Last Night’s Sunset
Beside Cooper Creek in south west Queensland about 10km east of Windorah. Lots of quiet camp sites spread along a few kilometres along the creek. We are getting plenty of solar power and if we need to we can get more supplies in Windorah.
Here’s one from our recent trip in New Zealand.
We are now in the heart of the Channel Country and we are camped beside Cooper Creek for a few nights … arrived yesterday around 2pm and found a great spot south of the bridge above a bend in the creek. Looks more like a river at the moment 😉
The track we are on runs through the bush all the way around to Windorah … about 10km away.
It rained a smidge last night … less than 1mm and we had a bbq sitting looking at the river. The cloud cleared later and the stars were pretty good.
This is our view this morning and a satellite view of the area.
and a satellite view of the area.
More about the Channel Country here
Leaving Quilpie today after three nights here. Nice little town with a couple of good grocery stores, very good butcher, chemist, pub etc.
Had a meal at the pub one night which has been done up and is a popular place for a meal and a drink. The Information Centre was very good and we were able to pick some herbs from their garden. The water here is bore water and is potable but it doesn’t smell too good.
So, we are all stocked up and heading west towards Birdsville. Next stop is a camp beside Cooper’s Creek about 10km short of Windorah and I think we will be there for a few nights. Cooper’s Creek, named after a judge in South Australia, flows in to Lake Eyre and there should be quite a bit of water in it at the moment. It might have been called Cooper’s River but the bloke who named it said he called it a creek because there was no flow when he saw it. That would be most of the time.
With the recent rains we should see some green around the Channel Country.
8:30 AM, Monday 29 Apr 2024
Thargomindah, QLD, Australia
Had a great 190km drive yesterday on some beautiful red outback roads from Carrawinya NP, down to the NSW border and then back up to Thargomindah. A warm day and a warm night although it looks like cooler weather is on the way.
We were going to stock up on supplies and then keep heading due west to Noccundra but the Foodworks store in town burnt down and they are rebuilding it. So we are heading to Quilpie today to shop there and do our laundry.
The good news is that the main road west to Birdsville is now open again although the roads north from there are still closed. Plan is to head out there and spend some time camping in the bush outside Birdsville and do some trips in the area.
This was our sunset last night and the other is the old shearing shed at Ourimperee a few hundred metres from our camp site at the waterhole there.
We arrived in Tilpa yesterday afternoon and we are camped behind the levee as per the instructions on the sign near the pub which is about 100m away. We had a counter meal at the pub last night … steak was the safe option and it was pretty good.
We are doing part of the Darling River Run from Wilcannia to Bourke. The total length of this drive, from Walgett to Wentworth is 2740km but this section is only about 310km. Shortly after we left Wilcannia we dropped our tyre pressures down which gave us a much more comfortable ride on the gravel road, some of which had broken up a bit after the recent rains.
We’ll be camping tonight right next to the Darling River at Tilpa Wier just a few kilometres from here. It has recently started raining very lightly but if it carries on things might get a bit sticky!
The Darling River itself is about 1472 km long and is Australia’s third longest river. If you include its tributaries it is 2740km long. That doesn’t mean there’s a lot of water though.
The Darling River at Bourke stopped flowing over the weir in August 2018 and ceased flowing for 142 days which is the second longest period recorded since 1944. The longest recorded period from available records is 196 days from 20th September 2006.
Shallow-draught paddle steamers used to go all the way up to Bourke, which is only 106m above sea level and 1463km from the junction with the Murray River at Wentworth, but if the river level fell they would sometimes get stranded for up to a year.
We travelled about 200km yesterday from just south of Ivanhoe to Wilcannia and we are camped beside the Darling River on the edge of town. Big difference today was a couple of very low hills but nothing very exciting. More trees though and so many emus and unfortunately even more feral goats!
We asked around town to try and find out about the road conditions on the Darling River Run between here and Bourke and ended up getting some very solid information from a woman at the Darling Shire Council. We’ll take the West Tilpa Road as far as Tilpa and then cross the Darling River and travel to Bourke from there. Looking forward to some time in the bush if we can manage it. There’s a couple of old Outback Pubs at Tilpa and Louth that may get a visit.
We’ll be asking about road conditions as we go so things may change a bit but the next real town will be Bourke.
Here’s a shot from the banks of the Darling River.
Farm Tracks
It’s dead flat out here so when it rains, as it did recently, the water doesn’t really have anywhere to go. If the track gets too chewed up then just make another one.
Taken a short way off the Cobb Highway south of Ivanhoe. Great sunset last night and clear blue skies again this morning.
Safe travels everyone.
Hi there
We are staying about 8km south of Ivanhoe on the Cobb Highway tonight. After over two weeks in a caravan park in Hay, NSW, while we got over flu/covid, we are very happy to be back on the road.
The delay to our travels does mean that a lot of the flooding after the recent rain event has subsided… which means that we can head to the north west of NSW. Not sure after that because the map is still showing a lot of closed roads in the south west of Queensland.
We saw a few emus today and a few mobs of sheep. Other than that the road was pretty quiet … and VERY flat.
This is our view east from our camp tonight. Looking forward to a good sunset.
Cheers for now.
Julie and Paul
Footnote: We did stop posting in 2020 when Covid hit but, other than a few months we spent in lockdown in Geraldton we haven’t really stopped travelling. I will try and post a few short stories about what we have been doing at some stage. Almost all of that time has been spent in Australia … but not quite all. I had a short trip to South Africa last year to sell our Landcruiser and we have just got back from 5 months in a campervan in New Zealand so I’ll have to write that up for sure.
Sparkling sapphire sea, cloudless bright blue sky, deep brick red pindan cliffs, cream and orange sands, purple mulla mulla flowers and spectacular multi-coloured sunsets, this is the Kimberley coast in “winter”.
Our time on the Kimberley coast was spent hopping from one beautiful spot to another. First was Eighty Mile Beach. The Wallal Downs Station has established a very pleasant caravan park on part of their ocean frontage property and located behind a small dune to provide wind protection. Well-watered green lawns, plentiful trees for those who want shade or open areas for those that need solar power and viewing platforms to sit and enjoy the evening sunset spectacle. The beach is wide and the sand firm, great for long walks, and there are apparently plentiful fish to be caught from the shore or boats.
After the dust of the Pilbara the showers were also a treat and the washing machines very welcome. We planned to stay two nights but stayed three and could easily have extended further except some of our supplies were getting low and couldn’t be replenished before we reached Broome.
Next stop was Barn Hill, another station run caravan park. This park lacks the green grass so it is dustier and the sand on the beach is not as firm for walking but there are spectacular rock formations at the back of the beach not far from camp and also red pindan cliffs, multi-coloured rocks and fascinating rock pools along the shore.
This time we managed to leave after just two nights and then drove straight into Broome to replenish our supplies before back tracking to spend a couple of nights at the Broome Bird Observatory.
The Bird Observatory is one of our favourite places to stay in this area. It is located at the top of Roebuck Bay about 30 minutes drive from Broome. They do a lot of work in monitoring migratory birds, run tours and provide accommodation or camping. The camping area is small and always very quiet, only about ten sites and no power or generators. A Shade House serves as a camp kitchen, viewing point for watching birds and wallabies at a water point and as a general meeting place. Every evening a bird roll call is held when they record all birds seen or heard within 70 kilometres during the past 24 hours. It is always peaceful and friendly and just across the sandy road are the marvellous colours of Roebuck Bay. Aerial shots in the area are especially rewarding.
The Dampier Peninsula lies north of Broome and this was our next destination. There is free camping at a few places along the southern stretch of the peninsula and James Price Point is the most spectacular of these. Its also a favourite with Broome locals but as we arrive there mid week there are few others around and we find a great spot tucked back into the red pindan cliffs. There we escaped the strongest of the winds but could still gaze out over the amazing ocean in front of us. We could wander up the beach at low tide or take a dip in front of the camp at high tide but most of our time was happily spent enjoying the beauty and reading and relaxing.
We had four peaceful days before the weekend arrived and the area filled with locals out for the day or to camp for two or three nights. We spent most of a day trying to find another spot to camp further up the peninsula but most camp sites were closed due to covid and entry to all of the aboriginal communities is restricted to local residents or essential workers. The places which were open either didn’t appeal to us and were likely to be even busier than James Price Point so we back-tracked all the way and spent one night near Willie Creek and two nights at Quandong Point before returning to James Price Point for another two nights.
Finally it was time to return to Broome but this time we were treating ourselves and had booked into a very nice Air BnB. Seems our stay in Geraldton has made us soft. We had eight days in Broome and managed to eat out at some very nice places, enjoy some drinks at Matsos Brewery (my personal favourite was the Angry Wranger, a mix of ginger beer and chilli beer), visit the markets a few times and enjoy the food from the stalls, watch the Staircase to the Moon from Town Beach, visit Gantheaume Point when the full moon was setting just before sunrise and drive up Cable Beach a couple of times to watch the sunset with a picnic meal.
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