We really hadn’t needed this fourth day here. Couldn’t spend any time with our friends, as they had a local function to go to. There were no bowls today available to casual visitors like John.
I broached the possibility of the Heritage Walk, but John didn’t feel up to it.
So I did the other available option – the washing.
Interesting phenomenon: it cost $5 to use the front loading washing machine, but only $3 for the conventional top loader. I couldn’t work out the rationale for that. Maybe the front loader took more in a load? Maybe it washed better? I did know my rationale for using the front loader – it was the only available machine at the time.
We drove down the street to get the Saturday papers. John bought a multi-outlet plug for the bus cigarette lighter, so he could run multiple items at once from it: the GPS, my ipod, and he was talking of getting a dash mounted camera. Going to be gadgets on wheels.
Sign at entry to town, utilizing old mine workings
I spent much of the rest of the day reading the papers and exercising Couey up the back and dodging the friendly goat.
The nights have been warmer here, the days too, but I was still in winter clothes.
I made home-made meat patties for tea, with fries and salad.
I was determined to do some sightseeing today. We were not going to leave Cobar, this time, without seeing its main attractions.
Went to the Information and Heritage Centre, housed in a superb old two-storey stone house that was built in 1910 to be the administrative centre for the Great Cobar Mine – a copper and gold mine. Copper mining started here in 1870 and the mine became one of the largest world copper mines. Since then, several other mines had operated, following a line of lode that stretches from the NW to the SE of Cobar. In recent times, with fluctuating demand and prices, local mining has been somewhat up and down, with local employment following suit. The town’s fortunes are very mining dependent.
I bought an attractive polo short at the Centre. I would have liked to do the Heritage Walk here, which was supposed to take about an hour, but John didn’t feel up to it.
We drove out to Fort Bourke, a hill just out of town, that was the site of Cobar’s first gold mine.
Cobar open cut mine, with the town beyond
Today, there is a lookout at the top, with views across the surrounding flat plains, and down into a big open cut mine, where one can see entrances to underground workings too.
In the shadow is the entrance to underground workings
Cobar’s water supply comes from some 400kms away to the east and is piped/pumped up into storage tanks on top of Fort Bourke.
From the lookout, the line of lode was made obvious by the line of mine poppet heads we could see.
Whilst John and I walked up to the Lookout, which was all of about 50 metres away from the parked car, Couey must have had one of her anxiety attacks at seeing us walking away. When we got back, she had managed to wriggle right out of her car harness and was loose in the car. Houdini dog!
Flat plains surrounding Cobar
Back down the hill, at the entrance to town, there was an unusual “welcome” feature, made from part of the smelter remains of the early Great Cobar Copper Mine workings. It looks kind of “industrial” and could not be called pretty, but seemed an appropriate way to use this long existing dump area. But incongruous green boxes house the lights that illuminate the Cobar lettering at night.
I wanted to look at the Old Reservoir area, a free camping spot that I’d read some good things about. Now that we had the self-contained Bus, I was hoping to convince John to do more of this informal, often “bush” camping and lessen our use of caravan parks. But suspected I would have my work cut out…. The Old Reservoir area was nothing spectacular, so we didn’t linger.
John had faded fast and had enough of sightseeing, so it was back to Bus.
Mid-afternoon, friend V and her sister came round to the park and we had a pleasant get together for a couple of hours. She and husband F were hoping to leave for parts north in another week or so, aiming to get to Cooktown, So were we. They would keep in touch, so we might meet up again, further along.
V excelled herself and bought me four casks of port! That would keep us supplied for a good time to come.
There was no fish and chip shop in Cobar, so we got take away Chinese from the Bowls Club. V had said the RSL’s Chinese place was better, but she wasn’t sure if they did take away. The food cost us $40 and was really disappointing. John’s sweet and sour fish was like leather. I couldn’t find any traces of prawns in the oily pieces of sesame seeded bread that passed as prawn toasts. There was a lesson there for us, about take away meals in small country towns!
We had to make sure to get up and going in time for John to be at his bowls by 9.30am.
I dropped him off there and kept the car, intending to do a bit of sightseeing and maybe take dog for a long walk.
Unfortunately, it was raining lightly. John hoped the bowls people would wait and see if the rain lessened, then start the bowls later. If not, he would phone me to go back for him.
So, I couldn’t really go out and about and get involved in doing something, being uncertain whether I’d have to go at short notice to collect him. The rain was a disincentive, too.
In the end, the bowls was played and he was happy because he’d won and collected $10. The players were also fed Chinese type snacks after the game, so that was his lunch. The phone call to pick him up came at 1pm.
John was very tired, after the bowls. He had a nap.
We did little for the rest of the afternoon, except give Couey a ball chasing session up the back. I read and spent time on the computer, while John slept.
Cobar site
Tea was an impulse buy of mine, yesterday – pre-made rissoles from the supermarket. There were four different flavours of rissoles in the pack. They were not as fatty as I had feared they might be, being sausage mince, but were not all that nice. That was not an experiment that would be done again!
Got up at 8am, after another chilly night. The pleasant days more than compensated for the night time cold – except maybe during that late-night trip to the loo!
Pack up was unhurried and then we took Couey for a last “freedom” walk, part-way around the lagoon. Suspected it might be a while before she got lots of free-ranging off-lead exercise again.
The drive to Cobar was enjoyable.
This was not a section of road that we had travelled before; it’s good to go somewhere new. There would be a new bit of black line on the map of our travels, that hangs on a wall at home.
There were a few mildly bouncy sections.
I noted there was a roadhouse at Emmerdale – just a roadhouse – for future reference. Lonely spot.
The road followed low ridges for a while, so there were interesting outlooks across the flat plains, and some variety.
Between Wilcannia and Cobar
There were also lots and lots of goats, which are at significantly feral levels in these parts. Some of them had such beautifully multi-coloured coats. I commented to John that, although we’d seen road kill kangaroos and the occasional sheep, we’d never seen a dead goat. Discussed whether they had greater road sense than other animals.
There were several stops for John’s needs, then we stopped for coffee and to give dog a walk, at Meadow Glen Rest Area, This would be an alright place to free camp overnight – a number of spots tucked in amongst the native pines, with toilets and some tables. But we were aiming for Cobar and greater creature comforts.
Booked into the Cobar Caravan Park, for two nights, at $33.50 a night for a powered site. The site was drive through style, which made things easy. The wide grassed separation sections between the sites made for good dog resting places. Very pleasant.
Although we’d passed through Cobar several times, had never stayed there, or explored it. So I wanted to do that, plus our Griffith friends often visit family here, so I thought we might catch up with them. I texted V, saying we were here and asking where they might be. The answer came back – still in Griffith, but she was coming up on Friday to spend the weekend with her sister. So – we would catch up then, staying an extra couple of nights to do so. Great – we hadn’t met up in person since 2005.
After setting up, drove into town, firstly to the bowls club. John was determined that the extra time here would be put to his definition of good use! He booked himself in for a game tomorrow morning.
Then to the supermarket and a much-needed stock up of fresh foods. Potatoes again!
John was amazed that I agreed to his suggestion that we buy a cooked chicken from the deli section, for tea. Normally, I do not eat chook that I haven’t cooked myself, but this was obviously freshly cooked and looked really nice. I bought a tub of coleslaw to go with it. Cook’s night off…..
I wanted to get a couple of casks of port to take on into Qld, being unsure that we would be able to buy same where we were intending to go. I had not really kept up with the alcohol restrictions imposed in the last few years, but had an idea they had really tightened up, especially for things like fortified wines. However, the shop did not have any. They had run down their stocks for stocktaking and would not be getting supplies until next week. Of course, as soon as port was unavailable, I could envisage a prolonged drought of our nightcap…..So I texted V, asking if she could bring some up from Griffith, where she could source casks from the winery there. She replied she would. Nightcaps would be assured for some time – I could relax!
The caravan park was large, and busy, Cobar being at a cross roads of both east-west and north-south routes. There was a big grassed area right up the back, behind the unpowered camp sites, where we were able to throw a ball for dog and give her some running exercise.
Unfortunately, there was also a stray young goat wandering about the park, that seemed to think it was a dog, or would like a canine new best friend to follow around. Couey didn’t agree, so we had to take evasive action whenever goat appeared in the distance. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to wander down the front of the park, where our site was.
Upon waking, we decided to have another lazy day here, since it was such a pleasant place.
Went up to the office to pay for another night, then showed manager lady the forum location and Badger’s site.
I read for a while, then tried to download some more e-books to my reader. Couldn’t quite remember how I did that, the first time, at home. Did not manage it well, this time. I did get some transferred to the reader, but not all that I tried for.
It was too nice a day to spend for long in Bus, playing with technology.
Warrawong on Darling. Camp kitchen just visible behind car.
We walked Couey around the lagoon. She’d had such a great time here. She had some good wallows in the shallows, then actually ventured into deeper water, after thrown sticks. She almost – but not quite – got to swimming depth. This was followed by much rolling in the dust – and, much later, by a big brushing session, before she was allowed in Bus again.
I inspected the Terios front bumper closely. It was more stone pocked than I’d realized, on Sunday. I thought there were a couple of small marks on the windscreen too. It really would have been much better to drive the two vehicles separately.
I showered and washed my hair. The bathrooms here are so great – I doubted we’d be using any others as good for some time.
In the late afternoon, John lit the fire in the communal pit and we sat round it talking with other campers. One couple came from Clunes and were neighbours to an artist who was a good friend of my brother. The old small world thing again…..
Options for tonight’s tea were a bit limited by lack of fresh produce, but we enjoyed macaroni cheese with tuna. Yummy.
Daughter texted to say she’d forwarded mail today, to Charleville.
Watched the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet again. Not as good as last week’s episode, because the two politicians featured were not really very inspiring or interesting ones.
Decided to stay another day, because it was so peaceful and relaxing here.
I took the opportunity to do a load of washing in the brand new laundry.
John filled our water tank, trusting that the treatment of the Wilcannia town water was trustworthy! It took ages to fill. NOW he believed me that we were really low on water – previously he’d been sceptical, of both me and the gauge. We did not have such things in the van and he seemed slow to trust the levels that they showed for fresh and grey water tanks.
Drove back into Wilcannia and cruised around, looking at the beautiful old stone buildings. In the late 1800’s, Wilcannia was the third largest inland port in Australia. Unfortunately, too many of the buildings were damaged or decaying. Two of the best remaining ones were the Police Headquarters (which originally had another purpose), and the Courthouse. I guessed that both were well-used these days! There were people milling about in front of the latter, and more people out and about in town, in general, being a week day.
I went to the supermarket. Their loose potatoes were a brilliant shade of green. I wasn’t prepared to buy a packaged bag of same, where there was no way of seeing in to check the colour of the contents. So we were still spud-less. I felt quite angry that the shop manager obviously thought it was alright to try to sell produce like that – an insult to the locals.
I did buy a bottle of pasta sauce, having to hunt a bit to find a variety that wasn’t past its use-by date. Disgraceful.
Posted cards I’d written at Copi Hollow, to assorted family and friends.
After lunch back at camp, walked Couey – and Bidgee – round the lagoon circuit. Bidgee actually managed to tempt Couey into the shallows of the lagoon, and they had a great frisk and wallow. Bidgee startled a kangaroo and then chased it off into the scrub; we didn’t see her again, but she was back home by the time we finished our walk. Couey was quite mystified by the kangaroo and not inclined at all to join the chase – good!
This morning, we were the only campers left in the place, but in the afternoon four more lots came in.
I went online and put a review of this place on the Badgers site, where travellers review parks, and also made a comment on a travellers forum I frequented. Told the lady manager I’d done this. She hadn’t heard of either – I got the impression she was feeling her way a bit with technology – and wanted me to show her those two sites, which I will do tomorrow.
The manager lit the campfire and we joined a really enjoyable happy hour gathering.
We took our time packing up and hitching up, leaving the park at 10.30am.
John really wanted to go direct to Wilcannia, not back through Broken Hill.
People at the Menindee Visitor Centre had told us that the road up the west side was marginally better at the moment, than the east. I suggested that I drive Terios separately, rather than tow it on the unsealed road, but John vetoed that idea.
West bank route from Menindee to Wilcannia
The west bank road was rough in places, where it had been driven on when wet. As a passenger, it felt like the Coaster “caught” in some of the wheel ruts. I worried about the following Terios, with its much narrower wheel base. An ok path for the Coaster was not necessarily so for the car.
It took us a bit over two hours to do the unsealed 138kms to Wilcannia, but John did need to make about five comfort stops along the way!
The country we traversed was flat and scrubby and not very appealing. Not the scenic route!
Yet another roadside stop!
In the quiet, run-down looking Wilcannia, we refuelled at the Liberty servo. $1.73cpl. This time, we’d managed 6kms per litre. Later, found out that the other servo, down a back street, off the highway, was considerably cheaper.
Parked by Bourke Park, in the town, and gave Couey a ball chase for a while,
Wilcannia has some lovely old buildings, dating from its era as an important Darling River port town, but it was sad to see the deterioration and neglect of some of this heritage – and the prevalence of bars on windows of those businesses that were not closed and boarded up. A very sad town.
The prevailing views we’d heard from other travellers were that camping in what passed for the caravan park in town, by the river, was not always secure feeling. We had no intention of doing so. On a Cartoscope free map that I’d picked up in Menindee, I’d seen an advertisement for a caravan park 3kms east of town – Warrawong on the Darling – and had Googled it. Looked both new and fine. We drove out there, thinking we would check this out, stay if it looked alright, otherwise drive on east and find somewhere to stop along the way.
I had some moments of doubt about this place, as we turned off the highway onto the approach road, to be confronted by a paddock full of old cars and scrap metal. But that was the neighbour’s place; the caravan park was well away from that.
Liked what we saw and booked in for a night, at $35 for a powered site. We could choose our site – most were unoccupied – and we picked a large grassy site on the bank overlooking a billabong of the Darling River. This was really picturesque and lovely, ringed by trees and bush and with a mix of dead and live trees in the water. Lots of bird life.
Camp by the billabong at Warrawong
The place had only been open since Easter, so was still being developed. The new amenities were very spacious and clean, still with some finishing off work to be done. Each large shower cubicle also had its own handbasin.
There was a row of roomy, powered sites along the billabong bank, and the makings of more back from the bank. Already, there was a camp kitchen established, and a campfire area for happy hours.
There was town water – that solved our water shortage issue!
Set up didn’t take long, then we relaxed with our lunch, outside, taking in the view.
The billabong
Took Couey for a walk. The temporary caretaker who’d checked us in told us there was a track that went to the Darling River and on in a circuit right around the billabong. Once we were away from the formal camp area, Couey could range off the lead. The heeler dog that belonged to the managers saw us walking off and joined us – Bidgee. The two dogs romped a bit together, on the walk. I wouldn’t say they were the greatest of friends, but they tolerated each other. Bidgee was in and out of the billabong, frolicking in the water, but couldn’t tempt Couey to join her.
Looking back to the camp area from the track to the river
We walked across and looked at the Darling River. Its level was noticeably lower than that of the billabong, so we thought there must be some means of closing the latter off.
Zoom image of the camp area, billabong and Darling River
It was a good length walk – maybe 3kms in all – and very enjoyable.
Terios seemed OK after the tow, although small gravel being thrown up had roughened the plastic coating of the front bumper. There were also some small stone chips in the paint of the hitch. We now realized there were no mud flaps on the back wheels of Bus, though the overhang was such that I wouldn’t have thought thrown-up stones would be an issue. We would have to have some sort of protection for Terios if we were going to be travelling unsealed roads, in the future.
Late in the afternoon, the managers got back from a week off. Bidgee stopped hanging round our camp.
By evening, there were several other lots of campers in place.
I texted my offspring, and M, of our whereabouts. Asked my daughter to bundle up and forward our mail – which I’d had readdressed to her place – to Charleville. John texted his daughter of our new whereabouts. He was still hoping for contact from her.
We decided to stay here another day, partly through inertia, partly thinking daughter might yet make contact with her father, for him to go back to Broken Hill and do the repairs around her place. He had tried to phone her a couple of times since we had been at Copi Hollow, but she wasn’t answering the phone to him.
The park had become relatively busy for the weekend, and because of school holidays.
A group from the speedboat club was building an extension to the nearby BBQ/camp kitchen area.
Camp kitchen work at Copi Hollow
There were some very feral children running around. Some of the weekender families in the permanent structures seemed to allow their kids to run free, which was fine, as long as they were old enough to behave safely and sensibly – which some of these were definitely not. There were a few pre-schoolers and a couple of toddlers roaming about – to my mind, far too young to be unsupervised by the lake.
A couple in a van around from us had some problems: while they were out, their portable BBQ was partly dismantled and their outside furniture taken away. After they got back, they had a look around some of the nearer permanent places and retrieved their furniture from where kids had taken it. One boy, aged about ten, kept swinging a heavy sinker on a length of line, and hitting their van with it. He took no notice when asked to stop. They went to speak to the boy’s mother about his behaviour (no father on the scene). Her response was “My children wouldn’t do anything like that.” End of discussion. Well, they did – there were enough witnesses to same.
Whilst we would return here for another stay, it would not be at school holiday, or long weekend, times!
I was now out of potatoes. Dropped a large hint to John, this morning, about going into Menindee for some – and for the Weekend Australian paper – but he ignored that idea. I did have some ageing broccoli and mushrooms to have with our steak, for tea.
We took Couey for a walk along the levee/canal, after lunch. Some of the afore-mentioned children were riding trail bikes around that area, mostly not wearing helmets.
Zoom image: Copi Hollow campground and the canal
Zoom – Copi Hollow campground and canal
John made one last attempt to contact daughter. Still not answering. I felt we had now waited around the area long enough and could move on with clear consciences.
Took my last sunset photos here. Some cloud in the sky made for a different sunset effect across the lake.
The nights in these parts had been chilly, but the days fine, with lots of blue skies.
The solar screens had made a big difference inside Bus on the cold nights. The fan heater did not have to run as much, to keep us cosy.
Today was not as windy.
After our usual slow morning start, we bundled dog into Terios and set off to do some exploring.
Followed the dirt road round from Copi Hollow to the much larger Lake Pamamaroo, then skirted round that.
Lake Pamameroo
There were, at intervals, rough tracks going off towards the lake edge, which we assumed led to bush camping spots by the water. We took one of those and came upon a caravan parked in a clearing, right beside the lake.
Standing room only
A man came out of the van, in a hurry, looked at us and demanded quite aggressively that we not let the dog out of the car. We hadn’t been about to, but I didn’t think anyone free camping had any right to behave as if he owned the clearing and we were trespassing. The message was quite clear, that he didn’t want company in “his” clearing. Just to annoy him, I took my time wandering around and taking photos, while he stood with hands on hips and glared. I hoped that, with the weekend coming, his patch was invaded by noisy campers with a heap of children!
We continued on, looking at another couple of the lakeside camp spots. There certainly were some attractive camp places, for people who were self contained and didn’t need any facilities.
So, around to the Main Weir, part of the system that diverts water from the Darling River for storage in the Menindee Lakes.
Main Weir
Had a wander around a fairly extensive free camping area near the Weir. There were several lots of campers set up; some looked like they’d been there for a while.
Picnic and camping area near Main Weir
The camping area did have toilets, unlike the lake side clearings that we’d visited earlier, but seemed rather bare and dusty.
Pamamaroo Creek near the weir
According to display signs, the ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition, in its early stages, had set up a base camp here, for three months, over summer.
Obviously, this was before the Weir and irrigation system were set up, but presumably the original Pamamaroo Creek must have been a pleasant enough place.
Ate our packed lunch there. Gave dog a good run where there were no people to be upset by her.
After a couple of hours at the Weir area, drove towards Menindee, stopping to look at the Menindee Caravan Park. By the shore of Menindee Lake, we did not think it nearly as attractive as Copi Hollow.
In the dry, dusty, not very attractive Menindee township, I collected some material from the Information Centre. Had a discussion with a couple of people there about the conditions of the two routes from here to Wilcannia – one each side of the Darling River.
Darling River at Menindee
Bought some supplies at the supermarket, cruised around looking at the town.
Drove to look at the railway bridge over the Darling. Built in 1927, it was part of the railway connecting Sydney and Broken Hill, now the main east-west line. The bridge had a sort of hinged opening section in the centre, that could be lifted up by a type of crane arrangement, now dismantled. This allowed the passage of paddle steamers up the Darling to Wilcannia and beyond. That river traffic no longer exists, of course. For about fifty years, this bridge was also the road crossing of the river, trains and vehicles sharing it. Now, the road bridge is some distance downstream, at the other end of town.
Railway bridge across the Darling at Menindee, showing part of old lifting mechanism
Left the town and followed the road around the curve of Menindee Lake, some 20kms to the little settlement called Sunset Strip.
As the name suggests, this is a narrow section of houses by the lake. It was a mix of pretty basic, not very attractive holiday houses, through to some quite pleasant ones, possibly the homes of the permanent dwellers. When the Lake had water in it, I could see the attraction as a holiday place for people of the area, or even as a permanent home for retirees and the like. But, when the Lake dried up – not so nice, just dry sand and dust.
Menindee Lake at Sunset Strip
Like at Copi Hollow, sunsets across the Lake could be spectacular – hence the name.
We parked and wandered about on the little “beach” and dog had a run and explore. The breeze was making little wavelets at the water’s edge that she was none too sure about. This was one very cautious dog.
Oops – they are chasing me…..
Back at camp, John got under Bus and reconnected the drain system.
We decanted a ten litre cask of water into our fresh water tank. The gauge indicated it was getting low-ish. Did not want to risk not having enough water and damaging the hot water service or pump. If it was up to me, I’d have used lake water boiled on stove to do the dishes, and left the hot water turned off, but John didn’t want to do it that way.
The caravan park was getting much busier as people arrived for the weekend – mostly into the permanent structures.
I made tea of frozen battered fish, with French fries.
It was so quiet out here. I slept really well and, despite the previous early night, didn’t wake up until 8am.
During the morning, the wind got up and it was quite gusty through the day.
We spent the morning relaxing, reading, computing.
Lawned lakefront reserve at Copi Hollow
After an early lunch, John tackled the grey water problem. He’d packed a small heat gun, in case of needing to work on the hot water service again, so he used this to soften, then remove without damaging it, a section of the drain hose under the bus. He then poked a piece of small diameter pipe up the opening – and liquid began pouring out! He had been smart enough not to be directly under the pipe he was working on……..
It drained for ages and was a bit smelly, but nowhere near as bad as I’d anticipated. There must have been over fifty litres in there.
The pipe was left open, and draining, to be repaired tomorrow.
It was all not as hard, nor as nasty, as John had feared. Now he knew what to do, this was something else that could be fixed if it happened again.
He thought the problem might be related to the fact that there were a number of right-angled joins in the drain system, rather than one smooth curve. I would try to lessen fats and larger food particles from going down the sink hole. To that end, I made up three small, square flat strainers, from my wire mesh. One can be slapped over the sink outlet as soon as the plug is pulled out, so wash up water will filter through it. The actual plug hole was really small and I couldn’t find, back in the hardware store, a ready made strainer small enough to fit inside it, hence my home grown solution.
After that success, took Couey for a walk along the levee, again.
Welcome to Redfern???
On the way, we noticed a back section of the park dwellings that seemed a bit divided from the rest. I wasn’t sure if it was an exclusive little enclave, or what, but there was a sign in front of it saying “Welcome to Redfern”. Hmmm……A joke in poor taste?
The wind had dropped a bit by evening and there was another great sunset.
This Adventurous Age 