Dubbo region - Ponto Falls and Goulburn River NP

When a baby Hippo was born at Dubbo Zoo we decided to head out for a look.  As we were travelling with friends who were not campers we hotel-ed it in Dubbo town.  After a couple of days wandering the Zoo our friends headed back home and we decided to have a couple of nights on the way back in the tent.

Our first night was at a place called Ponto Falls.  Not far from the town of Wellington, the road in is sealed except for the last couple of k's - but that is good quality dirt.  Once we got there we noticed that a fair number of people had camped there in 2WD sedans...  It is pet friendly and free, with a loo but no showers, water or firewood is provided.

We set up, had a bit of a fish, did a camp oven dinner and really enjoyed the place.

The next morning we set off for Goulburn River NP.

Not a long drive really, and the road in says 4WD.  In the dry it is a pretty good track.  In the wet it would be diabolical.

We set ourselves up at the Spring Gully Campground.

As the loo's were a bit of a walk we decided to set up the portaloo for the overnighter!

Walking down to river from the campsite was a great way to spend the afternoon.  There are some good swimming holes near by and you can launch a kayak upstream...

Bit of a tease with the view - worth the trip in I'd say...

Next morning we needed to get moving toward home.  Breakfast was called for to sustain us for the drive out so we put the BBQ/fire ring to good use!

A quick trip to the NSW South Coast - Termeil Point Campground

It has been a while since I put anything up on the blog so I have decided to make a bit of an effort to get some of our (and my solo) trips up on here.  In the last while we have been to some great local and even distance touring locations.

I decided that I hadn't been fishing for a while so packed up the 4WD and set off for the South Coast.

A nice little National Park let me do a spot of fishing and gave me the opportunity to take some nice pics...

So with the swag set up under the roll out awning I went off for an unsuccessful attempt at fishing.  (Luckily I had dinner with me in the fridge.

As the sun went down I gave up on the fishing and grabbed the camera.

The sunset over the lake adjacent to the beach was awesome.

A steady hand and the flash lead to this shot of a wattle coming into flower.

And this shot of the waves rolling in just after sunset.

This was one of those little trips to a secluded and little known place that was pretty awesome.  It wasn't packed with 4WD action but there were few other campers, the toilet was clean and tidy.  That said it is not pet friendly, there was no water, showers or firewood.  I was however a relaxing weekend.

Day 8 - Farina to Cameron Corner via Strzelecki Track

Waking up at the Farina Station campground was an experience.  It was cold - about -4C overnight.  the priority was getting the campfire going again and getting warm, getting a hot drink and taking some pics.

Once we had all warmed up, had breakfast and packed up it was a quick transit to Lyndhurst to refuel and then take on the mighty Strzelecki Track.

To be honest I thought that Strzelecki Track would be a rough and tumble 4WD adventure/challenge.  In reality, it had been recently graded and it was more of a high speed dirt road than the track that I had imagined.

But it was open and with the vehicles full of fuel we we pretty excited to be on another of Australia's iconic 4WD tracks.

I guess it is worth a mention that the route of the track is attributed to a chap called Harry Readford.  Harry was a cattle thief.  Wroking on a remote part of a remote cattle station in Queensland Harry, without the station owners knowing, built a set of cattle yards and over a period of time assembled a mob of about 1000 head of cattle.  Realising that trying to sell the cattle in Queensland would be a bit of a problem (everyone would recognise the brand)  Harry decided to drove them to South Australia, but needed to cross through the Channel Country and then the Strzelecki Desert.

Which he did - he traded some of the cattle for rations and sold the rest at a station east of Marree.

A couple of years later the las caught up with Harry - arrested in Sydney and sent to Roma, Queensland for trial.  He was acquitted - the jury was impressed with him opening up the route.  Another great Aussie story of the outback.

Anyway we set off for what was to be an enjoyable and straight forward drive.  We passed the 'top' of the Flinders Ranges and Mount Hopeless.  This mountain was 'overnamed' by Eyre - it is 124m above sea level at its peak!  Burke tried to get to it when he, Wills and King were stranded at Innamincka.

These days most of this things are of historical interest.  The track isn't used for droving anymore - but it is used to transport goods and chattels to the oil and gas fiels in the region.

After a hand full of dry creek crossings we arrived at the turn off to Montecollina Bore where we decided to stop for lunch.  There are some picnic tables and shelters here and the Bore itself is an interesting find in what is now desert country.  What is cool is walking up onto the dunes and looking down at the location.

Afteer having lunch and watching the bird life we decided to head across to Cameron Corner rather than pushing on to Innamincka.  We would work out whether to go to Innamincka or Tibooburra once we had arrived at Cameron Corner.

We headed off and found the 'shortcut' track to Cameron Corner - thanks to the navigator.

I really enjoyed that part of the drive.  Firstly it is through desert country - up and over dunes.  The track itself is well formed so it is a nice easy drive.

On the track across one of the more unusual sights is the Yellow Bus Campsite (at least that is how it is marked on the map.)

There are a handful of stories about the bus - it seems to have been used as a shelter for stockmen at some point and a campground in the past.  I'm told the land owner chaged his/her mind about camping and now there are signs there saying no camping or fires...

A short while later we pulled in to Cameron Corner store.  We decided to camp and have a shower here and then head across to Tibooburra the next day.

I have written about Cameron Corner, the store and it's history elsewhere so I won't do that again.  I will say that it is a great place to camp with a bar, some food and hot showers.  The guys charge a bit extra per person having a shower, but the cash is donated to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Overall a great day on the road with some interesting locations and history.  Sitting in the red dirt camp ground was awsome.  The decision to head across into New South Wales, maybe not what I would have done if I was travelling on my own but it turned out to be a good call.

Day 6 - William Ck to Oodnadatta

It was an hectic start for the guys taking the scenic flight over Lake Eyre and less so for me.  I'm not a good flyer, so I decided to have a look over the 4WD, pack up the campsite and be ready for the departure when the guys got their feet back on the ground.

Whenn they got back we said our goodbyes to the folks we had met the night before, fuelled up and set our sights on Oodnadatta.

Ready to head off from the William Ck Hotel, William Creek.

We really enjoyed the night here.  Lots of character in the pub itself, watching the State of Origin Rugby Leauge game was great fun, and our fellow travellers there that night we all chilled, full of great stories about their travels.

We were still considering whether we should go from Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy or whether we should head back down the Oodnadatta Track to Lyndhurst and then up the Strezlecki Track as we left that morning.

The debate was put on hold when we spotted what looked like smoke in the distance and we were discussing what it could be.  Given the shape of the smoke we doubted a grass fire and we had heard nothing on the CB or at William Creek about a fire so we continued.  As we got closer we thought that it more looked like steam than smoke and I said if it was a car that had overheated we should offer them some of the water we had onboard, and see if we could help out.

When we got further up the Track we saw where the smoke was coming from.  A fire had destroyed a camper trailer and a 4WD.  Folks from the station were on site with a water tanker putting the last of the fire out. The camper trailer was completely destroyed and the 4WD wasn't looking to good.  We stopped and offered what we could.

After stopping for a short while we decided that there wasn't anything that we could do to help these guys so we left.  Fortunately they were travelling in convoy so things were, as far as was possible, under control.

Further along we stopped for lunch.

the great thing about outback travel is that you can stop in a fair number of stunning places and have a cuppa, lunch or just a look around.

An awsome lunch stop...

A bit more driving and a stop to gather firewood saw us arrive in Oodnadatta later that afternoon.  It didn't take us long to set up camp, get a fire going and settle in for the night.

The obligatory pic of the Pink Roadhouse.  The Roadhouse staff are a wealth of local knowledge and it is worth stopping in for a chat.  You can make phone calls from the Roadhouse payphone and it stocks a variety of stock up items.

And souveniers.

They have a campground out the back with toilets, showers, fire pits, a camp kitchen and a laundry.  It was a great 'mid-point' stop.

It doesn't take long to walk through the Oodnadatta township, but it is worthwhile with a museum and a few other bits and pieces.

Sitting around the campfire with fellow travellers that night we decided that we would head back to Lyndhurst and head up the Strezlecki Track.  We were planning for a day trip down to Farina Station Campground and then a relatively early departure for the new track.  With that we hit the sack thinking about the big 'turn around.'

Outback Trip 2 - Day 2 and 3 - Renmark and Leigh Creek

Setting out from Balranald we planned on getting ourselves across to Renmark.  The route we had set was for about 300 or so kilometers on highway.  The intention was to stay in a caravan Park, do a minimal set up and then push on to somewhere like Leigh Creek.

And the reason that I add all of this in one little post is that the camera went on the fritz and there are no photos from this part of the holiday.

Suffice to say that the stop in Renmark was fantastic.  The owners of the caravan park on the riverbank treated us extremely well and we got ourselves settled in, cleaned up, the car checked out and everything ready for a really long day.

So after an early night we did set off fairly early to get to Leigh Creek before dark.  The main part of the drive was through grazing country, the along the edge of the Flinders Ranges, and then in to the Caravan Park at Leigh Creek.

Again treated well by the caretaker, who gave us a couple of nice spots under trees and told us to head up to a communal fire at about sunset.  We did and had were able to have a bit of a chat with fellow travellers.  All was looking up for what I believed would be the real part of the trip.  Hitting the dirt road to Oodnadatta, seeing Lake Eyre and experiencing this part of the outback.

So after a not so early night, and realistically a not so early set off the next day we were into it!

Sorry about the lack of photos!

I didn't realise the camera was on the fritz at this stage and kept snapping away oblivious to the problem...

Outback trip 2 - Day 1 - Yanga National Park

After weeks of planning and even a couple of changed plans we finally had a plan - drive to Lake Eyre and have a look at it with water in it.  The intention was to travel in winter - which can be pretty bitter at home.  The hope was for mild days and not to cold nights.  So we got out the maps, got together with some friends and the plan was hatched.  A couple of days of hard running on the blacktopo to get us to Leigh Creek and then the outback adventure would begin.

What I didn't know was that we were about to see some amazing parts of the country and experince things that you rarely get to see and do.

Day 1 we set of early and travelled along the Hume, Sturt and Mallee Highways until we reached the vicinity of Balranald.  The first stop was to be Yanga National Park - and a free camp at a campsite within the Park, quite near the historical Wilga Woolshed.  Yanga gives you the opportunity to camp fairly close to where the Burke and Wills expidition camped.  And Balranald - just down the road was a fairly important part of their expedition.  An auction was held at Balranald and a fair bit of the gear that had been hauled from Melbourne was sold off.

We would cross the path of Burke and Wills more than once on the trip, along with their rival John McDouall Stuart!

Suffice to say that arriving at the Willows campground after close to 600km on the road was a relief.

As far as campgrounds go this place was a brilliant introduction to the outback.  A campground with fire places (and firewood), well maintained toilets and as much room as you need to set up comfortably was much welcomed.

How is that for a nice lot of room to set up camp.

The vista was amazing - as the sun went down through the mallee and the saltbush it really did feel like we were in the outback - fantastic!

And the view kept changing for us.

I really enjoyed the first night away - but I do enjoy the peace of a good bush camp and this was exactly that.  With dinner cooked on the campfire we went for a walk and checked out the woolshed and with the sun down completely had a bit of a chat around the campfire.

It was time for bed - the day had been tiring, but getting 600 or so kilometres into a 5000 kilometre trip was worth the effort.

Some details...

Access: Some campsites are accessible by 4WD. 2WD would be OK in dry weather or if you want to camp close to the wooldshed.
Toilets: Yes.
Showers: No.
Water: Didn't see any - might be some near the picnic area.
Shop: Not nearby - that said Balranald is not that far away.
Campfires: Yes - subject to firebans. Bring own wood.
Pets: NO - National Park

Cost: FREE.

Grabine Lakeside State Park - low cost, pet friendly, facilities

It was a while ago that we visited Grabine Lakeside.  Located on Lake Wyangala the closest township is a smallish place called Bigga.  It is reasonable close to Crookwell and about 120km or so from Goulburn.  It's also not that far from Cowra, as the crow flies, bearing in mind that Cowra is on the other side of the lake.

Lake Wyangala formed as a result of construction of Wyangala Dam.  The Dam construction commenced in 1929, and the final stages were completed in 1971.  It is located at the confluence of the Lachlan and Abercrombie  Rivers.  It's in pretty poor condition at the moment, the drought has the level down to about 6% of it's capacity.

Unlike a lot of places that we camp this one has toilets, showers, a little shop, a public telephone, BBQ areas and picnic tables.  There are also some powered campsites available, along with onsite cabins etc.

I guess if you were looking for a first camping trip this would be the go.  If you hated the tent you could stay in a cabin or onsite van.

We didn't take a lot of pics this time around...

Parked at the entry

 

View of the lake from nearby lookout

 And a special treat this week.

The photo below was taken somewhere in the park.  I won't say where, but it was such a treat to see the albino kangaroo.  We put the 4WD into low range and slowly moved toward the mob and took some more pictures.  I was surprised that he (or she) hadn't been shunned by the mob!

The albino kangaroo

I did take more pictures, if you want to see them contact me via comments.

OK - some camping stuff...

Access:  All 2WD - there is some dirt road on the way in.
Toilets: Yes - flushing.
Showers: Hot showers available.
Water: Yes.
Shop: Yes - fuel, ice, LPG, groceries.
Pets: Yes - Dogs on leash
Cost: Visit the website for details

GPS: -33 57.1, 149 1.36