G'day all,
Short post re our trip. Loved it although the weather was crap whilst down there. Sorry Alpaca, that's why we didn't make contact. Hope our canoe enjoyed its trip, never got wet apart from the rain.
Good feed at
Balranald pub, new owners having a go. We tend to do Steak Sanger counterlunch crawls when in the bush. Top feed at Bidgee Pub at Narrandera too, $4.50 for snags and mash, larfin'.
Mungo has terrific history, others have said it could be done in a day. We had 3 nights there and would have enjoyed more. Recent rains meant that the crowds were down, had the Belah
camp all to ourselves, went for a good walk into the Walls and found some very photogenic spots. The rains meant that the countryside was all green too and birdlife abundant. Apostle birds are very likeable, real characters. The amount of Cypress Pine used in the local buildings (woolshed and stables) really suggests that the countryside was very different, more thickly wooded when the white fella first came into the area.
Had 3 days in Murray-Sunset, again had
Rocket Lake to ourselves. Saw one other couple. Whilst camped at
Pink Lakes we copped that storm that came right through the east coast. Bloody hell ay. Put about 50 litres of rainwater into the camper tank over a couple of hours from the runoff from a corner of the annexe.
Only criticism of the Heaslip camper is that you have to put the annexe on if the weather is howyagoin in order to comfortably use the kitchen. Apart from that it was great. Towed great and was quite forgiving when I nearly lost it crossing a (formerly) dry lake bed in some drizzle.
Wildflowers out everywhere, countryside green, just magic. You do feel free and uninhibited out there. Loved the countryside, didn't enjoy the weather so much.
Cold, tired and windblown we escaped from that corner, went up through
Kinchega,
Broken Hill and into
Mutawintji. That's a must see for all, so much art. The weather was tops. Thoroughly recommend the guided tour, $20/head. Really interesting hearing some of the history too.
Colours, contrasts, sky, gorges etc. Didn't want to return to downtown Big Smoke ay.
I would have to say, Vic parks are maintained much better than NSW ones. New fire pits with swingaway barby plate is a great idea. In Murray-Sunset they were all cleaned and raked out by staff. The compost dunnies were clean and
well stocked with paper. And very few with camping fees. Made it all the more enjoyable.
Overall got about 6k's/ litre from the diesel LC100 towing the Heaslip, so it made a difference, my guess is that it was about 1 T weight.
JimB