Love John