Wanda has always wanted to visit Bourke, thinking it was so far away and quintessentially ‘outback’. We crossed the Qld NSW border at Barringun, and it was a real awakening that we are on our homeward stretch. When reaching signal, our phones pinged several times (not an uncommon occurrence). NSW Parks was one of the messages, saying they had cancelled our Gundabooka booking because of adverse weather and road conditions. A stop at the Bourke Visitor Centre – for coffee, internet access, outdoor sculptures, history boards and local information – gave us time to take stock and replan. Many roads in north-western NSW were closed, making getting to our planned stays at Gundabooka and on the Macquarie Marshes inaccessible. The frain forecasts for the area were not in our favour, either. Also our Macquarie Marshes hosts, when contacted, asked us to defer our visit to protect their access road. Hard top road surfaces were going to be the order of the days. Mother Nature wanted us home!
We found accommodation in Bourke (which filled up to full as other travellers were caught out with the closures), explored the town on foot (our step count has been terrible the past few days as we lounged in hot baths and drove long distances), appreciating its turn-of-the-century grandeur and took a paddleboat trip on the Darling River, spotting birds and marvelling at the age of some of the waterside gum trees. A dinner mishap (Alistair left the burner on under the butter chicken saucepan), a game of Rummekin and a Netflix binge rounded off our time in Bourke. We fell asleep to the sound of many camp dogs barking in the distance, a few trucks rumbling past on the Kamilaroi Highway and the standard sounds of a caravan park at night.
The next day we headed eastwards, continuing our artesian spa theme and to experience a few places we have not already visited. We stopped at Brewarrina, a small town with an amazing Aboriginal fish trap construction in the Barwon River, billed as the oldest known construction in the world. We stopped for a hearty bacon and syrup pancake breakfast, explored the town (didn’t take long), smiled at the John Murray murals that decorated the town and continued our journey east.
Add comment
Comments