Menindee….again

So its been a few weeks since the last update!

Off the train, into the Blue Mountains and then back to Penrith for the night, get the van serviced, tyres for the car and then out of Sydney for a quick (and cold) overnight stop at Lithgow before heading back to Menindee where we did another week at the SES shed – this time camped out the back of the unit.

This week had the water level up by a couple of centimetres but interestingly the water had spread further out with the ground near the water being saturated. 5 metres away from the water could mean you were sinking into the ground. The major incident that happened was for an embankment which was holding back water that was about a metre deep by 4.5 square kilometres from heading down stream – there were a few properties in the way of the water flowing south, but the water board boys weren’t too worried about them at this point in time – they felt the water would just level itself out…

When we were done at Menindee it was an overnight stay at Broken Hill to restock before heading up the Silver City Highway. We left knowing that the roads north of Tibooburra were closed from rain the week before but were expected to open in the next day or 2. The overnight stop behind the dunes next to the dry lake (Lake Cobham) was a great evening as we were the only ones on the planet. A quick look at Milparinka to see what had changed since last year then into Tibooburra for an early lunch stop – which turned into an overnight as the roads into Queensland through the Warry Gate were expected to open late that day. Diesel at the first servo coming into town from the south – 254.9 cpl, fuel from 300 metres up the road, 226.9 cpl…

Through the gate and into Queensland, the great bitumen highway turned into dirt until Noccundra. We pulled up next to the river for the night – no one within cooee of us, 2 hours later we were surrounded!

Eromanga was the next town with an excellent tour through the dinosaur museum where were learnt all about Cooper and Zac the dinosaurs. After a quick look around town and a reminder that Eromanga claims to be both the town in Australia that is furthest from any sea, and has the only inland oil refinery (which apparently produces 1200 barrels a day).

Leaving Eromanga behind we overnighted in the bush before spending a couple of days Quilpie.

The Quilpie caravan park in town has artesian water spas – great to relax in and watch the traffic go by. The bikes came out and toured the town – finding that Quilpie is one of the few places that seems to know all about GF food with the cafe having both Cheesecake and Carmel Slice that were GF! (check out the signs on the shop wall). The Variety Bash came to town as well and spent time at the local public school as well. It certainly is a big show, all the cars 260 people, 3 tow trucks, bus and helicopter carrying medics for the “just incase” situations. One of the participants was donating a cricket set to each school visited (17 in total).