Trip 09 - Grawin

WORDS BY: Fina
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

We arrived at Grawin on Sunday 25 May 2008 after travelling through the towns of Come-By-Chance, Walgett and then Cumborah.

Grawin is an opal mining town - if you can call it a town! Lots of galvanised iron and tin sheds here - very primitive living. Some have electricity, some have solar panels and some just operate by candle or torch. I think our camper is more of a home than some of these tin shacks.

The days we spent at Grawin were mainly opal fossicking on the mullock heaps. This means lots of back breaking work either standing up and digging and scraping or sitting on the rocks digging and scraping. Mullock heaps are left overs from the mining claims where big dump trucks dump the left overs in heaps. One story goes that a lady found an opal, sold it to one of the locals for $2,000 and then he consequently sold it to someone else for $40,000. Not sure how true the story is! Even if you spent a life time here, you would still not get through the mounds of mullock heaps.

We found lots of potch opal which ranges from a light blue to a deep blue glassy stone without all the pretty sparkly bits through it. Not worth anything but still very pretty. The stuff you are looking for sparkles in the sun light with all different colours. The best one to find is a black opal with red sparkly bits in it. Apparantly worth a fortune. However, we have only found little bits of the sparkly bits and nothing worth cutting. Hopefully, we will find a descent piece of opal during our stay here. Not sure how long through, possibly a week or so.

The free camping spot is right next to the mullock heaps. Nothing here but bush camping at its best - no power, no toilets, no showers, no water. Nothing but corrugated dirt roads. Don even dug our first bush camping toilet. Now all he has to do is use it!

On Thursday, after 4 days of fossicking, I was over the digging and scraping and only getting bits of sparkle. So for the next 3 days, I spring cleaned the camper and cooked donuts and picklets for morning tea. Don, however, continued on fossicking for 7 days from dawn till dusk. In the end we collected a coffee jar full of sparkly bits.

Our friends, Ruth and Joe, whom we met at Burren Junction, joined us on Thursday for a couple of days. If you remember, Ruth was the one that shaved Don's hair and tinted mine.

Also, on Thursday afternoon, a mother and son arrived who were travelling in a Troopy from Weipa, Queensland to Perth, Western Australia. Yvonne and Tony are lovely people and we enjoyed the couple of days spent together.

During Friday, while the others continued on with their fossicking, I cleaned the bucketful of rock that Don and I had collected so far only to get half a coffee jar of good bits of opal. This task took up most of my day scraping, cutting and snipping the rock to get out the sparkly bits. I even ended up with blisters from the hammer and snipers.

That night was our first night of having a fire and we shared the fire with our new neighbours. Ruth made a beer damper which Joe was very upset with because she used his last can of beer!

Unfortunately, Don didn't sleep well Friday night as he woke up several times with a tooth ache so at some stage we may need to take a trip to the dentist. That is, if the drugs don't end up working!

On Saturday, our neighbours decided to stay another night and so did we. It is absolutely great camping here in the bush with no-one else in sight. No noise, bright stars and most of all, no generator noise. The nights are pitch black and the stars have a brillance I have not seen anywhere else. You get to see all of the milky way not just bits and pieces of it.

On Sunday 1 June 2008, we have officially been on the road for 2 months having left Brisbane on Monday 1 April 2008. As a milestone, we decided to leave Grawin and head to Lightning Ridge for possibly more opal fossicking and site seeing. Our friends, Ruth and Joe, Yvonne and Tony, were both heading in the opposite direction towards Bourke with a possible stop at Brewarrina.

Hope you are all enjoying our stories and website. Please leave us comments if you wish.

Don't forget to check our "more photos".

Trip 08 - Pilliga

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

We decided to leave Baan Baa on Saturday and head back out further west of NSW. However, because of our big night at Baan Baa pub the night before, the drive was broken up with a stop for the night at Pilliga Bore. Again we stayed off the black tar by driving to Pilliga via Yarrie Lake and Cuttabri.

The picture of Yarrie Lake in the Camps Australia Wide book is lovely and shows water. However, when we arrive at Yarrie Lake a local told us that the lake has now been dry for over 2 years which unfortunately is now a hole in the ground with overgrown weeds and completely dry. Funny to see the fishing and boating signs still next to the lake.

The bore at Pilliga is a lot smaller than Burren Junction and runs about 5 degrees cooler however still nice for a soak and a free camp spot. The bore pool is undercover which creates more algae and slippery than Burren Junction.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we head to Grawin, where we hope to make our millions opal fossicking - yeh right!

Don't forget to check out "more photos".

Trip 07 - Baan Baa

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

Well the question from our last story, was did we turn left towards Lightening Ridge or right towards Mt Kaputar? Well, we actually turned right but we didn't end up at Mt Kaputar. Instead we ended up at a little country town called Baan Baa where we were going to celebrate George's birthday at the only commercial building in the town, a pub!

We camped behind the pub for free, had a wonderful meal at the pub, and drank and socialised with the locals. All in all the night was pleasant and enjoyable and it was good to see both Don and George happy. How old is George? Well, he actually wouldn't tell us. We still think he is Santa in disguise.

Since we only stayed one night at Baan Baa, it is only a short story this time.

Don't forget to check out "more photos"

Trip 06 - Part 2 - Burren Junction

Since Burren Junction is so nice to stay at and the other people camped here are so friendly, we decided to stay another week. With our back yard being the overflow of the bore water, sunsets here are absolutely spectacular.

Our new friend, George, who looks like Santa Clause is a wealth of knowledge of where to go and where to stay in Australia. Many times we have sat down with the map book as he talks about the best places to stay, the best fishing spots, the best pubs and the best pies in Australia.

The weather here has been fantastic with around 25 degrees during the day and cool nights. A few windy days however dipping yourself into the hot bore pool soon takes the chill out of your body. A few showers as well occured which changes the soft black soil to slippery mud. If you walk on this mud you soon become a couple of inches taller. Always wanted to know what it felt like to be taller! Around lunch time the sun dries the mud up back to the soft black soil. I was hoping that someone would drive in the mud so I could use my winch to pull them out but unfortunately no such luck. No grey nomads were game enough to drive their car into the black mud except for the local farmer, Owen, in his old 4WD ute who does it all the time.

On Wednesday 14 May 2008 we decided to head into Narrabri to visit the Telstra shop to see what we can do about the lack of reception on our phones. It so happens that being on the 3G network is not good enought in the remote areas, but changing to the NextG network gives you phone service around 90% of Australia. So after talking to redhead Brock at Telstra, I ended up staying on the same plan with a free phone. So I now have a purple phone and Don has taken my old pink phone. While in Narrabri we also bought a portable TV antenna that in the end didn't work anyway and we sold it to another camper for the same price that we paid for it.

On the way to Narrabri from Burren Junction, we passed through the small town of Wee Waa with a population of 2000 people. Driving through the back roads we came across a herd of cattle eating the grass along the roadside.

On Friday 16 May 2008 Owen took Don out to do some "sheeping" i.e. gathering the sheep, making sure they have enough feed and water, putting signs out and generally checking the property's fences. Owen's kelpie dogs work the sheep while Owen drives the ute around.

As last Friday night we attended the BBQ at the RSL club again and again meet some lovely local people.

On Saturday we went to the Wee Waa country show. Exhibits of prime cattle, wool shed, wood chopping, machinery shed, ute muster, show bags, broom making, equestrian show, rides and food were included. All in all a great day except for the storm that hit on our way home.

As wonderful as our stay at Burren Junction Bore has been, we will be leaving Friday 23 May 2008 after almost 3 free weeks of camping.

Next decision - Left for Lightening Ridge or right to Mt Kaputar?

Don't forget to check out "more photos".

Trip 06 - Part 1 - Burren Junction

WORDS BY: Fina
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

After all the pool talk about another bore bath, we left Moree on Tuesday 6 May 2008 to head south west to Burren Junction. Just as we had finished stocking up with fuel, supplies and gas we saw some huge CAT mining machinery on massive trucks.

Since I am not a great lover of the black tar we decided to head down to Gurley via the highway passing some cotton silos. We then cut in west following some dirt roads through Millie and Nowley. A couple of big double trucks were in front of us and as soon as they hit the dirt their second trailer started swaying left to right across the narrow dirt road. The dust from the trucks was so bad that we stopped for a couple of minutes before moving on. We were also creating our own cloud of dust behind us as we travelled. The countryside was so dry that we were amazed to see some water in some of the creeks and river beds. Another surprising thing was that even on these dirt back roads, the signage was extremely good as long as you knew where you going, what direction and having a GPS helps.

Burren Junction is a small town with a population of approximately 100 but just 3km out of town close to the railway line is the Burren Junction Bore Baths. The people in Moree told us we couldn't miss it because you will see all the caravans in one spot and they were right. Camping here is free and you can stay as long as you want. One guy, George, has already been here 4 months and may stay another couple of months.

We parked the camper in front of an irrigation dam for the crops around the area. The depth of this bore is 690 metres and runs at approximately 43 degrees out of the bore into the pool which cools down to approximately 37 to 40 degrees. The pool has been fenced off with shady trees and toilets and one hot bore shower.

The camping area around the pool is quite huge and apparantly gets very crowded in the winter months. The sunsets over the irrigation dam are spectacular to say the least. There are old train line sleepers beside the railway track which everyone uses as firewood. One day the wind built up a bit so we decided to put up the side awning to prevent the wind from blowing out the gas stove.

The bird life at Burren is varied and plentiful if you are into bird watching. The bore water is not suitable for drinking however the "Bucket Brigade" take buckets to the bore and use it to wash dishes. I even became part of the Bucket Brigade.

Our days from Tuesday to Friday were spent around camp and in the pool. Our camping neighbours, Gary and Jill, caught some blue claws yabbies in the runoff creek from the bore. They didn't want them so we cooked them up for Don to try. On Friday night we went down to Burren Junction's Sporting Club for an all you can eat BBQ dinner for $10 each. Australia was playing New Zealand in the football that night so we stuck around to watch the game and talk to a few locals. New Zealand ended up losing 28-12 but we still had a great meal and a good time.

On Saturday we decided to go to Cuttabri and go to their 125th celebration of Cuttabri. Again we drove the back way onto to some dirt tracks going through another small town, Pilliga. Pilliga also has a bore pool but much smaller as well as only camping room for about six caravans or camper trailers.

Cuttabri is even smaller and Don was quite amazed that the town of Cuttabri was one pub with about five houses. At their festival, there was everything old like rabbit traps, shearing scizzors, axes and old machinery run by fuel. The ladies and men were dressed in period customes arriving in old motor vehicles and horse drawn carriages. The old sheep shearing machine was run with a horse powering an axle which in turn ran the shearers tool so that the sheep could be shawn. The blacksmith was using his talent to make more rabbit traps and the wood cutters chopped most of wood that was piled up. The Cuttabri pub was full of old fashioned axes, saws and knives.

All in all the Cuttabri festival was certainly a good day out and an eye opener as to what the country people do around here in their spare time.

Another bit a local gossip picked up was that Wee Waa are having their annual show next Saturday so we are going to spend another week in Burren Junction to see the show.

More to follow next week.

Don't forget to check our "more photos".

Leave us a comment if you wish.

Trip 05 - Moree

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

Today is Thursday 1 May 2008 and we have officially been on our journey for one whole month. So to celebrate, we are leaving Copeton Waters State Park and heading off to Moree. A couple of the locals in Inverell told us how good the hot artesian thermal pools are at Moree so further west into NSW we headed. Even after Moree we might head further west to Lightening Ridge where there are more artesian thermal pools and fossicking opportunities for opal. But you know, the whole plan of our journey is that there is no plan, so who knows where we will end up after Moree.

Arriving in Moree we decided to head for the Information Centre to find out where we can bush camp with hot bore pools. Unfortunately, the private properties that used to allow campers on their property to enjoy the hot bore pools have now been closed. The best we could do is to stay at a caravan park in town with thermal pools on site for $26 per night including power and ensuite. Our other option was to camp 20km out of town and come in every day to the public thermal hot pools, pay $9 each for admission and then drive back 20km. With the way the price of fuel is I think it would have worked out cheaper or pretty much even to stay so we decided to stay the Gwydir Caravan Park.

Thursday and Friday was spent lazying around the caravan park in the thermal pools. The hot bore water comes from a bore 720 metres directly underneah the caravan park from the Great Artesian Basin and it is pumped into the pools daily as well as the pools being emptied and cleaned every week. There are four pools with different temperatures at 34, 35, 37 and 39 degrees. The pools provide arthritic relief as well as relief for general aches and pains. They are open daily from 7am to 10pm and I must say we endulged ourselves as much as we could during our stay here.

After only one dip my lower back was better (still hurting from fossicking for sapphires in Inverell) and Don's shoulder was heaps better (still hurting from his fall off the skip board).

As my mail had not yet arrived at the Moree post office and the post office only opens Monday to Friday we decided to stay on to at least Monday.

On Saturday morning after a quick dip and miggling with the other guests, we went for a drive to discover more of the outskirts of Moree. We headed out east towards Pallamallawa through various stages of the cotton fields from just picked to ready to be picked to still growing. Pallamallawa is a big name for a very small town of approximately 350 residents all of which work either on the cotton fields, the olive fields or the pecan nut fields in the surrounding area. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at one of the two corner shops there. The only other commerical building was, yes you guessed it, a pub!

After eating our hot chips in Pallamallawa we decided to head back to Moree via a dirt track which eventually took us up to one of the weirs surrounding Moree and inhabited by hundreds of goats. This would have been one of the bush places to camp out but after closer inspection I'm glad we didn't because the rubbish left here by either locals or other campers was as worse as Cape York tip rubbish. Plastic bags, toilet paper and general rubbish strewn everywhere.

Back at camp and of course, Don being Don, we met some really lovely people who were playing bocci on the lawns just outside the caravan park and they invited us to play as well. In the end the boys won but fun was definitely had by everyone. And of course, that afternoon and night we soaked ourselves in the pools again.

The stories that you gather in the pools while soaking and talking to other travellers was truely amazing. We picked up a lot of tips and someone mentioned that Moree has markets the first Sunday of each month. So on Sunday morning (without even coffee first) we headed off to the markets held in a park opposite the Information Centre. As we can't buy a lot of the crafty things (because of lack of room in the camper and desire) we ended up with free range eggs, some fruit and vegetables, and locally made croissants.

After the markets we decided more exploring of the surrounding areas of Moree was warranted. This time we drive west towards Collarenebri where we spotted some more cotton fields and dirt tracks which led us to another weir and more bush camping areas. All these bush camping areas surrounding Moree are free but as locals put it "at your own risk"! This weir however was a lot cleaner with only a bit of rubbish every now and then.

Monday came and I went to post office on opening (9am) to find that mail had arrived. However since we had to be off the site by 10am, we decided to stay another night and leave Moree on Tuesday. Our lovely neighbours, Earl and Anne, gave us Cooking Lesson 101 on how to cook fried bread. Don nearly ate the whole plate so, of course, Earl had to cook more. Earl and Anne are travelling around Australia also but in a bus that he modified. They left Sydney 4 years ago and are still travelling.

On Monday we also decided to treat ourselves and go to the Amaroo pub for lunch. There is a D3 plane at the front of the pub open for tours.

Another local tip we picked up from the pools was that there is another thermal pool located south west of Moree at Burren Junction. Camping there is free and you can stay as long as you want. This thermal pool apparantly runs at 42 degrees so it will be interesting to see how Don goes considering he couldn't handle the 39 degree one at Moree.

Don't forget to check out "more photos".

You can also comment on any of our stores.

Trip 04 - Part 2 - Copeton Waters State Park

WORDS BY: Fina
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

Wednesday 23 April 2008 at Copeton Dam was spent fishing on the edge of the lake. Unfortunately we only caught more of that Redfin fish that is meant to be a pest in NSW. So rather than try and clean tiny fish we cut them up slightly and used them as bait in our yabbie trap. As instructed by the rangers we set the yabbie trap that afternoon close to the waters edge and rocks. "You never know", he said, "you might end up with a good feed of red claw yabbies".

The next morning, on our way into Inverell, we checked the yabbie trap and yes, you guessed it, NOTHING! Into Inverell we went. Don spent some time at the local pub before going to Muscle and Minds for a massage whil I went to the Inverell Information Centre to our update our website. They were very kind there allowing me to use their power with my laptop for a couple of hours. So if you are ever in the area of Inverell make sure you drop into the Information Centre. It is well worth a visit.

Friday 25 April 2008 was Anzac Day. Rather than heading into town again we decided to go exploring around Copeton Dam to find some 4WD tracks. Both Don and I remembered the diggers this way by giving us the freedom to do our trip and how much we appreciate this lucky country we live in.

As things came about we did find a track that hadn't been used in quite a while. Actually we ended up on the wrong side of padlocked gate. So we turned around and the track eventually led us up to the Copeton Memorial which pays tribute to the grave sites of the residents of Copeton who are now resting under the dam water. Great find and later that day we told some bush walking caravanners where to find the memorial.

We decided to go into town late Saturday afternoon to watch the football game of the boys from NZ that Don met at the laundromat the other day. So again on Saturday we just spent the time at the dam fishing and basically lazing around. The local Invervell A Grade football club was playing against Uralla (another local town nearby). They ended up losing 20-10 but it was still a good game. Well actually, Don watched most of the game while I sat in the car listening to music cause it was too cold to stand outside the car. After the football and presentations we went to the Australian pub in town where the football were going to hang out for the rest of the night. A husband and wife duet was playing and the atmosphere of the pub was very country and very friendly.

After the pub closed, around 2am, we stood outside to say our goodbyes to the people we had met. Some drunk Australian decided to try and do a wee wee on my car tyre so I pushed him off gently advising him that this won't be happening. After that he decided to undo my diesel fuel jerry can caps and water jerry can caps undone. The fuel ones stayed on but the water one was missing. Well, by this stage I was very angry and telling him that if he doesn't give me the cap back that there are 3 big kiwi boys looking at him. We finally found the cap under the car and I told him in not so many words that "You shouldn't have touched the f**cking truck in the first place".

After arriving back at camp at 3am Sunday morning, we slept in until 9am and then the gale force winds started to pick up. As we were camped on top of the hill, the winds were coming up from the dam, up the mountain and to our camp where we had to secure the camper more than we normally do.

The 300 watt inverter that was installed in Caloundra under the passenger sit seemed to us be faulty. So on Monday I left Don back at camp while I headed into town to an auto electrician to see what the problem could be. As it turned out it was a faulty inverter and would only work when it felt like it. So I sent the old one back to Caloundra while the Inverell auto electrician installed a new 1000 watt inverter which cost me nearly the same price as the 300 watt one. Also my spotlights kept on shortening out so I got him to check these as well. That problem ended up being a dirty earth as well as a melted solenoid. So thanks to Byron Auto Electrician for fixing the electrical problems on the truck.

While in town I visited ARB Inverell to find out about rear air bags. The trailer sits a bit low once on the tow bar so air bags would bring it back up to level. So I booked the rear air bags installation for Wednesday.

Tuesday we woke up late but decided to head into town to see if we can do some fossicking for saphires. So into the Information Centre again and they suggested 7 Oaks Fossicking since both Don and I have never done any fossicking before. A day's hard work and in the end we ended up with half a dozen of small saphires. The owner also got his bobcat caught in some mud so my winch came out and got the bobcat out. I told him that he has to get a winch on his Troopy but then again it is a Toyoto so maybe he needs to change his 4WD altogether and get a Nissan! On our way back to camp, it was too late to cook dinner, so for the first time in almost a month, we stopped at KFC for dinner.

As I said ealier, Wednesday was ARB day for the rear air bags, laundromat and Don decided to go for another massage with Emma at Muscle and Minds. While walking the streets of Inverell (trying to pimp Don out) we ran into one of the boys again, Charlie. Since Charlie had only been in Australia a couple of days, we ended up buying Chinese for lunch and took him out to the dam to see our set up and the dam.

We then back into town to drop Charlie off. Driving back into our campsite late at night the spotlights showed a green garbage bag hanging from our awning. Inside was the biggest yellow belly fish I have ever seen. Apparantly the ranger's wife caught two that day and decided to give us one, all gutted and scaled as well. As it was too late to cook it that night and we were leaving the next day, we decided to put in the fridge for our first night at our next stop, Moree.

Don't forget to check out "more photos".