Innaminka, Birdsville. Bedourie and Boulia

gate to South Australia

After leaving Tibooburra we headed for the other end of the Sturt NP and stopped at the Fort Grey campground.  Fort Grey was another of Sturt's depots. It is situated on a fresh water lake that only fills when there are floods.  After filling it takes seven years to dry up.  because of the floods a couple of years ago it was still quite full with a prolific bird population.  Next morning it was only 40km to Camerons corner, where the borders of NSW, SA and QLD meet.  The dingo fence runs along the borders and you actually have to open the gate to get into SA.

I don't think I have ever seen kangaroos and emus in such numbers as I have in the Sturt NP, they were grazing on the roadsides till quite late in the day and a large number of them seemed intent on becoming road kill.

Coolibah under which Burke died

From Fort Grey it was about 300km to Innamincka, the bloke at Camerons corner store called the road the rollercoaster.  Its unmade road all the way over many regularly spaced dunes, the last 45km was particularly rough with close corrugations and dust.  We camped in the town common on the banks of Cooper creek. Cooper creek and Burke and Wills is what Innamincka is famous for.  In the hundred km's of Cooper creek around Innamincka the tragic end of the B&W expedition was played out.  We saw the lagoon bank where Wills was left to die alone, the coolibah tree under which Burke died.  The dig tree, where supplies were left and the lagoon where King was found living with an aboriginal tribe.  Away from the creek the land is very arid, there is not much wild life other than dingo's/wild dogs and feral cats.  This place must be fly capital of the world.  It was a great relief when the sun went down and they disappeared.

Cath coming out of Birdsville Hotel

The next town north is Birdsville about 400km away.  There are a number of ways of getting there from Innamincka, I chose to go via the Walkers Crossing 4WD  track across to the Birdsville track.  For most of it's length the Walkers crossing track was a single lane sand track, however at various places there were detours along well constructed gravel and clay truck roads.  The whole area is full of gas and petroleum mining, there are roads running everywhere, unfortunately none of them are on any maps or my GPS. It was a pretty slow journey and took nearly seven hours to get to Birdsville
.

Birdsville is the gateway to the Simpson Dessert and many of the people passing through were about to cross or had just crossed the desert.  Not for us this time, from all reports its pretty rough and needs to be done in a group.  We did go out to see the  "big red" dune.  I didn't attempt to drive it.  It was too late in the day for digging.  It rained while we were at Birdsville and consequently a number of roads were closed .

We continued north to the next town of Bedourie.  It's claim to fame is the invention of the Bedourie Camp ven, an Australian icon.  There is not much here, but we stayed for a couple of days.  The roads further north were closed due to the rain. The town has a population of 120 and boasts a fine 25mtr swimming pool and 16 person thermal spa (40 degrees).  Use of this facility is free.

Station Road entrance

The road is opened and it is off to Boulia, home of the Min Min light.  The journey is across gibber plains with little vegetation.  There are quite a few cattle on these plains, they seem healthy , but I have no idea what they eat.  Along the road the tracks leading to the various properties are decorated, a couple of hundred pairs of old shoes, a faux marble outdoor setting, and a house without walls.  Out here it is a bit of desert humor, transport them to a converted warehouse gallery in Fitzroy and they would be art.

 The Min Min light is a mysterious ball of light that hovers and moves quickly and  has been  seen by many people over the past 100 years.  Unfortunately we didn't witness this phenomenon.  Boulia is also home to a collection of marine fossils which have been found in the area.  Unfortunately we were also too early for the highlight of the year in Boulia, the Camel races.

Tomorrow northwards.

More photos on the following link
https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5881793933753214721#photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5881793933753214721

On the Road Again

The plan was to get an early start beat the rush hour and get to Wyperfeld Nation park early in the afternoon. Fortunately we don't have a strict itinerary, because after hooking up the trailer on Sunday the day prior to our departure, I discovered that the trailer brakes were not working.  So instead of an early start it was an early visit to the auto electrician.  We did get away and still managed to arrive at Wyperfeld before dark.

sunset at Wyperfeld NP

I had never been to Wyperfeld before.  It is a large park in the Mallee and  has sandy soil and a range of vegetation.  It contains seasonal  lakes and swamps and abounds with bird life.  It would be worth spending a couple of weeks here and the surrounding parks.

Our next destination was Mungo National Park in NSW.  This was another long drive.  We stayed here for a couple of days.  We were here previously in March 2012 and the weather was hot.  It was much more pleasant in the cooler days of May.  Mungo contains some fantastic history, the site of mega fauna fossils  40,000 year old aboriginal remains and a rich pastoral history.  The size of the dry lake system is amazing.

Cath at Woolshed Kinchega NP

We traveled from Mungo to Menindee and camped in the Kinchega National Park  on the Darling river for a couple of nights.  Very relaxing.  Kinchega was a former sheep station and the old wool shed and some other old buildings are still standing.  This area was flooded in 2011 and parts of the park infrastructure are still being repaired.  At our camp site you could see the flood marks on the trees at about 2.5 meters.

 A couple of hundred Km's up the road is Broken Hill, the last city we will visit until we get to Mt Isa.  It is an interesting city with a rich history.  We visited the sculpture park set on a hilltop 25 Km out of town.  Th sculptures are pretty amazing as is the view.  We also visited the former bustling town of Silverton, now a few ruins and a pub.  At the museum in this town were extracts from newspapers of 1915 detailing the attack on the picnic train.  The train was travelling form Broken Hill to Silverton with 1200 passengers in open carriages when it was ambushed by 2 Turks in an ice cream cart bearing the Ottoman Flag .  The picnic was cancelled and all fares were refunded.  There was lots more to see in and around BH but I was keen to get back on the road again.

Feral Goats at Mutawintji

130 Km to the NE is Mutawintji National Park.  This park is a significant aboriginal site and the Historic precinct is accessible only with a guide.  We missed the tour the day we arrived but were lucky and joined an unscheduled tour a couple of days later.  The Historic precinct has some fantastic example of 10,000 year old etching.  Much better, bigger and more than we saw in the NT and WA last year.  The park also has some nice gorge walks.  there are numerous kangaroos, euros and emus.  There are also thousands of feral goats.  The eradication program doesn't seem to be working and they are doing a lot of damage.

It is about 300 Km down unsealed roads to Tibooburra which is on the edge of the Sturt National Park. It's probably the biggest town we will strike for a while with 2 pubs, a shop, a roadhouse and a police station.  One of the pubs "the family Hotel" is famous for Clifton Pugh murals on the bar wall.  We took a side trip back to to Milparinka a former prosperous town now a collection of 4 restored buildings and a boarded up pub.  Nearby is Depot Glen  the base of explorer Sturt for a number of months.  We also walked to the Sturt cairn, a stone cairn constructed by Sturts men on top of mount Poole.  The 360 degree views were terrific.

Tomorrow we move on.

Some more photos

https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5877721937397932305#photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5877721937397932305