2016 Darling River Run Trip Report

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2016 Darling River Run Trip Report:


Other photos can be seen if u click on the following LINK: 2016 Darling River Run Trip Photos


Fuel Economy for the Trip, towing our Trailer: 15.3 ltrs / 100kms
Total Distance covered from Start to Finish: 5592kms in 20days (280kms per Day)
Average Driving Time per Day: 3hrs 51mins


The map of where we went:





Day-1:
Left HOME at 4am, breaks @ Hungry Jacks at Dalby then smoko @ Westmar then onto St George for Lunch, refuelled before heading on to our nights destination of Lightning Ridge It was around this time that I


decided to investigate a squeak I was hearing. I originally thought it was just the slippers on the trailer, but on closer inspection I found was coming from the Front Suspension. Rang the fella that had replaced the Strut


bushes some 2-3 mths previously to get his opinion, he said it should be OK to continue. Pressed on via Hebel to Lightning Ridge for the night.
Pulled into LR at around 4:30pm and it seemed all the Grey Nomads had


taken all the camping spots within the Caravan parks but we managed to book the last spot at the Croc Caravan park for the night. Not really a good spot for the $$ paid....
Distance Travelled: 790 kms
Driving Time: 9hrs 07min




The local waterhole at Hebal on the QLD/NSW border - not a really good place to go swimming




Our 1st night at Lightning Ridge - A bit squashy.....



Day-2:
Up early and packed up to head off to check some of the local sites out, like the thermal baths. From there we drove 2 of the 4 Tourist Drives around Lightning Ridge - the Yellow Door & Blue Door drives & then


onto the Walk-in Mine where I decided to look at tightening the Top Strut Nut to fix the suspension squeak...... Well, bad news. The nut or thread on strut shaft had stripped. So on the phone to a mate then the local


mechanic who just happen to have a set of ironman struts, but we would have to hang around LR until Monday.
Nothing more we could do but explore LR and enjoy the extra 2 days stay, so we found a better/cheaper


caravan park (LR holiday Park) where we booked in for 2 nights extra... Added benefit of this park was that the owners put on free wood fired pizzas, so it ended up being a late night chatting to some fellow tourists


before going to bed."
Distance Travelled: 20 kms
Driving Time: 1hrs 02min
Warming up at the locak thermal Pools/Baths





A Few photos from the Walk-in Mine Tour

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This is the amount of thread that is supposed to be above the nut

This was what the stripped one looked like



Day-3: Slow morning before going for a bit of a drive on the other 2 Tourist Drives - the Red & Green Door Drives around Lightning Ridge before checking out the local market and returning to camp for a hot shower


before the grey nomads came in for the night….. Didn't work though & ended up having another luke-warm shower…
Distance Travelled: 28 kms
Driving Time: 1hrs 11min



What the locals seem to call HOME



local church



House made from Beer Cans and Bottles





Day-4: Woke up to a very cold and wet morning. Very uncomfortable morning tramping around the tent in what had become mud. Tried to get dry and warm until 10am where we all jumped into the car and drove


down to the mechanics so they could replace the 2 front struts. Spoke to the mechanic and he kindly put us to the front of the list and we walked back to camp, visiting the local shops along the way. Called into John


Murray’s Art Gallery for a look – very impressive.
Stopped into the local Bakery for a bit to eat before heading back to our wet, soggy camp just in time to receive a call from the mechanic saying the cars ready for


pickup. I quickly walked down to pickup the car & paid for the repairs ($510 in total which was a relatively good price considering....) Went for a quick test drive and then back to camp to packup and head off at around


2:30pm. We reached Walgett, then onto Brewarrina and after seeing a bit of the town, we decided to push on towards Bourke. Ended up camping along the Bogan River 45kms from Bourke at around 5pm"
Distance Travelled: 282 kms
Driving Time: 3hrs 06min
On the way south towards Walgett



Our camp next to the Bogan River

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Day-5: Up and left camp at 8:30 and headed into Bourke to the info Ctr. Paid for a 2 day pass for the Back of Bourke walk through and paddle wheel boat ride. Decided to take other people's advice and camp at


Kidmans Camp (nice but very expensive - $60/night for a family of 5). Took some time to drive around Town & ended up checking out the Steam Powered Engine near the old Paddle Wheeler Wharf. Had Lunch across


the road at Diggers on the Darling Cafe. Did the paddle wheel boat ride at 3pm the back to camp for the night.
Distance Travelled: 61 kms
Driving Time: 0hrs 59min



A very special person that called Bourke Home and is now buried there as well





At the old Wharf and steam engine






The old Jendra Paddle Wheeler

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Scenery along the Darling River Ride




Beautiful and clean Darling River




Day-6: Left Kidmans Camp and headed out to check out Mays Bend Camping Area but the road became boggy and we had to turned around otherwise we would have missed the Outback Horse Show at the Back


O’Bourke Ctr. Had lunch at the café there before collecting the keys to check out the old Bourke Fort just out of town. On the return trip we did a detour to the local weir where they were also pumping water into the


irrigation channels. From here it was back into town to refuel and drop off the key then head to the town of Louth for the night, hoping that the extra time will help dry the roads. Since it was our youngest boy's 11th


birthday, we decided to camped in the grassy area next to Louth pub and had a hot shower and dinner at the pub for Ethan's birthday meal.
Distance Travelled: 175 kms
Driving Time: 3hrs 02min


Camel Playing Soccer




Check out those beautiful Teeth



The Bullock Team

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Fort Bourke



The place is greening up nicely



The Bourke Weir:




With the recent rains, etc, the council gave approval for irrigators the ok to start pumping out of the Darling...... With this sort of pumping going on, u gotta wonder how much water will make it into the Menindee Lakes







Our campsite next to the Shindy's Inn Pub @ Louth

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inside the Shindy's Inn PubThe local dog just recent gave birth to some puppiesDay-7: Woke up to the sounds of the local Turkey going off every time the dogs let out a bark, it was uite funny and the family got a bit of a laugh out of it.... Had a quick breaky, then packed up and checked the road conditions and took the punt on travelling down the western side of the Darling River to Tilpa. The road down was good as gold & we had no worries reaching Tilpa where I had to make some repairs to the AUX mud flaps. Once completed, we decided to take the chance and continue south on the western side. Reached the 1st bog hole where I got to walk it - it had a hard base so back in the car & off we went, reaching Wilcannia without any problems and we refuelled and checked out some of the local buildings before pushing on towards Menindee Lakes. Decided to do another road side camp and found a great campsite on the side of the road about 65kms nnorth of Menindee township. We had our 1st campfire for the trip as well.... Distance Travelled: 308 kms Driving Time: 4hrs 15minHere's the LOCAL ALARM CLOCK doing his rounds to ensure we are ALL AWAKEI've seen so many Emus and Kangaroos and Feral Goats before on any of our trips...... didn't matter what time day or night u always had to be on your toes for wildlife coming out on the road.... luckily for us we still had our noisy Mud Terrain Tyres on and everyone could hear us coming from miles away

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Healthy looking cattle




The countryside was greening up nicely from all the recent rains





Not much @ Tilpa



Road side Lunch



Few of the buildings in Wilcannia

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Gathering wood for our 1st Campfire of the Trip








Daughter preparing Dinner while Mum takes a rest



Tucked away in a nice little hidey-hole

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Day-8: Left camp around 9:30am and made our way south towards Menindee Lakes. Reached the T-junction and turned right to check out Sunset Strip. A row of houses over looking a dry Lake. Would be a sight to


see when there's water in the Lake system from what it looks like now....From there it was back twds the township before turning off to check out Copi Hollow then follow the road around the outside of the lake to the


main dam wall. Stopped for photos before making our way into Menindee Township for a look around; refuel & then onto Kinchega NP to check out the old Shearers Shed and old quarters. Had lunch there then off to


follow the road heading around the edge of the dry lake and then turn Sth towards Tandou (private farming property in the lake). We turned east towards the Darling River again meeting up with the river again and


found a nice little camp besides the river about 45kms from Pooncarrie. Had our 2nd Campfire for the trip and finally got around to cooking a birthday cake in the camp oven for Ethan so he would stop badgering us


about it....
Distance Travelled: 222 kms
Driving Time: 3hrs 47min
Here's a few pics of that famous "Sunset Strip" that everyone hears about Check out the Water & Beach Views









Whats left of the water in Copi Hollow (yes, we did manage to find some water in the lakes):




but the majority of the lakes systems looked like this (note: these apparently were all full back in 2012):

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Photos around the old Kinchega Wool shearing Shed and the surrounds:



Putting the kids to work:

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Not much left of the Kinchega Cemetery




Starting to hit a bit more mud:



Our campsite for the night









Ethan finally got his Birthday cake after continously nagging us

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Day-9: Packed up camp and headed off towards Pooncarrie at around 9am. Crossed a few Grids when the Wife saw something fly out from under the trailer…… Couple of kms down the road I stopped to check the


trailer and noticed we had a broken Spring on the LHS of the Trailer that the trailer chassis had sustained a bit of damage as well from the U-bolts banging into the Chassis (I did have the springs on top of the axle).


Having no spare springs, we started unloading the trailer and putting what we could onto the Cars Roof Rack when a Semi came along. He stopped to help, gave me a piece of steel and I bought some bike straps for $50


which I thought I could use to keep the axle in place and use the piece of steel to hel keep the wheel off the mud guard. Continued trying to resolve the problem when another local came along and stopped to see if he


could help as he found what was left of our slipper springs further back up the track. He had a look and said it was our lucky day as he had a spare spring back at his home just down the road. He headed off to drop off


his load and return with a spare slipper Spring for the trailer. We had to reposition the axle to above the springs and installed the new Spring and we were back on the road after having a bit of a long chat and


exchanging Names and phone numbers so I could re-pay him when we got back home. Said our farewells and told Laurie that I would make contact with him when we back home and send some money his way.
We


packed up and made our way into Pooncarrie for Lunch where I also noticed the hinge on the trailer side door had the pin come out. After a bit of mucking around, we eventually fixed it and called into the local shop for


a loaf of bread and a lettuce. The nice lady gave us some advice about what to see in Broken hill before we headed off to Mungo NP for the night, staying in the local campground near the Mungo Lookout. The plan was


to get up early to explore the Park before making our way south to Mildura for the night which would enable me to source the trailer springs/U-Bolts, etc as spares for where we are heading in the weeks ahead…..
Distance Travelled: 186 kms
Driving Time: 2hrs 12min


The day the trouble started for us with the trailer breaking a spring




A passing Truckie stopping to lend a hand, but just ended up selling some bike tie-down straps and giving me a piece of box steel - The next and the ONLY vehicle to pass was the local homestead owner who basically


saved us from a BIG problem



Reached the Mungo INFO centre late in the day and had a quick look around b4 setting up camp



Day-10: Up early to see the sun rise over Mungo Lake. From there it was back to pack up camp, have breaky, then head off to explore Mungo NP – Walls of China, and the other sites to view, including a walk over the


dunes at Viggers Well. Stopped to spend some time exploring the old Homestead Ruins. This was very interesting reading/seeing how they battled to live in this harsh environment. Stopped at the Mungo Info Ctr for


lunch before we again hit the road towards Mildura for the night where hopefully the next day when business hours opened, that I could source the trailer parts I needed plus a food top up as well. Reached Mildura in


good time and ended up booking into the caravan park on the northern side of the Murray. We had water front views too."
Distance Travelled: 183 kms
Driving Time: 2hrs 54min


Up early to check out the sunrise




Few photos around the Mungo NP

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Sandhills at Viggers Well

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Photos of some of the old homestead ruins within the Mungo NPTom in a bit of pain

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The Walls of China sandhills in the distance




Back at the Info Ctr:



Our campsite for the night:








Day-11: Late rise and a late breaky before I headed off to Bunnings to source some gear I needed then off to Mallee Bearings to buy another H/D 7 leaf slipper Spring and associated u-bolts, plates, nuts. Then back to


camp to start the spring replacing process. About an hour later I had finished and we packed up camp and headed off into town to re-fuel, food top-up, then find somewhere for lunch.
After lunch we made our way to


Wentworth for a “quick” look around town, visiting the old Gaol then to where the 2 rivers junction is located and then just down the road to the lock. The weather was starting to turn bad and we were starting to lose


light, so we headed off for a quick stop in to view the Perry Sandhills before heading back onto the Hwy towards Renmark, turning north onto Anabranch road when the rain started to come down. With the weather


looking more rain like and getting dark, we found a little clearing on the side of the road where we quickly setup the tent plus the trailer side awning just in time for it to start raining a bit heavier along with a COLD


breeze too. Due to the outside weather conditions we decided to sit in the warmth of the car playing some games with the kids and having Chocolate Eclare Lollies for dinner before just jumping into the tent and going to


sleep.
Distance Travelled: 94 kms
Driving Time: 1hrs 51min


A Result of the kids mis-behaving - The Old Wentworth Goal: