Silver City Highway Menindee to Tibooburra

by David Sloane | May 8, 2018 | Cameron Corner & Farina, Camping Trips, Our Travel Blog

Silver City Highway Menindee to Tibooburra

We left Menindee Lakes and headed to Tibooburra. We would have liked to stay another night or two at Menindee, we liked it a lot. Had to pull over before hitting the bitumen to put air in the tyres. First stop was in Broken Hill to get fuel then off along the Silver City Highway to Tibooburra.

The Silver City Highway

The Silver City Highway is a good bitumen road with a pretty desolate view of rocky plains and in some places sand hills all the way to Packsaddle Roadhouse. It took us a couple of hours or so to get to the Packsaddle Roadhouse and then the road changed to dirt. We pulled over to lower tyre pressures and a nice old bloke pulled over to check that we were ok and warned us off the upcoming road conditions. He mentioned corrugations and lots of bulldust holes and sandy stretches. Was nice of him to stop and give us an update. To be honest though the road wasn’t too bad. There were some stretches of absolute garbage but for the most it was ok.

There were also quite a few stretches that had been sealed fairly recently. I am guessing the sealed bits were where they were having troubles maintaining the dirt to a decent standard. Later on as we got closer to Tibooburra roos and emus by the side of the road kept us on the lookout, there was a LOT of roadkill lying about.

Packsaddle Roadhouse

Tibooburra Caravan Park

We checked in to the Tibooburra van park for a few nights. More of a bush camp than a proper van park but the showers were nice and clean and after roughing it in the outside shower tent with minimal water a nice hot shower was very welcome plus we needed to catch up on a few loads of washing. While unhooking the van I noticed that we had lost or Anderson plug from the van on the road. It had fallen out and been dragging. I had a spare so it was no big problem. We’d been having a few problems keeping the fridge cool so I had run the van with the fridge switched to DC and it must have cut over to the battery after the plug fell out so the battery was down to 12v. We spent the evening around the fire talking to some people from Newcastle.

Tibooburra Caravan Park Supreme Getaway

Yadboro Flat Free Camp

by David Sloane | Dec 10, 2017 | Bushwalking, Day Trips

Yadboro Flat Free Camp

Yadboro Flat free Camp is inland from Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast. It’s approximately 200ks from where we used to live in South West Sydney, about 3 hours driving time. From Sydney it’s about 260ks or 3hours 45 minutes driving time. There is plenty of room in there for a heap of trailers along the back fence. In addition there are plenty of spots available in the middle and along the creek.

We drove down to Yadboro Flat to have a look at the free camp. A potential spot for a NSW State Muster with the Mars Enthusiasts Facebook Group.

Free Camping At Yadboro Flat

Being a free camp I can see this place getting absolutely packed out at peak times such as Christmas and Easter. However the good new is it’s a free camping area and dogs are allowed.

Yadboro Flat Heaps of Room Along Back Fence

The road in is a bit rough but we could get the van in there no problem at all so long as it was dry. Motorhomes and normal onroad vans need not apply. It would be a lot more difficult if not impossible in the wet. It’s 20ks of typical state forest logging trail with a few corrugated stretches and washed out bits either side of timber bridges. If you’re careful getting off and on to the bridges they pose no problem. Hit one at speed and you’ll be calling for a tow truck.

Yadboro Flat Road In

Facilities are limited. There are a couple of composting toilets and that’s it. Make sure you bring your own drinking water as none is provided. Fires are allowed but I am guessing they’d only be permitted at certain times of the year.

Yadboro Flat Composting Toilets

For the self contained camper suitably equipped to get in to Yadboro Flat it’s a great free camping spot. We will come back and camp here for sure, most likely during the winter months when I anticipate it being a lot quieter.

We Drive From Moree To Lightning Ridge Via Walgett

by David Sloane | Apr 10, 2016 | Our Travel Blog, Silverton & Lightning Ridge

We Drive From Moree To Lightning Ridge Via Walgett

We drive to Lightning Ridge via Moree and Walgett. Moree looked like a much nicer town than I had imagined it would be. We saw cotton plantations and huge bales of cotton in some paddocks, the paddocks and scale of everything out here is completely enormous.

Paddocks Stretch To The Horizon

Pack up was easy as we had no annexe to deal with today. Drove to Lightning Ridge via Moree and Walgett. Moree looked like a much nicer town than I had imagined it would be. We were very surprised, it goes to show that you should go and have a look at these places yourselves and not just listen to the rubbish people say about them. We saw cotton plantations and huge bales of cotton in some paddocks, the paddocks and scale of everything out here is completely enormous.

Welcome To Lightning Ridge

Paddocks stretch to the horizon. We saw emus on the side of the road when we got nearer to Lightning Ridge, neither Amanda or myself have ever seen emus in the wild before. They are massive birds, bigger than they seem to be in zoos. We arrived at Lightning Ridge and set up camp at the Black Opal caravan park. It’s unusual in that the surface of the entire park is some kind of pea gravel that is compacted so hard that the office lend you a huge hammer drill so you can drill holes for your pegs.

MARS Extremo Set Up @ The Opal Caravan Park Lightning Ridge

The camp has a couple of comedian/bush poets called Mel and Susie doing evening shows so we went and watched. They are both awesome. They are a couple of ladies who travel the country doing shows out of their travel bus. They are excellent > http://www.melandsusieontour.com.au/.

Mel and Susie

If you’re looking for ideas of things to do in Lightning Ridge thene check out this post 33 Things To Do In Lightning Ridge That We Enjoyed

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Gunyah Deepwater River Camping Near Glen Innes

by David Sloane | Apr 7, 2016 | Our Travel Blog, Silverton & Lightning Ridge

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping Near Glen Innes

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping is an old property just out of the town of Deepwater near the northern NSW town of Deepwater. You can camp on the property. Deepwater is about 50 km north of Glen Innes. What a place!

Gunyah Its An Old Property Just Out Of The Town Of Deepwater

Captain Thunderbolt Bushranger Grave

We drove to Deepwater and set up camp. On the way we stopped off and visited Captain Thunderbolts grave. When getting out to the grave I had a moment with the trailer, banged the drawbar on the road going through a dip and smashed the Anderson Plug lead.

Captain Thunderbolts Grave

Gunyah Deepwater River Camping

We camped at Gunyah Deepwater River Camping – it’s an old property just out of the town of Deepwater. Deepwater is about 50 km north of Glen Innes. What a fantastic place. It’s bush camping and we had our pick of spots along about 2km of river frontage. We managed to get everything set up without too much arguing this time but according to Amanda I still picked a rubbish spot. It was about thirty feet from the one she picked out. We wouldn’t have been able to get the jockey wheel lowered in her spot without digging a hole but mine was still the rubbish one!

Set Up At Gunyah Near Deepwater NSW

Dinner Over The Fire

After getting set up we headed into town to get some lunch. The only thing we could get was chicko rolls and chips from the diner. It was after two in the afternoon so everywhere else was out of food or closed. It’s the way it is in the country so no complaints from us. On the way back we collected some firewood. We cooked dinner over an open fire – rissoles Amanda had made and they were delicious.

Cooking Dinner At Gunyah Station

Uno Dummy Spit

As we often do we played a game of Uno and Amanda had a massive dummy spit and threw chips and cards everywhere. We listened to the local radio station 2T something and it was a good fun night.

Another UNO Dummy Spit

Werris Creek Railway Museum & Terminus Hotel Quirindi

by David Sloane | Apr 6, 2016 | Our Travel Blog, Silverton & Lightning Ridge

Werris Creek Railway Museum & Terminus Hotel Quirindi

Went to Werris Creek and checked out the railway museum. Werris Creek was a pretty big railway town back in its day. Loads to see. The railway museum was really good.

Werris Creek Railway Museum

There was a lot of memorabilia from around the area. We found that the thing we have on our back deck table, the little red lantern is actually a level crossing gate lantern. Werris Creek railway museum is put together and run by local community volunteers and they do a great job of it. I’m guessing that a lot of them worked on the railway back in the day. We spoke for a while to a lady about the old telephone switchboard they had on display and she was actually one of the operators from back in the day so she knew all about it.

Werris Creek Railway Museum Level Crossing Lantern

Terminus Hotel

After Werris Creek we drove to Quirindi and had lunch at of all places the “Terminus Hotel”. We kept an eye out for walkers at all times and avoided ordering the pork. We love you Bob. The lunch we had was really nice. Hamburgers as usual!

Terminus Hotel Quirindi

Lunch At The Terminus Hotel Quirindi NSW

Quirindi – A Nice Old Town

After lunch we went for a bit of a walk around Quirindi. It’s a nice old town. A lot of the old original shopfront architecture has been preserved. Quirindi has got all of the usual things you’d expect in a country town. I could see myself living in a place like this.

Qurindi Main Street

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