Gidday
The original plan was to tour some areas of western NSW with me mate, then at some point he’d return
home, whilst I went on to
Weipa. Here’s the story along with some current information:
We arrived in
Echuca and set up in a caravan park then settled in for a couple of drinks. There was a fella next to us with a 200 series Land Cruiser and 25ft caravan, all brand new. So we got into a discussion about what this setup was worth. The general consensus was $200,000+..... Cripes!
From there we travelled north up to Ivanhoe and overnighted in the caravan park, which was not much more than the back yard of the fuel stop (round about 6-8 sites). The run up to Ivanhoe is a boring drive, but the lower section has had a lot of rain recently.
The little pub in Ivanhoe is good, but the local copper has a liking for the evil stuff, and can get a bit belligerent.
The next stop was
Wilcannia. About two thirds of the road is dirt until you arrive at the Barrier H/way. The road is in very good condition, but care needs to be taken if you turn off into the bush. In some areas the ground is saturated, and without care, you may have some difficulty getting out again.
So we arrive at
Wilcannia, and it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. ULP at the roadhouse was $1.58L. I thought bugger that we’ll go around to the BP depot where it was $0.16L cheaper. For those coming from the east, the depot is on your left down a side street.
From there we toddled off to
White Cliffs. During this section we ran into very strong winds which made for an uncomfortable drive. On arriving at the
White Cliffs caravan park, the wind was at full
bore, and we copped a far sand blasting for a while. The park has good facilities, but no grass or shade.
The
shop opposite the pub has meat and groceries (to a limited extent). If you’re fussy about your cask wine, you’re limited to
Stanley at $16.50.
From there we headed north up to
Wanaaring where we’d planned to spend several days camped at Tilerweira Station (more on that later). The road is all dirt and in the southern section, very wet with numerous
creek crossing. Closer to Tilerweira it becomes sand with excellent road conditions.
On arriving at Tilerweira Station we found the manager, George Hackney absence and, not knowing if he was going to return in half an hour or two days, decided to head across to Burke. The Paroo area is full of water at the moment.
We found Fred T’s
bush camp quite easily to find north of Coonabarabran and settled in for a couple of days (Fred if you’re reading this, I’ll send you a MM). After the third day I started to suffer from health problems, and decided to return
home with the mate.
The new camper van is a Goldstream Crown which I’d finally chosen over a Pionee. I’d have to honest in saying that I was a bit concerned how this thing would handle the rough stuff, particularly corrugations. After a couple of rough stages I was half expecting to open it up and find things wrecked, but that wasn’t the case.
From past experience with a similar model from Jayco, the Goldstream leaves it for dead.
We met our fair share of folks in the pubs along the way, but it seems the old fellas who could tell a bush tish tale are getting a bit rare.
Finally, on Robins advice I put on a new set of Maxxis Big Horns before leaving
home, and found them to be a good tyre (thus far).
Regards
Kim
Regards
Kim