Cameron Corner here we come

3/7/2020 On the road again, heading for somewhere we havnt been before. Our quest for the next 2 weeks is to travel to and camp at Cameron Corner, or at least the NSW part of it. For those who dont know, Cameron Corner is at the state border intersection of Queensland, South Australia and NSW. I always wanted to camp out in the outback proper so Cathy and myself decided to do it, the camp that is. We have already decided to get married and as we do things wrong way round, I suppose this is an early honey moon. Tonight we are in Nyngan at the riverside caravan park. We took a donger room but for some of our accomodation we have a Deluxe Bid Daddy double swag, and all the required sleeping bags and extra equipment needed for some nights out under the stars. Looking forward to this trip, big time. Gunna be a full moon sunday night, but we will most likely be in Tibooburra or Milparinka.

We departed Macpines, South Bowenfels around 9 am and made the trip to Narromine via Bathurst, Orange, Molong, Cummnock and Yeoval. There is an interesting sculpture trail along the Banjo Paterson way from Molong to Yeoval. Animals on wheels breaks the trip up with some well made and artistic sculptures, well done to the artists. From Narromine we followed the main highway into Nyngan. We walked down to the river from the caravan park and now we are planning a return to Nyngan when we will kayak the Bogan river. There is plenty of water in the river and looks like a great place to explore by kayak.

Tomorrow we are off to White Cliffs, where we intend to spend the night in the underground motel. As usual the Prado is plodding along, giving us reliability and a most comfortable ride. Our little sidekick Josie has settled into life on the road, be interesting to see how she handles the outback. We cannot cross the borders into Qld or SA, but it dosnt matter, we will do the trip again sometime in the future and from Cameron Corner we will venture into SA and follow the oodnadatta track into Cobber Pedy. That will be a good trip to look forward too. Stay tuned for some more additions to Widenose Adventures.

4/7/2020. The gods are smiling on us at the moment. We went to the Australian hotel in Nyngan last night for dinner and scored a really great crumbed cutlet meal, one of the best cooked I've tasted and then we won the local junior league 200 club so that paid tor the accomodation in Whitecliffs.I suppose the only sour note was the people in the next donger to ours, the walls are paper thin and the noise of the tv kept us awake, at different times during the night. Still we got a reasonable nights sleep and were back on the road about half 7.

We stopped at a roadside rest area and cooked some toast for a chicken roll and tea breakfast. There was no food at Hermidale so we made do at the side of the road. It was chilly with the wind gusts but nothing to stop us making the best of a not so good situation. Onwards into Cobar and because we have no caravan in tow we went to Fort Bourke hill lookout. Really good views into one if the gold and copper mine diggings. On next to Emmdale roadhouse for roast lamb and gravy roll, great value and service to match. We had seen heaps of feral goats along the road side, they dont seem to grow very big, but they are growing in number after the rains. So tonight we are Whitcliffs, not far from Tibooburra. We went to Doug's place in whitcliffs, he has a wonderful display of his style of art, which depicts, thats a good word, "depicts" various posed figures made from old railway spikes. We bought two, but of the hundreds he has made, and no two the same, he has displayed them throughout a collection of relics from the last century. I hope my pictures will do his display some justice. All in all its been a great day today, nice and clear, some chilly winds but its getting warmer. Not sure if we will stay at Tibooburra or Milparinka tomorrow night, so tune in for the next update.

Bye for now Max

5/7/2020. Tonight we are in Tibooburra, usually one of the hottest towns in NSW, but today its a little chilly. Not much accomodation here and when Warri gate on the border opens traffic will increase the caravan park and motels will be I expect very busy. We had a wonderful drive from Whitecliffs to the intersection of Henry Roberts drive and the Silver City hwy, about 140 km. There was some corrugations, that shook my light bar mounts, and a little overnight drizzle that kept the dust down, but the drive was great. Lots to see but take it careful as the creek crossing of dips and causeways can be a little rough. We saw our first live roos for the trip and again quite a few goats. Some of the caravan and tow combinations parked at the hotel in Whitecliffs must have travelled over this road yesterday, must do a bit of damage to the caravans not to mention the tow vehicles.

We stopped at the emergency airstrip and cooked up a lunch of banger sangers, onions and bbs sauce. There are no cafes between Whitecliffs and Tibooburra. We could have stopped at Milparinka, but we will do that on the way back into Broken Hill in a few days. As the road into Tibooburra is now completely sealed we made good time into our destination for the day. We decided on a hotel room fir some more comfort and will head off mid morning to the corner as its only 140 km. We will decide what to do there when we get there. If its cold and windy, we might just do the tourist happy snaps and return to somewhere else for a outback camp night. I still have a camp oven meal to cook.

We havnt had any dramas on this trip, touch wood, but we have come across some inconsiderate fellow travellers. Two families travelling south in flash 4wd's, thinking their crap dont smell, let me tell you's it does and so do your attitudes. Still you dont come across many people like that out here, most are easy to get along with and wait their turn. I am not confident on internet access from the corner, so if there is no update tomorrow I will do a two day update when I am able to.

Bye for now

6/7/20 Well we made it to the corner. We were going early this morning and stopped at Tibooburra roadhouse for supplies and the lady said there was no camping at the corner due to being national park, bugger. So off we drove with the intention of returning to Tibooburra or Milparinka for the night. Didnt quite work out that way. The 138 km drive to the actual corner while corrugated in some area's wasnt too bad. There didnt seem to be much traffic heading out, possible due to covid 19, and we didnt hear much on the cb either. 4wd were easy to spot due to dust trails and we just slowed down as not to get a busted windscreen from rocks thrown up from the oncoming vehicles. About halfway to the corner we spotted along the edge of a salt lake a road / track heading into what ultimately turned into our camp site for the night. We recorded the location in our heads and as we hadn't gone into the national park, nor had we seen any no camping signs, we decided thats where we were gunna stay. Off we went then stopped at Fort Grey. Apparently the Sturt exploration party stopped here in their quest for the inland sea. They had on a cart a boat that they hoped would be of some use when they found the inland sea. I will google the history of fort grey, seems that its a desolate place and the last flood was 1974, the lake here was supposed to be a source of water but as it turns out only a water source during extreme flooding. So onwards to the corner and on arriving we found no border patrolling or locked gates. We went through the gate like everyone else and took the appropriate happy snaps. The corner store was open , but it is in Qld so we didnt visit the store, yet. It looks like the actual border marker is in an area fenced off seperate to the 3 states, so like common ground, fair game for pictures.

Back off to our camp site for the night. This is a highlight for the trip. We found a gully leading into the salt lake where we were protected from the coolish breeze, seemingly ever present here. Set the camp up, including our new Kings, big daddy, double swag and you beaut sleeping bags. We cooked a meal of lamb shanks and veges in the camp oven, had a few butterscotch schnapps and chilled out around the campfire, from the wood we brought with us. It was so quiet, no birds no traffic noise no sound at all. On going to bed later that night all you could hear was a faint buzzing in the ears from complete silence. We slept with only the fly netting over us and the moon provided faint light all night. On awaking the next morning, nothing had ventured into the camp, no lizards or animals of any kind. I suppose being a salt lake, the animals cant survive around the shores. This was one of the best nights ever, good company, good food, good campsite, good weather.

If you ever get the chance come and take a visit to corner country, absolutely australia.This is a three day update, more to come.

7/7/2020 We stayed in our sleeping bags till late. The sun was just coming over the horizon and warming up the salt lake. We watched the sunny bit getting closer then we got out of bed properly, it was a bit chilly overnight, some ice on windscreen of car and Josie deciding not to get out of bed till we had the car all packed back up.

With only 70km or so back into Tibooburra we decided to get a snack there. We only passed 3 vehicles on our way back, but it was very early. Closer back to Tibooburra we saw 6 to 7 vehicles emerge from a dry creek bed and head off back towards Tibooburra as well. They had camped overnight as well out in the scrub. Heading off towards Milparinka along sealed road was a treat, but still no traffic going either way to mention, very quiet with the border still being closed. Milparinka was not what I expected, I imagined the town would be similar to Tibooburra, but it was much smaller, in fact probably only 2 private houses to the entire historic precinct.

The caravan park and historic ruins of the old court house and Police station plus the still operational hotel keeps the place ticking over, but im glad we didnt decide to stay overnight as the campground was all dust and rocks. On the way to Mt Gipps station, where we were spending the night, we got our first chance to get a picture of an eagle. The eagle was assisting a few crows on some fresh roadkill. As we stopped he took flight, but only about 10m before landing again. I got one good closeup before he took off again for parts unknown.

We stopped for lunch at Packsaddle, one of the best steak sanger and chips out this way. Apparently Packsaddle was a very dangerous hotel/wayside inn back in the late 1890,s, with fighting and murders not uncommon.

Our overnight stop for the night was Mt Gipps station. A huge mainly sheep station that has been turned in part into accomodation for tourists. We slept in the shearers room and were able to use all the facilities of showers and camp kitchen. At $35 per head for the night is was a most comfortable stay. We took the usual photo's of the landscape etc, eating another bbq dinner of tandoori chicken pieces before again lighting a fire next to the camp kitchen, a few drinks, then bed.

Tomorrow its off the 50km to Broken Hill. I will then do a 3 day update, maybe. Stay tuned for more Widenose Adventures.

8-10/7/20 Today its a three day update from Broken Hill. The update is short for words, thats because the website is to coax people to visit for themselves, its not too difficult. Broken Hill and the surrounding country side has lots of things to see and do. Some of the older established points of interest are now not open regularly as covid19 and other natural events impact on the tourist economy. One of the exhibits we stumbled upon was the Big Picture painting by Ando. The actual canvas is 100m x 12m high. He has painted this all by hand to represent different precincts of western NSW and is absolutely a must see in Broken Hill. The painting is due to be listed in the Guinness book of records this year and we were not allowed to take pictures, I dont think I could do the painting justice anyway. We only found this by accident when walking around the cbd.

So we visited Silverton, this would have been a harsh existance back in its hey day, the pub there is doing a roaring trade as its the only place in town for food. We went to a gallery there, where one of the exhibiting artists has a strange sence of humour. We bought some bits and pieces from there, toured the old goal and generally had a really great day there. But we found the Mad Max museum full of tourists so we didnt take the chance of going in, shame but thats life these days. The sculptures at the Living Desert and Sculptures provided an interesting walk and discussion. Of the 12 sculptures, some were evident on the subject, but some were beyond my education, but the views were spectacular, well worth the visit.

All in all Broken Hill is well worth the visit, but we just cant take in all we are seeing. Sometimes you get all touristed out. Tomorrow we go to Menindee lakes as we make our way home. The Covid 19 virus is having a second go and the place has a influx of interstate travellers. Not sure on internet service, so not sure with tomorrows update. Until then, bye tor now.

11-12/7/20

A two day update.

We travelled south east to Menindee lakes as we had heard a lot about the place. Cathy had been there before, but quite a few years ago. The drive was along sealed road all of the way. On arrival at Menindee, true to form the first thing was find some food, easy as, and then we had a feed before having a look around. We were going to stay at Poki Hollow caravan park, but we found an excellent free camp site along the Main Weir road, along with many others. I think Menindee lakes is worth a return visit with the kayaks, but we will need a gps as be too easy to get lost on the lakes. We stopped at a Lake Menindee lookout point, the lake is basically bone dry atm. Im not sure how they manage the waters here, as the other part of the lakes complex seemed to have plenty of water in them.

We set up our free camp "swag" lit a fire, then I cooked crispy skin salmon and a warm prawn salad for dinner, my outdoor cooking skills are as good as my indoor. So suitably fed we retired to the swag for the night. We had had a shower of rain earlier in the afternoon and these showers returned around 11pm, and it rained for about an hour. This made for a damp and chilly packup the next morning.

On to the next day. We had intended to travel the Menindee to Wilcannia west road on returning home, but at the turnoff signage indicated the road was closed. We rang the information hot line and they confirmed the road was closed, so we had to travel back into Broken Hill before heading back east to Nyngan.

The drive to Nyngan was uneventful, except for rain squalls that luckily for us we never caught up to properly. The countryside seemed to be much greener than it was 9 days before when we were travelling west, so they must have had some rain prior to  us returning home. We booked ahead to Nyngan riverside van park for a cabin for the night and Im glad we did. Traveling in from Cobar to Nyngan was dark and gloomy, due to a huge cloud bank overhead. We had to slow considerably as some of the floodways had water running through them and there were patches of hail on the verges of the road.

So here we are in Nyngan, dry and warm. We have seen heaps this trip and hopefully will be a trip to remember. We are one or maybe two days from home and then back to work. I think at some time in the future we will do this again, I dont think we have travelling gravel roads and swag camping is out of our systems.

Tomorrow we will detour through Warren, Gilgandra, Mudgee etc just a different way home. Bye till tomorrows update.

13/7/20. We are nearly home. We detoured at Nevertire to travel to stay at a friends place in Dunedoo. The night had been cold and wet in the Nyngan district, but inside our deluxe cabin the air conditioner kept us warm so it didnt really bother us although there was plenty of fog around in the morning to impact on the drive. There is not much variety for breakfasts in Nyngan, so we drove off in the direction of Nevertire, turned north and found a really great cafe in Warren. Cafe One One Seven in Warren gets a huge tick in the box for food, great value and superbly cooked. We even stopped at the park on the way out of town and played on the flying fox, I may be 60, but im not growing up. 

So todays trip was spent going along some unfamiliar roads, but was well worth the effort as the recent rains have brought some relief to the farmers and this years crops.

The small towns along the way seem to be surviving as best they can, its great to see some younger people having a go at running cafes and such.

Tomorrow its only about 4 hours to home and I will give a trip summary then.

Max

15/7/20

We have made it back to our home at South Bowenfels safely. The prado as usual made the trip uneventful due to toyota reliability. We have learnt a few things for our next trip, mainly with packing the roof rack, but we will be doing more outback trips, when the virus goes away or is under control.

We drove 3169km or there  abouts and used around 13 litres per 100 km. Fuel consumption varied possible due to differences in road surfaces and speeds. We were away for 11 nights and the nights in the swag were our fondest accomodation memories. The clay pan/ salt lake with the absolute overnight silence, combined with the full moon, campfire, Josie the dog and of course my fiance Cathy, made for an unforgetable experience.

Cameron corner was what I expected, and I am glad we have done this trip, to spend time in the outback. There are so many things to see and do, and thats just in NSW, that planing our next destination may not involve going interstate. We have no plans for our next trip yet, but stay tuned to this site, we will be hitting the roads again.

Martin "Max" Williams, signing off.