We left home at approx 8:20am and went via Lower Dandy rd towards Dandenong to Eastlink, then Monash, Bolte Bridge to Western Ring Rd to Hume Freeway. It only took 58 minutes from home to the Hume Freeway, compared to 90 minutes via Beach Rd last Easter.
We stopped at Kalkallo Roadhouse at 9:37am (thanks Harry) for our first rest stop. Our next rest stop was Nagambie at 10:49am, the lake is beautiful. Our final rest stop was just north of Numurkah at 12:07pm. We arrived at Finley's lakeside CP at 1:12pm.
We have decided, in future to leave Melbourne on a Sunday, as the traffic is so light.

While I set up camp, Marg made some beautiful egg sangas. After lunch we went searching for the cache on the shores of the Finley lake, we couldn't find it. Bugger. About 3;45pm, the V8 supercars were live on 7mate, knowing this, I had set up the VAST Satellite system. Lowndesy finished 2nd, so it was a good afternoon. While watching Lowndesy nearly win, I noticed the campfire firing up, so after the race, Marg and I visited the campfire, it was absolutely brilliant, so good, that Marg decided that instead of spagetti on toast for dinner, we would have jaffles over the campfire instead, they were yumma.
After sitting around the campfire with the owners andd consuming a couple of chilled refreshers, we returned to the van and Marg watched 'Dancing with the stars' while I did this.

Tomorrow, we head for Hillston.

Woke up to 3° and clear skies with no breeze. I had to pull on an extra blanket over my sleeping bag as the temperature dropped. Currently the heater is warming up the fiver. Now I had to go outside and pack in the cold. We left home at approx 9:00am and turned left and headed North. The traffic was non existent, I did talk to 3 truckies about passing me. Our rest stops were at 10:15am at Coleambally, where we checked out the Dragline which dug out the irrigation canals, it is still operational today, if they needed it. Next rest stop was at Griffith at 11:17am, we arrived at Hillston at 1pm and filled up with diesel then proceeded to the caravan park at 1:14pm. We picked our site and after 30 minutes we were setup and watching Satellite TV, as well as on the Internet. Mid afternoon, we tried out the shower block, water pressure was good and hot.
We later drove out to look for another cache, again we couldn't find it, we think that the council made have taken it, as the trees and grass had recently been mowed and cleaned. We are getting a bit pissed off at not finding any caches. Tomorrow there are 3 caches at Cobar, so we plan to find the 3 of them. We will wait and see what eventuates.
On the way back to camp, we stopped at the grain silo over the road from us, and watched the Grain train load the carriages. Very interesting.

Tomorrow, we head for Cobar.

Woke up to outside temperature of 7.9°, positively balmy compared to yesterday, with early morning autocumulus cloud with a light Northerly. I was all prepared for a cold night and slept like a baby, with my sleeping bag and a blanket pulled on later. Marg is about to arise and we hope to leave by 9:00am.

Talk later from Cobar.

Thanks Fi and Simon(we had sausages and vegies for dinner last night), at least 2 people read this website. Well, Fi and Simon, if you have a spare moment at work, get your coffee, sit down and read today's exciting adventure.

We left at 8:55am and the weather was beautiful, sunny and a light breeze. Our first stop was at Mount Hope about 90kms away, arriving at 10:08am(thanks Harry) At Mount Hope hotel, we turned right and continued for approx 1.5kms when we came across some diggings, after finding a spot to turn the mighty rig, we drove back to the first site and parked on the side of the road, luckily, the road was rock hard. I thought after the recent rains that it would have been soft. From the photos, you can see quite a few diggings, so I went over to one and continued digging, after one hour and 20 minutes of digging. The result was the following: My back is rooted, Marg has a numb bum, ohh yes, we found some rock crystal, I think the biggest was about the size of my thumb(I have a big thumb). We haven't taken any photos of the crystals yet, because we haven't cleaned them, this will be done while we stay at Bourke (Tomorrow until Saturday).

Now that we are buggered, it is time to continue to Cobar, only a 160 kms to go. Oh yes, it is getting very warm, so we both changed into shorts and t shirts, first time this trip. With about 80kms to go, we stopped on the side of the road for a break. Continuing again, we arrived in Cobar, at the Caravan park at 1:39pm. Paid the lady in the Office and she directed us to our site (#20). It took about 30 minute to setup camp, while I did most of the setting up, Marg made lunch, I am into Egg sangas at present, bloody yumma.

Mid afternoon, we headed into downtown Cobar looking for 3 caches. First one at Drummond Park, we couldn't find it, so we were both PISSED OFF, we went to the next cache opposite the Info Centre, check out the photos and you can see the little black box, that is the cache. YES WE FOUND IT, How good are we? Well, not real good, our score is now found 1 cache out of four this trip. Anyway, stiff shit, we found it and are rapt, inside the box is a pad and you write your name and date and put it back exactly where you found it. Later you enter the details on their website (www.geocache.com). We are on a roll, off to the next cache, this was in a peanut butter jar, hidden in a big pipe. See photos, the jar is hidden by the rocks, I removed some rocks before I took the photo, so you could see the cache.

Cache total this trip so far: Found 2 from 5 caches.

Back to camp via IGA to buy some bread and eggs. I erected the Satellite dish, so we could watch TV, Marg made 'little boys' for dinner. Yumma. Early to bed tonight about 8:30pm, as we are both 'rooted' read rather tired.

Tomorrow, only 160kms to Bourke, where we will stay for 4 nights and relax.

Woke up to outside temperature of 7.9°, sunny and clear skies.
Another good night sleep with my sleepingbag and a blanket and I was snug as a bug. Ohh yeah, I think Marg slept well, because she is still asleep as I type. We hope to leave by 9:00am, but it is only 160kms to Bourke, so Marg will not be in a hurry to leave.

As I was packing up outside, I spoke to our neighbours, who were also packing up. As it turned out, both of us were going to Kidman's Camp, North Bourke. Now normally that wouldn't worry me, but you cannot book a site at Kidman's, naturally me being me, I worried that our neighbour may get the last site and we miss out. They left about 10 minutes before us and while we drove through town, we passed them at the petrol station. Yeeeeessssss.

We left at 9:03am and the weather was beautiful, sunny and no breeze. I left my camera in the fiver, consequently, we stopped on the outskirts of Cobar, I took a photo of the Bourke sign and while stopped our neighbours zipped past. Bugger. I sat about 500 meters behind our neighbour, and we both sat on about 90kph. After 90 kms, we stopped on the road side for a break, while our neighbours disappeared into the sunrise. This is where I took the 2 photos of the road, the traffic was light. Here are the traffic facts: 4 trucks past us going the other way, probably 20 cars, now going towards Bourke, we were past by a caravan and a car while stopped at the road side. That was today's traffic. Bugger All.

As we past the Bourke Info Centre, we past our neighbours and beat them to Kidman's camp, as it turned out, there was absolutely no need to worry. We arrived at Kidman's Camp at 11:18am, the park was nearly empty, the office lady said to pick your own site, which we did. It took about 2 hours to setup, as we are staying here for 4 nights, I had to do a full setup, awning, clothes line, car/fridge under the van etc. We walked up to the office to get some brochures and noticed that there is a paddle steamer through the park. Long story short, we were on the 3pm tour of the Darling river, hence the photos. The river cruise was lovely and the birdlife was plentiful, there were about 30 people on board and the boat takes upto 100, so there was heaps of room to move about.

Back at camp about 4:15pm, we sat outside in the shade, did I say that it was 27°s here today, BLOODY BEAUTIFUL, and washed our rocks from yesterday. We got some nice rock crystal and quartz, photos will come soon. Just for Simon P, dinner tonight was the rest of last night's little boys on bread. We are both buggered and plan to have an early night. I will leave you with this, it is currently 7:40pm and inside the van it is 23.9° without a heater just cooling down from today's heat. Tomorrow, we expect rain.

Woke up to outside temperature of 15°, mild and rain.
It was a very mild night, I started with my sleepingbag, by 1:30am the sleepingbag was thrown off and replaced by a blanket. The rains arrived at 6:15am and continued until 9:05am.
We left camp about 10:15am and headed to the Tourist Info centre and checked out what's on in Bourke. Decided to visit Fred Hollows grave, it was quite impressive then next port of call was to see the lock and the weir on the Darling river. Now bear in mind, that it has been raining and the gravel dirt roads tend to be a bit muddy and sticky. We first noticed the red mud as we walked around Fred Hollows' grave, then as we drove to the weir, the mighty Navara was a bit taller, the mud was caked onto the tyres about 1 inch thick. We stopped at the lock and weir and as I got out to take photos, the flock of Georges took to the air, and I started to get taller and the mud stuck to my shoes. After taking the photos, we slipped and slid on the dirt, muddy road back to the bitumen, where I drove through the puddles to clean all the mud off. It worked well. My blue shoes didn't fair as well, I may have to buy another pair from the States.
On the way back to camp, we stopped at the Bourke Bakery and Marg bought a Lamb and mint pie and I had 2 'The best steak pies' and they were bloody yumma. Back at camp, while we relaxed and buggered about on the internet, we also watched the Vicar of Dibley from episode 1 onwards and to put it mildly, we were pissing ourselves. It is an extremely funny series. About mid afternoon, we decided to go out again, this time visiting the Back o' Bourke gallery and after talking to our new best friend Jen (ny Greentree the artist) we are now the proud owners of about 3 of her reproductions, the originals were too dear. After leaving Jen, we headed over to the Back O' Bourke Exhibition Centre, as we pulled up I realised that I had left my camera back at camp, so we had a coffee in the cafe and said that we would be back tomorrow morning after watching Sunrise.

We spent the rest of the arvo back at camp just chillin'. The weather has started to clear with the odd glimpse of blue sky.
Dinner tonight was sausages and vegies, absolutely yumma. We are watching the latest Survivor - One World tonight.

Woke up to outside temperature of 6.3°, cool and clear.
It was a cool night, I only needed my sleepingbag, and slept like a baby. A big baby, but still a baby.
As I write this, Marg is in bed watching Kochie on Sunrise. Talk later.

Well, we're back. After Marg finally arose from bed and got her act together, we left at 10:25am and headed to the Tourist Centre, to get a key for the gate which will let us drive to the top of Mt Oxley. It cost us $8 per head, at the time I thought this was a bit steep. Mt Oxley is approx 50kms from Bourke, it is one of the few hills in the area. It is 28kms along the highway towards Brewarrina, then turn right or South and head approx 22kms along a gravel road, varying in condition from dry to a tad muddy, the mighty Navara handled it with ease. As we approached the Mount, probably a couple of kilometers away, we caught up with a 4WD, who just happen to be our neighbours (Graham and Di) from camp. We arrived at the summit at 11:28am and noticed that there are 2 peaks, one on the South East area and the other over the North West side. We stopped at the SE area where Telstra has a 72 meter tower, took some photos and then headed over to the NW area, this is a very strange area. There is an area maybe 100 meters square covered with sandstone, which looks like it was spewed out of the earth. Very weird indeed. Check out this link it tries to explain it. To justify its $8 p.p. fee, there are 2 toilets and a BBQ area that is the best I have seen. The toilets are flushing and are spotless, they even have soap in a bottle to wash your hands, the BBQ area is under cover and very nice.
After taking more photos of the scenery, we headed back to Bourke to do some shopping at the local IGA. This supermarket and parking area is inside a fenced enclosure, to keep out the locals. I also needed beer, as for some reason that I am not sure of, my beer keeps running out, so we drove to the drive in bottle shop. Guess what, same as IGA, the entire inside of the bottle shop is encased in wire mesh, with a hole big enough to get a 30 can pack of XXXX Gold through. How lucky was I? I mentioned to the bottle shop man was this to stop thieving. Yep.
Major drama, on the way from the bottle shop to camp, we had to drive past the Bourke bakery, well, when we arrived back at camp, we had 3 pies (2 x bush pepper steak pies and Marg had her lamb and mint pie, how boring) and 2 choc chip muffins with us, I have a feeling that the mighty Navara stopped at the Bakery. They were yumma.
By now it was approaching 3pm and we couldn't be stuffed to go and visit the Back O' Bourke Exhibition Centre, we will go tomorrow morning.

As we were no longer going out this arvo, I updated our website and Marg had a nanna nap (about 1.5 hours).
The weather has been sunny all day with a cold breeze, but we're in jeans and jacket, so have been quite warm. When we kept out of the wind, it was quite nice in the sun.

Dinner tonight was egg sangas. very yumma. We are continued watching the latest Survivor - One World.

It was a cold night, I used my sleepingbag and pulled on my blanket about 4am. I was warm as.
Just said goodbye to Graham and Di, they are heading to Moree today on their way home to Nambour. Marg is up and we plan to visit the Back O' Bourke Exhibition Centre this morning and a few other places to see.

Talk later.

After getting our A into gear, we left camp and drove to the Exhibtion Centre, BUT on the way there, I decided to top up with fuel and air, as we leave tomorrow, so we drove past the centre and got fuel, then Marg decided that as we are so close to the shopping centre, we may as well get our little bit of shopping. I then said as we are going there, we may as well call into the wharves and check that out. We drove from camp to the Mural on the big tank in town (see photo), then we drove to the wharf. There were 5 abo kids playing (throwing rocks in the river) and asked me, if I could take their photo, which I did (see photo), they asked if it was going in the local paper. I said "No". They weren't too unhappy and continued to throw rocks in the Darling river.
We left the wharf and the kids and finally arrived at the IGA supermarket, did our last bit of shopping until Lightning Ridge and as we were driving to the Exhibtion centre, Marg spotted a crafty type shop, so we stopped, Marg went in and I took a couple of photos of the main street. Marg eventually came out with nothing, so that was good. At that moment, we realised that we had bought ice cream, so wee went straight back to camp, right past the Exhibition centre again. Dropped off our shopping at camp and then drove back to the Exhibition centre, paid our $36 for a couple and went through it. You could easily spend many hours there, luckily the tickets are for 2 days. The centre is very much audio visual displays, you sit around and watch various historical info about Bourke. I found the info on the river, bridge and wharf, the most interesting and Tom webb who made the 4 models of the Paddle Steamers were awesome.
We finally left the centre and stopped at the North Bourke bridge on the way back to camp, it is very old and quite a sight. We arrived back at camp, mid arvo, just as it was clouding over, but that only lasted an hour or so, then the sun was back out in full force. I started to pack up our bits and pieces for tomorrow we head to Lightning Ridge for 4 nights.

Dinner tonight was poached eggs on toast cooked by me. Absolutely yumma. We are watching the latest Survivor - One World Episodes 7 to 9 tonight.

Our summary of what we did at Bourke.

• Mud Map Self Drive Tours
• Paddle Boat Jandra - a 2 hour tour on the Mighty Darling River
• Bourke Cemetery - Fred Hollows grave
• The Darling River.
• The Lock and Weir on the Darling.
• Mt Oxley - 49.5k by road from Bourke - magic views
• Back O' Bourke Exhibition Centre - well worth it but it will take hours.
• Replica of the Bourke Paddleboat wharves - a wharf is a wharf, but still interesting.
• "GATEWAY TO THE REAL OUTBACK" Mural - painted by John Murray - Bloody nice mural.
• Heaps of Birdlife - such as Emus, Pelicans, Brolgas, Galahs, Budgerigars and white and black cockatoos.
• Historical Buildings of old Bourke - Some of the Oxley St buildings
• The Bourke Bridge at North Bourke - well worth the walk over and back.
• Fort Bourke Stockade - couldn't get there due to flood waters