Caravanning Camping Touring
Let me share some of our stories with you. I'll try to keep it fun and interesting, with heaps of photos, hints, tips and reviews all relating to life on the road.
September 28th marks our seven-week anniversary here at Lake Pamamaroo. I have to say, it doesn’t feel like seven weeks.
To mark the occasion, I’d like to share some of my favourite bird shots from this area. There aren’t a great number of bird species here at the moment, I’m sure the past drought has something to do with that, but now that the lakes are full, and still rising, I am sure that the birds will soon return in droves. Oh, and feel free to correct me if I have identified any of the birds incorrectly.
One of my favourite birds is the spoonbill. Now matter how many times I see them; I still have that OMG! moment. So, let’s start off with them. There is a single Royal Spoonbill and a single Yellow Bill Spoonbill patrolling our little part of the lake. Let’s hope that they’ll have some friends soon.
Next, we have the Whistling Kites. There are three nests out on the lake within easy kayak distance. The nest nearest to our camp has two young, and I’m pleased to report that over the weeks, both have left the nest. The smallest is still hanging around, but its sibling is ranging further and further away from home. The second nest had one juvenile, and the third nest also held at least one Juvenile.
I have to show you different images of the Blue-Bonnets. They are just the cutest things. Like the Kites, the young Blue-Bonnet was fully fledged, and flying, but still getting fed by it’s parents. Baby-Blue was quick to go home when tucker time was over, but I don’t think he’ll be able to fit in much longer. I see a group of three flying around from time to time and hope that they are mine and are doing well.
I think that these next birds must be amongst the top fisher-birds (is that even a word?) I spent a lot of time watching them and they have quite a distinctive style of fishing. They glide through the air, from time to time cocking the head to one side, looking for their prey. Though how they can see anything in this lake, whose water is full of suspended clay, is anyone’s guess, but they do. When they do, they seem to drop a wing and go into a brief spiral fall, before hitting the water. Most times they come out with a fish. And if they don’t, they try to steal the fish from whoever has one.
Of course, we can’t forget the common Pelican, or as Peter calls them, the B52’s. It never ceases to amaze me how such a big bird can be so graceful, and glide so close to the surface of the water, for such a long time, and with such ease.
From one extreme to another, meet the Wrens. Living somewhere around our camp is a family of Variegated Wrens, and a family of White-Winged Wrens. I have never seen the latter before, and let me tell you, this little fellow has been a challenge. It took me three weeks to get my first shot of him, no kidding, and it wasn’t even that good. But, over the weeks both families have gotten used to us, and the White-winged wren, Bobby (I’m not sure why, he just looks like a Bobby) has given me more opportunity to shoot him. I’ll tell you what though, those blue feathers of his are a camera’s nightmare, especially when the sun hits him. Still, I just love him!
This next series is a mixture of birds I’ve taken. It’s not that they don’t warrant their own section, it’s just that I only have one or two shots of each.
Australian Shelduck 
Australian Shelduck 
Australian Shelduck 
Black Swans 
Black faced Cuckoo-shrike 
Black faced Cuckoo-shrike 
Black-tailed Native hen 
Black-tailed Native hen 
Black-tailed Native hen 
Brown Tree-creeper 
Chestnut Teal 
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill 
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill 
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill 
Greater Egret 
Greater Egret 
Greater Egret 
Greater Egret 
Grey Shrike-Thrush 
Grey Shrike-Thrush 
Grey Shrike-Thrush 
Magpie Lark 
Magpie Lark 
Silver Gull 
Silver Gull 
Silver Gull giving me the ‘evil eye’. 
Tree Martin 
Tree Martin 
White-Breasted Wood Swallow 
White-Breasted Wood Swallow 
White-Breasted Wood Swallow 
White-Plumed Honey Eater 
White-Plumed Honey Eater (a little disoriented). 
White-Plumed Honey Eater
And what a way to end this bird post, with the biggest of them all. Picture this, I was sitting in Chunky Bum, playing a stupid game on my phone, when I looked out of the kitchen window, and there was old man Emu with six chicks. I managed to sneak out of the door and snap a few shots, in the first one you can see the van’s awning. As they moved away, I snuck behind Chunky Bum, I got some clearer shots of the chicks as they moved on. Old man Emu got a bit cautious and came over towards me, but I ducked behind a bush, and he soon lost interest in me.
So, have you seen enough birds yet?
Well maybe for a while. Spring is here and it’s all about the birds and the bees, so I get to focus on my true passion…Macro.
I hope you like bugs. This little fellow was happy enough to let me take his photo but I have no idea what he is. Etymology we might have a chance with, but entomology – no hope! 🙂
Have you ever heard of a ‘Blue-banded bee?’ Nor had I but I hope to have some photos for you next time – but they’re a real challenge!
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
We had been at Pamamaroo for just under a week when we, and the other dozen or so travellers by the lake, had a visit from the Rural Fire Service (RFS). Lockdown had reached Menindee and we were told we could not leave. The only problem we had with this, was a lack of internet & phone coverage, and the ability to charge our 240v toys, i.e., laptops, camera, drone etc.
A week later, we decided it was time to move. We had noticed that the phone coverage was much better on the way to town (Menindee is 16ks from our current camp) and if we were going to be stuck here, we might as well be comfy.
As it turned out we only had to go 1.2 kms along the lake before we found a great camp site with the coverage we needed.
We still have our own beach, complete with stunning sunsets. We also have a selection of trees and shrubs in our garden. This gives us good protection from the wind, the dust from the road, and they also provide homes for some cute little critters. Well, I think they’re cute.
Menindee Camp 2 
Camp 2 from over Pamamaroo 
Camp 2 – Our private home by the lake 
Cooking lunch Peter style (snags while reading) 
Path to our back yard 
Our back yard 
Pretty-much perfect… Day or night 
Wildflowers around camp 
Local flora with a photo bomb by local fauna… 
Shingleback or Stumpy Tail Lizard 
He wanders through our camp nearly every day. 
Picking flowers 
But not for a floral arrangement… 
It’s a verrry slow process… 
He’s becoming our role-model for ‘how to take it easy’… 
These are similar to a paper daisy 
This little fellow is a Painted Dragon 
These guys have burrows all around the camp. 
Much smaller than Stumpy 
But really fast. 
Either a juvenile or, female Painted Dragon 
It’s a good thing that this is such a good spot, because nearly four weeks later, we’re still here, Central Darling is still locked down.
So, what have we been doing? Well, it is surprising just how much time it takes to do the everyday things. Things like cooking, a camp oven meal takes a minimum of four hours and I’ve been doing a lot of these. Washing day is fun, just ask Hugo. We start by hauling water from the lake, setting up a wash table in the sun and then we wash the old-fashioned way. We had a few false starts with the washing line, but Peter’s got that sorted now.
Yet another good damper 
Roast chook in the camp oven 
Camp oven roast chicken and damper, what more could we want for? Ahh… a beer… 
Slow roast lamb shoulder, cooked in the camp oven 
Washing day. Even Hugo has to help 
Peter had one job, keep an eye on the washing line… 
….and look what happened 
Penance is paid 
Only one thing left to wash… 
Hugo said… “Thanks for censoring, but it’s still really embarrassing!”
At first, we were a bit cautious of our water usage. We knew we could top up in town but had heard from different sources that the Menindee water should not be used. So, for a while we hauled water from the lake, heated it up and had our baths outside. Hold in mind we’re just coming out of winter, you can understand when I say that I found my bath, even with the fire going, quite…refreshing.
Eventually we did run out of water and had to refill in town, and do you know what? The water’s fine. Now we drive into town two or three times a week, fill up the water tank in Big Ears, then transfer the water into Chunky Bum’s tanks when we get home. No more bathing by the fire.
Because Menindee is (usually) a busy tourist area, the town also provides a Dump Point. For those of you not in the know, this is a facility to empty your toilet cassette. So, we have all the mod cons. Shower, toilet, power, ample garbage bins with regular garbage pick-ups and internet. Welcome back Netflix!
Aside from day-to-day chores, I do a lot of writing and photography. Peter has been reading a lot, and of course we take the kayaks out whenever we like. It’s such a wonderful place to kayak. We’ve had a few choppy days, but on the whole the lake is calm and sometimes, you could be mistaken for thinking you were sitting on a mirror.
The other week I decided I wanted to learn how to Macrame. I don’t know why? It just seemed like a good idea. I’d been wanting a shelf for the toilet, so, one morning I did a little beach-combing and found some suitable flotsam. When I got back to camp, I cut it to size and coated it with vegetable oil, then borrowed 44 meters of Peter’s prized parachute cord, he uses it for all sorts of camping applications, tie downs, securing things, you know, unimportant stuff. Look, I’m sure he’ll get over it…eventually. 😉 Then, with the help of Utube, I made myself a shelf.
And hey, how cool is this? (Guess what everyone’s getting for Christmas this year?)
There aren’t as many birds here as I had expected, but I’ll try to ID the ones I have taken and put the Birds of Menindee in my next post.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Sunsets Galore
When we first arrived here, we were greeted with a beautiful sunset, and I guess I expected that the next sunset, and the ones after that, would be much the same, barring a cloud or two. How wrong could I have been?
I had this great idea to take a series of sunset shots over the next six days. Big mistake! I have ended up with hundreds of sunsets, each more stunning than the last (and I’m still taking more) and the task to cull these photos has become near impossible for me. So, I did what any loving wife would do, I asked Peter to cull them for me.
This is what he has left me with, still a lot, but no where near as many as there would have been had I done the job myself.
I hope these have brought a little ray of sunlight into you lives.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
They did let us back into The Hill (that’s what us locals call Broken Hill) for my Pfizer jab, and back out again (re previous post). We even braved the supermarket again to pick up a couple of things, and there was hardly a soul in sight; it was the complete opposite from our previous visit.
We did another overnight at our dry creek bed then made our way down to Menindee Lakes. Menindee is 113 kms south-east from The Hill, 55 from our camp, a good day’s drive for us and a destination I had been waiting to get to.
Before leaving home back in May, I told Peter that I’d like to spend a few weeks at Menindee Lakes. I wanted plenty of time to explore all of the lakes in the area. But I was beginning to get a bit worried. Various people we had met had been saying things like, “There’s nothing there.” and “The caravan parks were all closed.” and “We didn’t bother stopping,” etc.
So pleased we didn’t listen.
I guess they were right, there is nothing at Menindee…except this
The caravan parks were closed. Even so, we were able to check out Copi Hollow caravan park from a distance, and it looked like a really nice park, right on the lake’s edge. Then we drove through Menindee Caravan Park until we got ushered out by a disgruntled resident or caretaker, not sure which. This caravan park was like a ghost town. We wouldn’t have stayed there had we been paid to do so. Even though it was in a pretty area it was very spooky, almost post-apocalyptic. All it was missing was a few zombies and we might even have met one of those.
When it’s full, like right now, Lake Pamamaroo covers around 6,700 hectares. And it’s a great spot for travellers. There are no facilities, so you must be self-contained, but there are dozens of well set up camp sites along the eastern side of the lake, some smaller for tents and camper trailers. And many more for the big rigs, and a good number of them have garbage bins, which are regularly emptied. This might seem a strange thing to mention, but when you’re travelling you can accumulate a lot of rubbish and having somewhere to dispose of it is a big thing.
There were about twelve other travellers along the side of the lake, but there was still tons of room, and we found a great spot with nice views to the lake and a short twenty-metre walk to our very own private, sandy, beach. Although there are not as many birds here as I had hoped, there are plenty to keep me shooting.
It didn’t take us long to make this little slice of paradise feel like home. Good job we did, because Covid-19 was going to throw us another curve ball.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
There are three caravan parks in Broken Hill.
- Lake View caravan Park – This had terrible reviews. We drove in, drove around and promptly drove back out again. You’d have to be desperate to stay there.
- Broken Hill Tourist Park – This one was right in the middle of town. It had great reviews, though all were about the amenities block. We drove in, had a look around and thought hmm, not bad, but we’ll check out the last one.
- Broken Hill Outback Resort – 16 kms out of town but with great reviews, grassy sites, a wide view, and a pub. We had a winner.
It has to be said that Broken Hill Outback Resort is a bit of a misnomer. They probably should stick to Broken Hill Caravan Park. A Row of Cabins, three rows for caravans, a section for camper trailers, tents, and a pub, doth not a Resort make.
Saying that, it is by far the most pleasant park in Broken Hill and the staff were super friendly.
Another thing we have learned the hard way is that just because a park states that there is Wi-fi, and phone reception, and offers free connection, don’t expect to be able to use it. Not unless you go over to the far end of the park, stand on the top right corner of the dump point, wave you phone in a south-easterly direction while holding your left leg up and out in a northerly direction.
This lack of usable internet at the BHOR was the reason that we eventually moved into town to stay at the tourist park. There we got good internet, TV (I’m ashamed to say it, but I’ve become addicted to Diagnosis Murder) and they had a shiny new amenities block. I can see why it got so many good reviews.
To date, I have tried to avoid any mention of Covid-19. We know it’s there. We know it’s causing untold problems, but we are trying to live life as normal as possible, so for the most part, we simply ignore it. But that all ended here at Broken Hill.
We couldn’t get booked in for our vaccination before we left home, and it was always our plan to do this at Broken Hill, just because it’s the biggest town we expected to pass through after leaving home on May 1st.
So, we arrived at the Tourist Park on a Thursday. Peter went for his Astra Zeneca vaccine on the Friday, all good, but when we got back to the park it was like a scene from a movie. People were literally running around packing up, the park was already half empty and our neighbour, Bill, came over, looking very worried. He quickly brought us up to date.
He leaned in close and said,
“The wife said I had to come and tell you what’s going on. You see, we were talking to the girl in the office here and she said she saw a group of official looking people marking out the footy field this morning. They didn’t look like footballers, so she called her son who’s in the local team. He was having a beer with his mate Tom who works at the local sewerage plant. Apparently, Tom’s boss had called him to say that they had found Covid at the plant.”
Bill paused and took a deep breath, then continued. “Anyway, Tom called his girlfriend, Jenny I think, who works for the Royal Flying Doctors and she said they were marking out the footy field to set up for Covid testing.” Bill paused again and looked conspiratorially over his shoulder. “Jenny called her dad ‘cause he’s a doctor in the hospital here and he said they had a positive test result.” Another look over his shoulder before he said, “They’re going to lock down Broken Hill.”
From the van next door Bill’s wife called out,
“Hurry up Bill, we don’t have time to chatter we have to leave now!”
Bill turned to us decisively and said, “I haven’t got time to chatter, we’re leaving…now!”
And they did. Within minutes they were driving out!
We decided not to rely on Bill’s detailed report, but rather we’d wait for the official story, and then make our decision. I had to be in town on Monday for my Pfizer vaccination but other than that, there was nothing to keep us here.
It was three pm on Saturday when we heard the announcement that there was to be a State-wide lock down beginning at five pm that day. Bugger, Bill was right.
We had no desire to be locked down in a caravan park in Broken Hill and we immediately went into escape mode. First stop supplies. OMG! It was crazy. Every checkout was open, and every checkout had a queue from the checkout to the very back of the store, and this wasn’t a small store. I’m pleased to report that even through this craziness, everyone was in good spirits. There was no shoving and no aggression. In fact, most people seemed to find it amusing.
Anyway, after we got what we needed we joined an epic queue, it was three-forty. Fifteen minutes later, it was clear we were going to be here for a very long time. We decided that I would stay in the queue while Peter went to the caravan park to get us ready to leave.
By the time I got through the checkout, Peter had driven home, packed and prepped the van, hooked up and driven back to Coles. I had only been waiting for him for about three minutes. We threw the groceries into the car, found a servo, fuelled up, and made our way out of Dodge. It was four fifty-two pm. Eight minutes before the lockdown.
So, where are we now? We are about fifty-eight kms south of Broken Hill, just off the side of the road near a dry creek bed. It’s a lovely spot actually. We didn’t want to go too far, as I must go back on Monday for my jab, I’m not sure if they will let us in with the van on tow, but we can’t leave it here, and hopefully, they’ll let us back out again.
Either way, we’ll find out on Monday, and I’ll be sure to let you know.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
Before I start this post, I want to thank Rae and Les for their help in identifying some of the birds from my last post, it’s great to have the feedback.
The Darling River Run begins with the Barwon River at Walgett (the Darling starts at Bourke) and goes through to Wentworth. The entire run is about 950 kilometres. It was a last-minute decision to drive the Darling River Run, but we are pleased that we did. We joined the Run about 40 kilometres south of Bourke, where we once again hit dirt road for our trip through Gundabooka (previous post).
We covered about 250kms of corrugated dirt and noisy corrugated gravel road. It’s a bit rough on the old innards and I can see why these are called ‘hunting roads’ – you go from left to right and centre, and often off the road altogether hunting for a smoother section. Anyway, it’s fun, and you do get to see more of the countryside, including fields of tiny wildflowers; ok, maybe they are only weeds; I don’t care, they were pretty. This section took us through Louth and Tilpa, and as per my previous post, don’t expect to get supplies from either of these towns.
By this time, we were pretty desperate for water. We still had a few dry crackers to eat, and some mouldy cheese, but our tanks were dry. I checked good old Wiki Camps and saw one of the three farm stays on route had water. So, Dunlop Station was to be our next stop. Problem solved. I have to learn to read the fine print. 😊
We stopped at Dunlop Station, and what a lovely spot it was, and they said “Sure, we have water. Bore water that is.”
So, here’s the thing. For those of you who have never drank bore water, and it is perfectly safe to drink, you must be aware that it is heavily mineralised. What type of minerals, how dense, and how strong the flavour depends on the area. Let’s just say if I had had any potatoes to boil, I wouldn’t have needed to salt the water.
But as I said, we were desperate and we gratefully half-filled our tanks, settled down on the banks of the river and enjoyed a well-earned, salted coffee. Hey, it’s good enough for caramel. 😊
It was quite tranquil sitting beside the river, with a raging fire to keep us warm, firewood courtesy of the owner, all chopped up and ready to go. To add to the atmosphere, come sundown a small mob (ok a flock) of sheep dropped by for a chat. Not sure why but the didn’t stay for coffee. We were also visited by a stack of goats… alright already – a trip of goats and a couple of rabbits hopped to the river for a drink. What more could we ask for? How about a few birds?
Dunlop was once a major sheep station of a million acres, but now it’s down to a little over two-thousand acres and while we were there they carried just a hundred sheep and several thousand goats. The goats are basically wild but are herded up occasionally and selectively sent off as a valuable by-product.
We only stayed here one night, the following day we stopped at the Tilpa Weir. Yet another great spot for a night or two. As we drove down to the weir we had the option to turn left or right. There were already quite a few travellers to the right, so we went left and found a great spot for the night. I left Peter to start the fire while I went for a walk, with my camera of course, and saw…wait for it. Birds! What a surprise, but the real surprise was this prickly fellow, or lady. He really made my day.
We continued on south-west believing that Wilcannia would be a good town to resupply. We couldn’t have been more wrong, virtually everything was boarded up. We managed to go through town, refuel and leave without seeing a local (just one trucky refuelling), even the servo was unmanned with an auto-pay facility. Although we went through there before the region started reporting Covid-19 cases, given that over ten percent of the town now has Covid-19, it’s probably a good thing that nothing was available to us.
So on we went to Broken Hill in search of food and unsalted coffee.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
