On the road again, and this time it is our biggest stretch so far in our travels. We have kept the travelling time down between stops, to 4 hours.   This trip from point to point is 500km.   White Cliffs back to Wilcannia, fuel up, then on to Bourke, via Cobar.

Again the long, long straights greet us with many long shimmers.   They stretch out in front of us with some small little hills and down again.   One stretch in particular looked amazing.    Long and straight, up hill and down dale for as far as the eye could see.   We clocked it at 50km long before Bill had to move the steering wheel, ever so slightly to the left, for an almost missable kink in the road.   I wasn't bored, I was catching up on my blogs, and Bill had a little nap whilst the Jeep was on cruise control.   Nah!   Just kidding!  

We stopped at a rest area which had toilets, and goats!   Half a dozen goats hanging out at the toilets, licking the water dripping from the eco water tank.   Mama goat, with her big horns, looked pregnant and was hogging all the drips from the pipe.   Any time she moved and a kid took her place she would turn around and butt it out, sitting the poor little kid on his bum.   I took out one of my full water bottles and fed the kids, much like you feed milk to a lamb.   Feral goats still need a bit of kindness, and water!

More long straights, big shimmers in the road!   Damn, that one was water!   Nah!   Only kidding! No water out here, although there must be some moisture somewhere as the roadside does have pretty green looking bushes, which affords shade and fodder for the 'roos and goats!

The caravan park is 5km north of Bourke and a veritable oasis of green grass, rose bushes, massive trees of all descriptions and some fruiting olive trees.   Managed by a very cool kiwi husband and wife team, for 6 months of the year, after which they head back to QLD for some cooler heat in the summer.   We had some long and very interesting chats over the next few days.   Really nice, interesting people who have been in Oz since the early 80's.

It had been a long trip and after setting up we figured the bar should be open, and relaxed for an hour or so until Bill cooked up delicious lamb chops for dinner.

23/4/2016 Saturday

Early rise and shine on Saturday, a walk for me first thing and then off to the Back o’ Bourke exhibition centre just down the road.   This is a great showcase of the discovery and history of Bourke and its surrounds, with separate exhibition halls connected by water (the Darling River) and well planted grounds depicting the true outback settings.    Definitely well worth seeing and as there is so much to take in, with interactive spots here and there, the entry fee covers 2 days so you can go back at your leisure.   Which is what we did.

From here we went to the lock and weir, built in 1897, one of so many locks on the Murray/Darling Rivers, which helps to control the height of the rivers, much to the detriment of river red gums along their banks, which always relied on flooding for growth.   They just die!   But the levels and flooding did need control.

This lock has a special fish race built parallel to the bank which allows fish to swim up or down stream, thereby ensuring the continuation of the native species.  

There is huge irrigation channel here, where the water is pumped out of the Darling and wanders its way through properties and their irrigation channels.   Many irrigation hoses can be seen lying over the channel walls where the water is syphoned out of the channel and flood irrigates the land.   Very interesting this whole area.

Back into town and a visit to a replica of the wharves that were once the lifeline to this town.    There were three massive wharves here, built in 1898, each with a steam crane used for loading wool bales into the paddle steamers and unloading supplies.   Hard to believe, but Bourke was the biggest wool port in the world at that time.

The first Shearers Union branch was established here and the first shearing by machine shear happened here at Dunlop Station.   Severe drought, interspersed with major floods had a big effect on the region and the sheep industry.   Cotton became a major crop around 1966 and a second gin was built in the early 90’s.

Back to camp for lunch and a relax before heading east 50km to Mt Oxley, a stand-alone table mountain in the middle of these massive plains.   We wanted to see the sunset from this, the only high point for miles.   We paid a small fee at the visitor centre, got a combination lock code, which allowed us through the farm gates, as Mt Oxley is on a privately owned sheep station.

The road was a dirt track and pretty well maintained, with the main summit road being sealed.   It may; have been sealed but the pot holes went half way through to China!   These pot holes, on the bank side of the road, were created, I reckon, by drivers who wanted to keep well away from the other side of the road, which was an unguarded sheer drop down into the valley.   A great, fun drive in the daylight, it was really an amazing site coming down in the almost dark, with our powerful LED lights on!

Anyway, up at the top we drove around various tracks and found the craters and weird rocks which we were told about.    This mountain holds a mystery of exploding, booming noises, from time to time, first written about by explorer Sturt in 1828 and future explorers in 1846 and later.   Apparently these noises continue today, with no scientific explanation.   Seems no one has been up there when the sounds are heard!   Many have offered up theories but I think the best explanation is that, after an exceedingly hot day, just after sun down, the rocks explode as they go through a rapid cooling down.   The evidence is in the various peculiar-crater-shaped, conical depressions in the ground, which are only on the summit.   I could see so many of the rocks were split numerous times.  Even big rocks were split, with a centrimetre or more gap between the pieces. Sounds logical to me, but ……

Anyhow, we waited for sunset and it was pretty damned impressive, as was the continuing red, dustiness of the night sky as we headed back down the mountain.   This was an amazing experience that we wouldn't have missed for quids!