Olary to Kimba

 Friday 19 August 2022

Day 5
Olary to Kimba

It's been a very cold night and the wind last night was almost of cyclonic proportions.  We were literally rocking in our motorhome.  It was hard to get out of bed in the cold, but we made it eventually! :-)  But before we leave I take a photo of Kevin's colourful socks, just for a funny photo on facebook. 

On the road again. Roadworks are not always avoidable, not even in the outback, so we stop at a lonely traffic light.

Next stop is at Yunta where we have morning tea and watch a number of rally cars coming in.  They were here much earlier than we, because the have been overtaking us on the open road.  They were re-fuelling and now stocking up on alcohol at the pub!

I realise much later that Patricia and I have stopped here as well and we had walked quite a distance out of town to find a geocache. I remembered our stop at Olary, but not this one.  Anyway, we're soon on our way again till we have to stop at the quarantine station at Oodla Wirra.  An officer has a look in the fridge to check for fruit, asks a few questions and when satisfied we're waved on.

At Orroroo we stop for lunch and after that I walk over to the side of the rest area to find a cache:

#2386 - Orroroo Rest (geocache)

In the meantime we have turned off in westerly direction and are now getting closer to our halfway mark. The ever-changing landscape and vegetation is still mesmerising.  Near Wilmington we are suddenly in the hills:

However, closer to Port Augusta it's all flat again, because we are nearing the inlet with lots of windmills and solar panels:

After filling up with fuel, groceries and a cup of coffee we start our last leg of the day, the road to Kimba.  We're then roughly halfway our trip to the west.  At Kimba we see our first Silo Art and after taking pictures we find a free (donation only) camp spot for the night at the Kimba Recreation Reserve (#581 33 08 04 S 136 24 54 E)

Wilcannia to Olary

 

Thursday 18 August 2022

Day 4
Wilcannia to Olary

We’re up a bit late, but plan to drive as far as we can today, preferably into South Australia.  We leave after breakfast and at 60km past Wilcannia we stop for morning tea at Dolo Rest Area.

We haven’t seen many animals, only one group of seven emus.  There seem to be less goats as well.  No kangaroos except for 1 or 2 carcasses along the roadside.  It was a different story when I drove this highway with Patricia a number of years ago now.  I had to dodge them in the middle of the road and zig-zag around all the dead bodies.  There were plenty!

I enjoy watching the ever-changing landscape.  The vegetation as well as its colours differ every few kilometres.  We also see lots of wildflowers, although not as spectacular as those in Western Australia (I make this observation from the photographs I have seen.)

We arrive in Broken Hill before long and the clocks on our phones adjust to the local time.  A difference of ½ hour, which will change back again once outside the town. We fill up with fuel and have a quick lunch down the road. We don’t spend time here, because both Kevin and I have visited before and don’t need to see it all again.

A few kilometres down the track we cross the border into South Australia where the time adjusts again.  It’s half an hour behind Queensland time.

We keep going until we arrive at Olary, a small town that doesn’t even deserve the name.  It consists only of a few houses and a pub.  We park in the late afternoon sun and take a few photos.  Kevin, loving trains, is happy to be along the railway line and takes photos and videos of passing trains. 

I love the surroundings, in particular when draped in sunshine against a dark grey stormy background.

We receive a few drops of rain, but after dinner the wind picks up and we rock into the night.  The ice-cold wind blows through the ventilation roster for the fridge and cools the whole motorhome down to a frosty temperature.

Spot for the night: Olary Rest Area (#216 - 32 16 53 S 140 19 39 E)

Brewarrina to Wilcannia

 

Wednesday 17 August 2022

Day 3
Brewarrina to Wilcannia

At Kinchela Rest Area we had the whole place to ourselves and the traffic during the night was not intrusive. It helped that we could park right at the back on a level gravel patch.  I took some pictures and loved the red soil, the essence of the Australian outback I would say.  The sunset was worth a picture as well.

Before we knew it, we were on our way to Cobar, where Kevin wanted to stop at the Great Cobar Museum.  We didn’t have internet or phone coverage at the rest area and on the road only sporadically, therefore we had initially missed two calls from the nursing home where Eon (Kevin’s brother-in-law) was at Malanda.  He had passed away early in the morning. When we did have coverage there was of course some time spent on the phone with family members and friends.  To keep a long story short, all is taken care of and we keep going as we had planned.

By the end of the morning, we arrived at Cobar and visited the museum.  We picked up information about quarantine restrictions into South Australia, visited the dump point, took on fresh water and had lunch. Then we were on our way again, this time into the direction of Wilcannia (after a fuel stop).

The rest of the day was not very eventful.  We just want to get to WA in time for the rally on the 29^th and will give ourselves more time for sightseeing and relaxing after the rally.

Emmdale Roadhouse

MacCullochs Rest Area

It’s a long stretch to Wilcannia, with a quick stop for afternoon tea at Emmdale Roadhouse (#1005 - 31 39 11 S 144 16 06 E) and the final stop for the night at MacCullochs Rest Area (#1007 - 31 41 42 S 143 48 53 E) I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the wild goats.  Since before Cobar we have seen hundreds of them along the roadside.  One wonders why nobody seems to care that they surely are becoming a feral pest, however cute the little ones are…

I finish today’s post with a beautiful fiery sunset:

Photo sunset

  

Moree to Brewarrina

 

Tuesday 16 August 2022

Day 2
Moree to Brewarrina

The start of our trip is not very exciting, because either Kevin or I or both of us have been to the various towns that we passing through.  Others we may not know that well, but we want to keep further exploring of the east coast for later. At the moment we are going to concentrate on Western Australia. We’ll try and save time by quickly getting to the start of the Nullarbor.

Last night we stayed at Boolooroo Rest Area, just north of Moree. From there we travelled south-west to Collarenebri where we had our morning tea. 

I have many memories of these towns and not all good ones…  Years ago, we blew a valve of the radiator in our Datsun.  That lead to the loss of the engine and big repairs with all sorts of complications in Goondiwindi.  I could write a book about that trip (one to Melbourne), but I will stick only to some facts to do with the towns we now visit.

After the repairs we made it to Moree, where a taxi smashed into the side of the Datsun at a roundabout.  For the rest of that trip, we could only use the door on the driver’s side!

Well, this time we made it past those two towns.  From Collarenebri I remember making the round trip of 140km from Walgett and back to watch a movie in an open-air theatre.  This was when Stephen and Tori lived in Walgett in the ‘90s. The correct aboriginal name for Collarenebri is Galariinbaraay, which means ‘place of flowers or eucalyptus blossoms’.

From there it was on to Walgett.  As I had taken photos of Stephen and Tori’s old house on an earlier trip, we only stopped for fuel at a very muddy service station with a great mural on its wall.

Next a brief stop on the side of the road for lunch and then on to Brewarrina where we stopped for afternoon tea, also on the side of the road, next to some wall art.

Bourke would have been a great place for more exploration, but we may do that some other time.  Kevin showed me an old, restored Crossley Engine, which usually is started and shown between noon and 1pm.  We missed out of course! 😉

After a short walk to the rive for some photos we started the last leg of today’s trip which led us to Kinchela Rest Area on the side of Kidman Way. (#1033 - 30 27 27 S 145 56 07 E)

So far, we have seen the change in vegetation, which is interesting as always.  Cotton has been harvested and the cotton gin was working.  We’ve seen the beautiful golden canola fields, but also fields that were bare after all the rain and floods the country has suffered.  Most rivers were full.  For us an unusual sight.  After Moree we have started to see emus, mostly in groups of 6 or 7, but always too far away from the road to take photos of.  After Brewarrina we started to see the wild goats.  No doubt we will see plenty more before we reach South Australia.

 

 

 

 

Our trip to Western Australia

 Monday 15 August 2022

Day 1
Brisbane to Boolooroo

My first trip to Western Australia. Finally!

Kevin was born over there and wants to show me around.  We are also going to a Solos Rally at Leeman and hope to see lots of wildflowers.

Today we left at about 9am and left our house in the hands of house sitters Rhonda and David.

Not very much to tell about today and not many interesting photos yet. 

We planned to get fuel, but weren't successful at the first service station, so back to our regular one. It set us back half an hour, but that wasn't too bad.

We had our usual fuel stops and breaks. First stop for morning tea was at Ampol, Brassall.  Lunch at the parking lot of United Petroleum, Southbrook on the way to Goondiwindi.  The next stop was for fuel at Goondiwindi and afternoon tea just around the corner from there.

Ampol - Brassall

United Petroleum - Southbrook

August: wattles in bloom

On the road to Moree after leaving Goondiwindi

For the night we have stopped at Boolooroo Rest Area (#847 - 29 25 12 S 149 54 15 E)