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Published: July 28th 2014
White Cliffs
Most homes are built (or tunneled) underground to beat the heat in summer, interesting town, well worth a visit.July 2014”
Since our ‘The Wrong Way Around Trip’…well…basically I have been ‘slack’! Yes, we have done a few trips, but, I have not completed any Blogs for you all to follow us, sorry!
Mostly our trips have been within Victoria and centred around the High Country and the Murray Valley, although one trip we did should have been written up and that was to the Birdsville Races last September, (Schoolies Week for over 55YO’s without high rise buildings to get into strife on!) . This was a fantastic trip with a number of highlights for us. From home (in Echuca) we headed north to Hay and onto Wilcannia, a historic town on the Darling River. It is hard to believe when you look at the state of the mighty Darling that this was a busy Port town where produce and supplies came and went via Paddle Steamer as a lifeline for the vast Pastoral properties in far western NSW. Then again, I only have to look at the way our State (and Federal) Governments have managed the water flows of the mighty channel country where legends were forged in the pioneer days of pastoral settlement. Cubby Station in
Tibooburra
we love this area (the Corner Country) and town and have enjoyed many beers over the years in the fantastic Family hotel. Queensland comes to mind where dams have been made to harvest the tropical rains of the north that used to feed these systems, just so that huge corporations can go broke growing cotton! But I digress on a topic that really aggravates me so I will leave you to google what has transpired over the past thirty years that has stagnated the mighty river systems of this country…..all in the name of progress! From Wilcannia it was on to Tibooburra via White Cliffs a great spot for fossicking for Opal. Tibbooburra is a gem of the outback, saved by tourism and 4WDing initially, now it is a must on the Far West NSW touring itinerary, an incredible part of western NSW with an amazing history and great pubs to explore. Continuing on into Queensland through Warri Gate on the Dog fence we headed into Innamincka where we set off for a trip across Walkers Crossing and on into and across the Strzelecki Desert to join the Birdsville Track for our run into Birdsville. We have tried to do the Walkers Crossing Track for years and every chance we had to do it, the track was closed, we can now tick
it off at last, good fun!
Birdsville in Race week is another experience all together, I cannot begin to tell you how much fun it was, or is, from the side shows, Brophys ‘famous’ boxing tent, the food vendors, the bands, the hordes of travelers, and the Pub…the famous Birdsville pub usually a quiet place to have a cold beer and contemplate the history that has gone before you within these walls was a heaving centre of activity. The Races were a great experience and so much fun, the week we had here was a big tick off our Bucket list. The organisation put into making sure the thousands of visitors to Race Week are made welcome, fed and ‘watered’, is amazing and made the whole week run smoothly, – for us anyway!
We returned via Windorah and Quilpie, in Western Qld, and then on down through Cunnamulla to Bourke and then Cobar. This area was of significant interest to us as it was opened up by the early cattle drovers following the water flow after the wet season in the north down through the channel country, the same water flows that fed rivers such as the Darling
Colour!
You never get sick of the beautiful colours and contrasts out here, fantastic! River.
What a brilliant trip, and through some amazing country that has been a perennial favourite for us, (the corner country). ‘Schoolies Week’ in Birdsville was awesome, a fantastic experience and time, very different from Birdsville at any other the time of the year and well worth the effort to get there.
However, on this trip we are off to another place we have been to before, about 300 Klm west of Ceduna, the Bunda Cliffs at the start of the Nullarbor Plain (east end)….we are going to tick off another item on our Bucket List… Whale Watching at the Head of Bight! We leave next week and cannot wait, so stay tuned as this trip will hit the ‘press’. In the meantime, enjoy some photos from a few of our travels over the past twelve months…
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The Travel Camel
Shane Dallas
Great to see you blogging again!
I look forward to reading your current journey, Australia is such a great place for road trips.