Chris & Shirley's 2021 Trip North: Chapter 3

Day 9 - Monday 31st May 2021 - Wilcannia to Cobar

We wandered away from Wilcannia, around 8:30 am, after a couple of very relaxing days. It was a 260 km due east trip with no towns or communities along the way. If you took away the caravans, motor-homes and trucks - the road would have been very quiet. The main wildlife seen were the many goats.

A sample of the road

We arrived in Cobar around noon and took a photo of one of my favourite town signs - this time with the Kelly rig in the photo. Cobar is a mining town.

Welcome to Cobar

We went for a walk down the main street. As usual we stopped at our favourite Cobar bakery and had a pie for lunch. Then we checked into the caravan park.

It was around 19 degrees as we relaxed for the afternoon...............

Dinner was a quiet affair.

Day 10 - Tuesday 1st June 2021 - Cobar to Bourke

A surprisingly slow start for us for the first day of winter. It was a lot warmer than some recent days, but still we did not leave until 9:15 am.

Soon after leaving Cobar we entered the Bourke Shire - and the world of (more) red dirt.

Bourke Shire Colours and Trees

We only had 160 km to drive and were comfortably in Bourke - and had camp established - before lunch.

A Famous Line by Henry Lawson

After lunch we went for a drive around town and were impressed with the painted water tower - featuring Percy Hobson - the first indigenous Australian to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. This was achieved in 1962 in Perth with the High Jump gold medal. Percy was born in Bourke and now resides in an outer eastern suburb of Melbourne.

Above: Percy Hobson featured on the water tower in Bourke.

Below: Close ups of some of the other art work on the tower.

We were again camped near the Darling River, just under 800 km from when we first saw it. The levels are dropping but it is easy to see how high it has been. Over that 800 km there has been lots of normally dry billabongs - now wet - and plenty of side roads and tracks that are still too damp to traverse with a caravan.

Today was nearly our warmest day of the trip, reaching around 24.

The following sunset photo was taken just outside the caravan park.

Back o Bourke Sunset

Day 11 - Wednesday 2nd June 2021 - Bourke

It was Shirley's birthday so a breakfast of bacon, eggs, mushroom and tomatoes was the order of the day. The phone kept ringing with birthday wishes.

Kay did her usual thing of making superb vanilla slices. They were magnificent.

We had a small shower of rain, just enough to upset folk who had done some washing. It did not last long.

After lunch we decided to do a river cruise on the diesel powered paddle boat - Jandra - not far from the camp ground. Note that the water level has dropped seven metres from recent highs which were over the banks at the back of the photo.

Soon after we passed under the old and new road bridges. The 'old' lift bridge was built in England and brought to Adelaide in a prefabricated form - then travelled down the Murray and Darling Rivers to its final home.

There was enough bird life to keep the photographers entertained.

Above & Below: One pelican arriving, one departing.

A sample of the many magnificent red river gums

Note the high water mark on a tree in the car park

We had a few drops of rain in the morning, before the sun returned. Before we headed out for Shirley's birthday dinner the rain returned in earnest. Shirley's choice of dinner, "Diggers on the Darling" - the Services Club - was unimpressive inside and out. However the food was superb, and we all enjoyed our selections.

Pork Ribs

A friend who works in Bourke joined us for dinner and she gave us some insider information on what makes Bourke tick. She also advised that our planned trip to Louth on the following day may need to be deferred due to the amount of rain on the 100 km of dirt road.

Rain extended into the night and petered out around 19 mm.

Day 12 - Thursday 3rd June 2021 - Bourke

The day started wet underfoot and overcast overhead. However I was determined to get to Louth, until I saw the "Road Closed" sign. We had a look around town but did not see much that was new to us, as we have been in Bourke six times in eleven years.

We dined at the Bourke Bowling Club and had an excellent 6-course Chinese banquet for $22 each. The drinks were also very cheap.

Day 13 - Friday 4th June 2021 - Bourke

Our Bourke tourist bucket list achievements have been severely curtained by the rain two days ago. The image below shows the roads in the region that are still closed. Apparently if its rains - the roads are closed.

Roads closed are in red - Open roads in Blue

I add the following photo to show the confusion caused by the NSW idea of parking your car by reversing into the kerb. In Bourke they have different methods in different streets (some front in, some rear in). In some streets different sides have different methods.

Confused driver? Note the white line.
[Driver gender and age withheld]

We were lucky enough to find one gravel road that was open - on the way to the Bourke weir. Note that the place from where I took the photo was five to seven metres under water a few weeks ago.

The weir has a 'side' feature that allows fish to travel above and below the weir.

Bourke Weir

The lack of things to do and the chilly weather forced us to do more relaxation. We are not getting bored yet.

We went for a walk just for something to do. Then I had to sit down and clean the mud from our sneakers - as Shirley wanted to see the Jandra dry dock structure - which ironically has to be very wet and in flood for the Jandra to float onto it. Presumably they have to float the Jandra off the dry dock before the dock gets dry.

Jandra Dry Dock

Day 14 - Saturday 5th June 2021 - Bourke to Brewarrina to Lightning Ridge

Today was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening day. We departed Bourke around 8:15 am and travelled to Brewarrina - the home of perhaps the oldest surviving man made structure in on Earth.

The drive was a mere 100 km into the sun. Our first venture was into the Brewarrina 'arty' coffee shop for an excellent coffee. We were looked after by an extremely helpful indigenous lady at the Tourist Information Centre. She probably called me 'mate' 20 times - which is fine. We also took some photos of local art - from John Murray of Lightning Ridge.

Then we headed off (400 metres) to the location of the start of our 'aboriginal cultural and fish trap tour' - at the Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum. Our guide was Bradley and he was probably the biggest indigenous Australian that I have ever seen - and also the most passionate.

According to the story, and archeologists, the local people - around 30,000 to 40,000 years ago built rock 'walls' in the river that served multiple purposes. Firstly they channeled fish into narrow streams that allowed the local eight tribes to catch maybe 30 to 40% of the fish.

Above & Below: The upstream and downstream photos show reeds,
rock and islands that all serve a purpose in the catching of fish.

Then purpose built rock pools were used to store the fish until the local tribes needed fish to eat.

Finally the structure allowed the remainder of the fish to keep swimming for breeding and self-preservation purposes.

No one seems to know when the pelicans caught on, but they demonstrated today that they know which paths the fish need to take to move upstream. We saw successful pelican fishing today.

Pelican on fishing duty

Click here to watch a video that gives you more information about this amazing story.

Click here to see a video of our passionate guide.

We decided to head on to Lightning Ridge, around 210 km east then west. It was sunny and warm when we arrived. The amenities at Opal Caravan Park are excellent.

Shepherds Pie was the choice for dinner.

Day 15 - Sunday 6th June 2021 - Lightning Ridge

It was a cold and sunny start to the day, around 2 degrees.

Washing of clothes was the first key activity of the day. I smiled at the instructions on the washing machine - probably meant for the male species.

Once the washing was on the line we went for a drive and found a Sunday market. Much of the merchandise was opal based.

After lunch we decided to go for a tourist drive and chose the "yellow door route" - a drive around Lightning Ridge that was guided by yellow doors.

"Yellow Door" sign

There are three other "door" routes - red, green and blue.

Lightning Ridge is dominated by mining mounds and rusty devices and vehicles.

Pre-loved (rusty) car

If you want to see more about Lightning Ridge please click here to see our antics on our visit here in 2014.

It was another quiet chilly evening. Few people braved the cold for Happy Hour.

Day 16 - Monday 7th June 2021 - Lightning Ridge

It was again cold and sunny to start the day. Today is our 14th day in NSW, which is the qualifying period to move into Queensland. So that is the plan for tomorrow.

After breakfast we tried the green car door tour with better results than 'yellow' yesterday.

Again we saw many mine mounds and lots of rocks, plus some great views, and weird buildings.

The view from one of the highest points of Lightning Ridge was impressive.

The following gives some idea of the hardship when you consider the holes in the photo were the front door to your place of employment.

Some local identity had the idea, the time and the skill to build a tin-can-house. We think all the cans were VB (Victoria Bitter beer) cans.

The house also included many bottles and other artifacts.

Another time consuming activity was arranging the rocks as seen below. There were many small cairns to add to the art work. People are invited to add more.

To continue the wacky theme we took a photo of "Astronomers Monument". I have no idea what it is supposed to achieve, or do.

When we arrived back in downtown Lightning Ridge, I took a couple of photos of local art. They were quite impressive.

Just before 4:30 we wandered over to the camp 'pavilion' for some entertainment. We were first amused by the coffee signs.

We were then in stitches as Mel and Sue entertained us for an hour or so with jokes, poems and good old yarns. Everyone was fair game, particularly the guy from Tasmania in an electric car.