Graham and Chris on tour 2014 – Update #2

Thursday the 29th May saw us have a fantastic drive over The Great Divide, choosing to head through Richmond and onto Lithgow instead of the main western highway.  A very heavy drag up very steep roads. We decided to use Lithgow as a spot to stock up with some supplies and have some lunch. Sensational light lunch and coffee in the center of Lithgow, then some shopping and headed west through Orange. In Orange we chose a minor road to head up to Lake Burrendong  on the Macquarie river, our intended camp spot for the night.

Arrived around 4:30pm at Mookawera Waters and found a pretty neat camp spot. By the time we set up camp it started to get very cold. Cooked our dinner and hibernated into the camper with the fabulous diesel heater keeping the interior at a balmy 21 degrees.

Camped on the Macquarie river at Mookawera Waters

We both had a great nights sleep as is normally the case when sleeping in the bush in our camper.

The next morning we packed up camp, drove to the ablutions for a fantastic hot shower and were under way by about 9:30 am with the eager anticipation of hopefully making it to Bourke in the evening.

First stop however was the historic little town of Stuart Town

Stuart Town Railway Station

Stuart Town Post Office

When we head out from Sydney, we never consider that we are really on our way until we pass Bourke. While Nyngan (On the way to Bourke) claims that they are the “Gateway to the Great Outback” we feel that Bourke really is owner of that title when headed into the outback from the East. Coming from the South (Adelaide) however, that title would have to go to Tibooburra although Broken Hill often makes that claim.

We arrived at Bourke around 4:30 pm and checked into the Kidman Tourist Park in North Bourke for 2 nights. A days shopping for supplies which has filled up the fridges to the point of overflowing. In particular there is an excellent butcher in Bourke who specializes  in cryovac meats. We do not keep a frezzer so rely heavily on cryovac to keep meats up to 6 weeks in the fridge. Fresh supplies, while available as we proceed further into the remote areas, are certainly not reliable, often depending on how long ago the last supply truck has been.

So after completing our shipping and doing the laundry in the morning we headed out to May’s Bend on the Darling River about 20 kms North of Bourke, and check out how thick on the ground the many campers were with the thought that we would spend a night or 2 bush camped on the Darling. To our surprise there were none. So as I write this on Friday evening we intend to head out to May’s bend for a night or 2 tomorrow morning (Sat 1st June).  Slowing down and relaxing at last, as up to now it has been a fairly hectic trip. From now on we should proceed at a much more leisurely pace; “stop to smell the roses” as they say. The only ominous down side is some threatening rain and storms which will definitely throw a spanner in the works.

Blog posts will start to become less frequent from here on in as we lose mobile phone coverage and internet access.

Don’t foget to check our whereabouts here http://blog.picsaustralia.net/wp/?page_id=6652