18 Jan 10 - Bourke

By Lou: Found the best caravan park in Bourke called Kidman’s Camp. It was just an oasis in a dry part of the world.

By Craig: Bourke on one hand was disappointing as the Darling River was in flood and the opportunity to camp along the banks of the Darling around towns like Louth unfortunately were missed, however...

We happened across an art gallery in North Bourke which at the time was closed but interestingly a sign at the front indicated art lessons were available. Having always had an interest in sketching and wanting to learn more but not really knowing what medium to step into, I thought this may be an opportunity. Returning the next day we meet the artist Jen & her husband & family, and to my surprise the works hanging on the walls of the gallery were chalk pastel and magnificent in their depiction of the outback, colours from sky blue to vivid reds blended into each piece with stunning results. Time well spent to take a look if you're passing by.

With my lesson booked I left excited but nervous as this lesson was one-on-one. I arrived a little early, a little anxious and after slightly interrupting the family's morning routine the lesson commenced. Well posted here is the result of my first lesson in using soft chalk pastels. I am pleased with my first effort and will definitely continue to practice using this medium.
If in Bourke call in and see Jen. Take the time to look through the gallery, you won't be disappointed.

16 Jan 10 - Road trip to Brewarrina

By Craig: The road to Brewarrina (well actually through Bre and beyond to Bourke) was supposed to be approximately a half day trip add an hour or two depending on the stops, lunch etc.

After leaving Walgett... now before we go on it's worth mentioning the advice given to us from some locals at the Ridge (Lightning Ridge) and their dismissive attitude regarding Walgett. Well as we approached we thought the town was shut down however every shop in the town had shutters and reinforcing mesh across the windows and doors, small signs like on the local pub suggested they were open but entrance was from the rear. I think trouble was once or still remained in this little town; Beirut comes to mind but certainly not the poet’s version of outback Australia.

As I was saying...As we left Walgett we came across a road closure. We had been warned not to take notice of this as locals had got through however not wanting to take chances so early in our adventure we took an alternative route through the Narran Lake Nature Reserve via a secondary unsealed road.

All went well at the start and as we travelled along a somewhat inviting dirt track with grass lined edges and an honour guard of trees lining close to the road’s edge. We felt secure in the knowledge we had our 4wd and we slowly, somewhat naively, drifted on.

Almost by stealth and certainly without raising concern the landscape changed and opened into a flat plain. Grass and trees fell back to a distant sight and the gravely dirt had smoothed to an almost powdery paste. Roadside ponds appeared and then patches of bog required me to navigate the vehicle close to the centre of the track, then in the distance I could see a patch of wet crossing the track. Judging the centre to be hard and seeing two deep ruts created from a previous vehicle full with water I chose whilst bearing down on the patch at a slowing 40kph to take the outside run. The first indication of trouble was when the trailer started pulling the vehicle from the rear further across toward the wet, certainly further across than the path I had chosen, then slowing in pace but not engine speed it was obvious that traction was being lost, the elevation of the front right hand side immediately indicated we were going down in the bog, rear left side down and the trailer was holding us fast.

Foot off the pedal and then doing what in hindsight I should have done if thinking and not slipping into complacent holiday travel mode, I selected low range, switched on the front locker (the Cruiser is full time 4wd) and locked in the rear diff. Yep I can hear all the 4wd buffs saying a little too late for that champ; it was but mistakes come when least expected and I was already kicking myself so the best thing I could do was to get us out and redeem myself.

I wasn't in the best of moods at this time and Sam (7 year old son) now knew several new words and how to strategically place them within a sentence. Not good but I was wild with myself and started to redirect my energy to the mud and my shovel and just as well as the mud stuck to the shovel like the proverbial crap to dunny roll. This was going to be a long afternoon!


4 hours in fact, of hand digging as it took longer to get the grey clay off the shovel than off your hands. The main issue became very apparent. The trailer (the root of all evil) was acting like an anchor. It appeared we could be here for a long time. The decision (after a couple of lengthy attempts) was made to unhitch the trailer and concentrate on the Cruiser. Mind you the distant storm brewing and the thought of being stuck road side sleeping in the car coerced us into taking this drastic step. We didn’t know if we could get back to the trailer or if we would be able to drag it out. Once this decision was made things started to look up. With the anchor gone both front and rear lockers on, tyres at 18psi and low range engaged the Cruiser literally leapt out of the hole. Mind you I did have Lou on the front driver side bull bar as a counter balance. I didn’t get photos as I was a little busy at the time.

With the car out we turned it around and ran the winch out after bringing the Cruiser as close as we dared to the soft stuff. Wouldn’t you know it, bloody 10 foot short.
OK lucky we prepared for the trip, so we dragged out a strap and hooked it all up ready for winching. The problem at this point was the trailer was hitch down in the mud and with no way of getting the jockey wheel down I hoped the front water tank with its gal plate guard would act as a skid plate. It did and the trailer came out without a hitch (pardon the pun).


Now the simple task of winding in the winch rope, setting the front bar just slightly forward of the hitch and winching up the trailer so as to lift the front high enough to allow for the jockey wheel to drop seemed so easy we were wondering what all the fuss was about. With the trailer set I again turned the Cruiser around, handed over the wheel to Lou and began to throw a few instructions around. OK Lou, left hand down, back you come, right hand down, Oh shit the car’s now sitting too high for the trailer, the jockey wheel even with the ground plate has sunk a little into the mud. Bugger! Let the air bags down, shit not enough, OK out with the jack.

Well we ended up hitching the trailer, pumping up all the tyres (under bonnet air compressor) and just as the sun was about to set we were ready to move on.


Oh! I should mention we got about 2kms down the road and water had completely blocked our passage so we had to turn around and go back through what we had just done, but that’s another story.

15 Jan 10 - Feral the Magpie

By Sam: Feral the magpie was our first visitor at the Lightning Ridge caravan park. He was a good bird and was so cute and cuddly. He visited our campsite and when you put your hand on the ground and rattled the stones he would come to you. He had big claws but was friendly and always jumped on you and you could cuddle him. When he was a baby he fell out of a tree so a man kept him and the bird loved him and stayed with him. When we were about to go the man gave me some opals.

14 Jan 10 - Lightning Ridge

By Lou: Our first impression of opal mining town Lightning Ridge was "oh dear". Yet the first 2 locals we ran into told us how they had arrived in Lightning Ridge x years ago and fell in love with the place. "Oh!" we nodded politely while thinking “What were you thinking?”. However, as we explored the town the next day we became quite taken by the place. First stop was John Murray's art gallery. Bit of a larrikin local who captures the colours and feel of the place very well. Very outback and earthy which appeals. The town also has some self-guided tours, identified by coloured and numbered car doors stuck to trees, and we found the history of the place really interesting. The physical environment looks timeless: there are white mullock heaps (the removed earth from mine shafts) everywhere and rusty hoists and windlasses and LOTS of abandoned trucks.


Apparently it's around $500pa to buy a claim and although you are not meant to build a permanent dwelling, everyone does, and usually out of recycled materials, which leads to very low overheads. But what looks makeshift and dodgy and even abandoned often disguises a welcoming cavern of treasures, animate and inanimate alike. We visited an underground mine where a fellow has created dozens of sculptures out of the sandstone. A hodge podge of themes (African animals, Egyptian mummies, Superheros, Disney characters) but the dedication impressive none the less.


Visiting local art galleries or opal shops and chatting to the artists/owners was also really insightful into the passion (read fever) people have for the hunt for opal. Despite it being stinking hot and in the outback, ‘the Ridge’ boasts an Olympic size swimming pool with a theme park to boot. Sam was very excited so now we can cross Seaworld off the To Do list. We also swam in an artesian bath which at 41.5 degrees celcius was a tad hotter than my ideal soaking temperature but invigorating as it was brief. All up we got our fill of experience at Lightning Ridge and it was nice to leave with a higher regard for it than when we arrived.

10 Jan 10 - Warwick

By Lou: From the outset Craig was not happy with the sag in the vehicle from the weight of the trailer but we had been unable to get airbags fitted during our stay in Ipswich. After a week in Ipswich we were keen to get the show on the road and figured there'd be a Toyota service department somewhere on the road ahead. After all, that's one of the reasons we gave up our beloved Landrover. We looked at the map and for no logic more complicated than the fact that St George was bigger typeset than Warwick we rang ahead to St George and booked the car in to a Toyota service department. So from Ipswich we headed to Warwick and camped at Leslie Dam just out of town. Beautiful spot. Campfires allowed. Crack open the marshmallows, now we're camping! We were also impressed with the centre of Warwick. Lots of lovely trees and a shop to cater for every need without the Australia-wide brand names everywhere. Many moons ago, when Craig was working 3 jobs to pay an 18% mortgage, he used to deliver newspapers to Warwick from Ipswich in the wee hours of the morning. At the time he thought the newspaper building was in the centre of town so was pleasantly surprised this trip to discover the real hub of the city only one block away.

We moved on to St George and were a bit underwhelmed with the size of the town but the Toyota dealership were brilliant and the Pelican Rest Tourist Park was lovely. Had a lovely time at the local pool while work was done on the vehicle. Most of the few other occupants in the park were itinerant workers there for the fruit picking season.

By Craig: Warwick was certainly more than I remember. It was in fact a country town with a beautiful landscape and old-style window shopping. However, Leslie Dam was the first place I felt that I could start to relax. Although the vehicle needed some suspension adjustments I was confident that St George would provide the solution. Just taking a look at the sunset in the photo above reminds me that as our time closed at Leslie Dam I had the feeling that our trip had just started.

7 Jan 10 - Ipswich

By Lou: From Carnarvon Gorge we made our way to Ipswich to catch up with family and friends. The prime purpose was to celebrate Jaime's 21st which we did. The Festival of Jaime began on her birthday 7 Jan and ended at sunrise 10 Jan. We slotted in a Newsome family dinner at the local Hog's Breath cafe and had a good night.

Was also lovely to see our grandson Seth who has just started taking his first steps (14 months). Craig used the luxury of his dad's garage to tinker with the trailer and attach to our trailer the tinny that had been in storage for a few weeks since its purchase sight-unseen on ebay. I caught up with some admininstrative loose ends and Sam enjoyed playing with his 3 cousins. We all drove Craig's mum crazy I'm sure with our mess and noise but it is always nice to be welcomed and looked after. Craig also managed to age his mother and I 10 years by electrocuting himself while fixing an electrical lead he mistakenly believed he had pulled out of the wall. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen Craig taken aback and this was one of them. But after a couple of shakey glasses of water he was back to work. No shock to me.

By Craig: What more can a proud father and grandfather say? I enjoyed the time, although short, I was able to have with my daughter and her son Seth. I enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate Jaime's 21st in the company of the rest of my family (Mum, Kathy, Julian, Beau, James and Hope).

Thanks to mum and the old garage (which 3 mates, my father and I built in the 70s) I was able to do some vehicle and trailer adjustments: added brackets and repositioned spotlights on the roofrack; added small solar panel for a kitchen light; welding a bracket for an additional gas bottle. As Lou refered to above my brief shock was as a result of not looking carefully and removing the wrong plug. The bigger shock was finding out through an electrician that the old method of standing on a rubber mat to protect from earthing no longer is the case with modern safety switches: if electricity doesn't earth, safety switches don't work. The short of a long story is that had I not been able to drop the exposed wire cable I would not be here to tell the story. Eight hours later a doctor confirmed my heart rate had returned to normal.

1 Jan 10 - Carnarvon Gorge

By Lou: From Rubyvale we headed to Carnarvon Gorge which was a place of contrast. On approach it was sparse and stark due to recent fires yet in patches carpets of vibrant green foliage were springing up and some roads were under water. As we approached the first water-over-road situation of the trip I sucked in my breath with dread. Was it too deep, I wondered? Could the speed of the flow wash us over the edge, I worried? Obviously my thoughts were diametrically opposed to Craig’s as he let out a “Yippee” and proceeded without hesitation over the crossing. And just as I was marvelling at how well equipped we were with our Landcruiser a little Hyundai Excel approached from the opposite direction and entered the same crossing with barely a splash. Oh. Right.


Managed a 9km walk through the flat gorge one day and an uphill-all-the-way-4km trek to the Bluff the next. We were deluding ourselves that Samuel would be struggling with the distance. For the latter walk he was the mountain goat while Craig and I were bent over heaving from the exhaustion! Our planned rest break at the top was short-lived as the clouds quickly obscured the magnificent view and the heavens opened. (Will refer you to a link for the speccie shots as the camera batteries ran out after the first few shots we took. Of course the back up batteries were packed neatly in Box 101 back at camp.) We were grateful that Craig had lugged all our coats in his backpack and it was a scramble to put them on. However the downpour was so intense we were drenched immediately and retraced our steps through a watercourse that only 10 minutes earlier had been a dry walking track teeming with bull ants. We were wet but happy for the slippery descent.


Back at Takarakka Resort Sam had a ball riding his bike through the mud with other kids in the park, while Craig and I soaked up the realisation that our big trip was really underway. It was 11 years ago when Craig stood in front of a 2 acre block in Wallan and thought to himself, we can build a home here and then subdivide later and use the proceeds to travel around Australia. And here we are. I love our little home...alfresco dining, no vacuuming or mopping and no toilet cleaning. What more could a perfect housewife want?

By Craig: Two hours to service the bike. Not happy Jan.