Trip 15 - Yowah

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

On Thursday 26 June 2008, we packed up at the Weir to head out to Yowah via Eulo.

Eulo, with a population of 90, is a delightful green haven for travellers. This small town was developed as it is situated on a good watering hole on the stock route and is set amidst the mulga. We devoured an ice-cream while waiting for Andy from the one general store in town that has everything from grocerries to camping gear to fuel to car spares. There is also a pub a few doors down the road. On route from Eulo to Yowah, we stopped at the Artesian mud springs but unfortunately did not find any water or mud bubbling up from the centre of the earth. Better luck next time!

Onto Yowah which has a population of 175, where the home of the Yowah Opal Nut and the Ironstone Matrix Opal exist, an opal type to be found only in this part of Queensland. So far, it is the only town in Australia we have discovered without a pub! No pub, no police, no church and no cementry. Opal was first discovered here towards the end of the 19th century and production still continues. The boys hope that their luck may change and find some opal here fossicking around the camp ground and fossicking areas.

We didn't follow the black tar on this leg of the trip but decided to take the 25km dirt road track into Yowah. Unfortunately the map above does not show this track but it shortened the trip by approximatly 40km. With a few dips. crests and mud holes we arrived safely in Yowah with the cars a lot dirtier.

In Yowah, there is one caravan park and a free (independent) camp site. The caravan park managers also run the one general store which again has everything like the Eulo store. However, there is no difference from the caravan park to the free camping apart from powered sites and having to pay $20 per night. It has the same red bull dust dirt, same trees but less space to camp in. So we saved ourselves a few dollars by staying at the free camping with ample camping grounds and also flush toilets and hot showers.

The boys already started fossicking while setting up camp so we may be here longer than expected. The fossicking bug continues!

As the boys went off to collect firewood, I went searching for some smokes (should have bought them back at Eulo) only to find that the general store is only opened from 8am - 10am every morning. So I pressed the after hours button to find a grumpy lady that wasn't impressed that I had woken her up. I eventually got my smokes including 4 pieces of frozen pork chops for dinner in the camp oven.

The days have been beautiful with around 25 to 27 degrees however the more we head west the colder the nights seem to get. We have been searching in every town that we have stayed in or passed by for a portable gas heater since Inverell, with no luck so far. Finally, one of the other free campers had one that they were willing to sell for the original purchase price since it had only been used once. They will purchase another one when they head home to Dubbo in a week or so. It works wonderfully and takes the cold edge away from inside the camper - definitely a lot warmer!

We have met a couple of real Aussie campers as well. Mark, who suffers from cronic back pain, is travelling around Australia with his 2 dogs, Sally the big black one and Harry the blue heeler pup (from the movie "When Harry met Sally"), and living out of his very basic 1987 Toyoto Landcruiser. His pain causes him to remain somewhat of a hermit and normally does not like socialising however, one night after a few glasses of red wine he joined us at our fire and we enjoyed his company and his yarn telling.

Another Aussie, Len, was in the French Foreign Legion for a time. He is a part time magician and taught me a number of magic tricks which I will show you next time I see you.

On Friday the boys went fossicking AGAIN and I took the 160km round trip to Eulo to pick up supplies and grog.

On Saturday, Len took us out to 4 Mile Camp. This camp has been standing at a stand still for approximately 10 years. It still has all the machinery around the camp, eggs on the fridge, mattresses everywhere, and the water tank still fills up with rain water. It was a very interesting place and it was great to hear the history of the place.

Every 2 weeks during the winter period, the local RSL club put on a BBQ. For $10 each, you receive a big lump of raw rump steak on your plate which you then take over to the wood BBQs and cook it yourself. At first I thought this was a bit primitive but after chatting with both locals and tourists around the BBQs and cooking the meat to your desire, I thought this was a great idea. Once you have cooked your meat, you then head down to the counter to have a pile of mashed potatoes and mixed veges placed on your plate. I was so full afterwards, I swore I wouldn't eat for a week. But alas, out comes the apple crumble with ice cream as well. Thanks to the organisers - the meal was absolutely delicious.

The entertainment for the night was a bunch of old CDs played through a house stereo. At one stage I was singing and dancing with a local who happen to mention that I had a good voice. Well, I then proceeded to tell him that I do sing and he said "Well, what are you waiting for?". So I grabbed the only backing track CD I bought with me and sang about 4 Dixie Chick's songs up on the stage.

A few raffles were also held that night with the last raffle prize being a voucher for a $100 opal. Gwen, one of the local miners in Yowah, won the raffle and in her ever so sweet way handed me the prize and said that I would appreciate it more and deserve it more that she ever could. Again, thanks Gwen for your wonderful generosity. All in all, it was a great night, socialising, dancing and singing with the locals and tourists.

Each year at the end of July Yowah holds their opal festival and everyone was asking whether we would still be here for that. Unfortunatly, we won't be in Yowah as I would like to be in Innamincka by the 9 July to meet up with some ExplorOz people.

Don's favourite saying lately is "Every day is Saturday except for Sunday which is rest day" so Sunday was our rest day except for the afternoon when Yowah have their opal markets on from 1pm to 3pm. I tried to look at all the $100 value opals to see what I would be getting but there are so many to choose from that I will have to go the shop and make up my mind tomorrow. I should have worn a hat to the markets, for as I said, the days are quite hot, and by the time I got back to camp, I was dehydrated and dizzy.

On Monday, the boys went fossicking AGAIN! I am so over the fossicking bit - I just want the colour. So I stayed back at camp and updated this website. Hope you are enjoying it.

We will probably leave Yowah on Wednesday for Thargomindah and then onto Innamincka.

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Trip 14 - Cunnamulla

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

On Tuesday 24 June2008 we left Bourke for ??? - well we had 3 choices. First choice was west to Wannaring, second choice north west to Hungerford and third choice was north to Cunnamulla. We met up with another 4WD enthusiast at the Bourke caravan park by the name of Andy, who drives a Toyoto Landcruiser 1986 short wheel base (can't really hold that against him)! He wanted to head into Innamincka and Cameron's Corner which is exactly where we were headed but he didn't want to do the trip alone. So he asked us if he could tag-a-long with us for while. He seems like a nice enough bloke so we decided, why not? That made our decision to travel north back into Queensland to Cunnamulla very easy. Andy is also into fossicking as is Don, so the planned trip was a stop in Cunnamulla and then onto Yowah for more opal fossicking.

On our way we stopped at Barringun which is right on the Queensland / New South Wales border. Lunch at the Tucker Box Tavern was pleasant even though we had to sit beside a hog's head on the wall wearing a policeman's shirt. Is this where the name "Pig" for policeman started?

A "Welcome to Queensland" sign indicated both a change in the weather to warmer and greener views across the highway.

Cunnamulla - where the handshake's stronger and the smile lasts longer! Cunnamulla is a name I'm sure most of you have heard of and it conjures up nostalgic images of stockmen, shearing and days when everyone had time for a yarn. In the town centre is a bronze statue of the "Cunnamulla Fella" sitting on his swag enjoying the moment.

In Cunnamulla we stopped at the Information Centre to find out if there was any free camping and there was situated at the Cunnamulla Weir approximately 5kms out of town - perfect! A tranquil setting on the banks of the Warrego River where you can fish for yellowbelly or Murray code. The river water was running through the weir wall and it sounded like being on a beach again with the waves crushing up against the sands.

That night at the Weir, after setting up approximately 5 metres from the banks of the Warrego River and collecting firewoord, we stayed up till after 11pm chatting with Andy.

On Wednesday, the boys went into town to buy silicone since ours had dried up. We used the silicone to seal the holes in our firewall and Andy's firewall for the mobile phone aerials.

I had already tried to do some fishing on the banks of the river with bread but I wasn't getting any bites so they also bought a tub of live worms. That afternoon we all did a spot of fishing but only caught carp, an introduced species that is a pest in NSW waters.

See you in Yowah!

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Trip 13 - Bourke

WORDS BY: Fina
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don
As we arrived in Bourke, a smallest town which serves as the gateway to the Outback, we headed out to May's Bend, another free camp site approximately 10kms out of Bourke. However, this camp site is also situated on black soil and since it has rain at sometime or another where ever we have camped, we decided to give the black soil a miss and head into a caravan park. Plus with loads of washing to do, water tanks that needed refilling and batteries that could do with a 240 volt charge, a caravan park seemed the best choice.


With 2 caravans parks in Bourke, both owned by the same person, we decided on Kidman Camp which is situated 7kms out of town. This caravan park has more space than most and you don't feel like a sardine in a can.


One of the days we spent here was driving around the hundreds of acres of black soil trying to find good 4WD tracks. We found some but nothing to get the adrenalin rushing.


Heading into Bourke town one day to pick up some supplies, we ran into our first NSW breatherliser testing. Instead of blowing in the tube all you have to do is count up to ten in front of the valve and that registers whether or not you are drunk. Very nifty, haven't seen anything like that before and the cop wasn't bad looking either, for a white man!


Again, another short trip so another short trip report. Hope you are all enjoying the website and don't forget to call us every now and then.


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Trip 12 - Brewarrina

WORDS BY: Fina
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

On Monday 16 June 2008 we left Lorne Station, Lightning Ridge to Brewarrina for some free camping beside the Barwon river. Once again, we decided to go the back way on the dirt roads through Goodoonga.

Brewarrina is nestled on the banks of the Barwon and Darling Rivers and is known as the 'Fishing Capital of the West'. The earliest Aboriginal tribes built an elaborate network of rock weirs and pools stretching for half a kilometre along the river to catch fish swimming upstrea. Estimated to be at least 40,000 years old, the Brewarrina Fish Traps still survive today as one of the oldest man-made structures on earth.

Our four days at Brewarrina were spent at Four Mile Campground approximately 6km out of town. A free camp site right next to the Barwon River. Our days were spent trying to catch fish and yabbies until a local told us that for some reason or another, the fish are not on the bite.

So our days were lazing around. We were camped 4 metres from the river with beautiful sunsets. Our only predicament was that we had camped on the black soil under gum trees. I know, I know, stupid move and we knew this once we were packing up. The black soil had turned to muck from the previous day's rain and the constant heavy morning dew. The gum trees continued to ooze out sap onto our camper and the birds in the trees - well you know what they were doing! But we managed to get out fine with low gear and lockers, the car and trailer made it up the hill out of the wet black soil. Definitely a beautiful place to stay and relax but just watch the weather otherwise you could be stuck there for days waiting for black soil to dry.

However we did meet a couple of guys travelling together but independently in separate vans. Timbo was in a wheel chair, a parapelgic from a motor bike accident. His van was completly set up for him and the wheel chair and we were quite impressed that he was travelling alone. Rolly is an ex Canadian who has spent the last 30 years in Australia. Both come from Tasmania and we promised to look them up whenever we get to Tassie.

As we were heading out of Brewarrina, the classic air filter rattle started again. This time two bolts had completely snapped off the cast iron filter box so repairs at the local service station were in order. Once done we were on our way to our next destination, Bourke.

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Trip 11 - Lorne Station, Lightning Ridge

WORDS BY: Fina
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

Since we had already visited Lorne Station last week to visit Dot, we decided to leave the council run caravan park on Sunday 8 June 2008 and stay out at Lorne Station for a few days before heading further westward.


Lorne Station is situated 5kms out of town on 10,000 acres. It offers a variety of accommodation to suit everyone's budget and needs. A powered site with water and hot showers is $18 per night however with more of a bush setting atmosphere than the caravan parks in town.


Dot took us for a walk around the property to a dam and specking area. We put a couple of opera house yabbie traps in and have been getting a good feed of yabbies every day since then.






The managers of the property, Allan and Keith, put a country show on Sunday night wth Allan singing and playing the electric guitar and Keith singing and playing the aquostic guitar. It was a very enjoyable evening around the communal camp fire listening to old and new country songs. Not much light so sorry about the dark photos.


This working cattle station was inherited by Peter from his father. There is still loads of scrap metal, old machinery, old trucks and old cars hanging around the property. There is also an art gallery on the property which has very interesting and unique art displayed.




The station also used to be an opal mine however no mining has happened here in years. Instead, there are mounds of left overs which Don has slowing been going through trying to find that elusive opal.


Our days at Lorne Station were spent talking to people, fossicking the heaps and generally lazying around.



On Friday night, Bob, with his dogs, Bundy the kelpie and Holly who is 17 years old, invited us over for dinner for porcupine rissoles. Tony and Dot joined us as well and we had a very enjoyable evening watching Bundy chase Bob's new pet, the lizard.




Since Sunday 15 June 2008 was my 45th birthday, Tony and Dot invited us over for a camp oven baked dinner. Again a big thank you to Tony, Dot and Bob for making us feel like we belonged somewhere. It was great meeting you guys and we will return one day.





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Trip 10 - Lightning Ridge

WORDS BY: Fina

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Don

As per Ruth's suggestion, we arrived at the Lightning Ridge Caravan Park which is a council run caravan park and the cheapest in town. Pay 6 nights and get the 7th night free - 1 week for $96. As much as I loave caravan parks and prefer bush camping, it does give us the opportunity to do some supply shopping, catch up with the laundry and fill up the water tanks. The park is also central to everything in and around Lightning Ridge and walking distance to most shops, including the abundance of opal jewellery stores.

Lightning Ridge is the home of Australia's national gemstone and one of the few places in the world where the legendary Black Opal is found. A quirky mix of miners and tourists, Lightning ridge draws people from all over the world, especially ones who are hiding from ex-wives or the govenment, hince the question mark population sign.

On Monday it started to rain in Lightning Ridge. A local told us that it hasn't rained here since December. Seems like the rain is definitely following us on our travels. No matter where we have been so far, at some stage during our stay there it has always rain either 1 or 2 days.

The afternoon was spent driving around town as well as doing a couple of the self drive tours. The people of Lightning Ridge are well known for their ingenuity and creative solutions and nothing reflects these qualities better than the aptly named Car Door Tours! These quirky journeys are Lightning Ridge's answer to 'self drive' tours and are a great way to start your visit to The Ridge. Four tours are demarcated by colour coded and numbered car doors. Strung in trees and leaning in easily seen places, the car doors will lead you to some of the Ridge's greatest attractions. There are 4 in all - red, blue, green and yellow door tours which take you through the mining community's camps, mine shafts and tourist attractions. On this day we drove the red and green door tours.

The red door tour leads you to tourist attractions of Amigo's Castle and Astronomers' Monument. Amigo's Castle is a private home single-handedly built of ironstone. Started in 1981 and inspired by Roman ruins in northern Italy, near Amigo's birthplace. The scaffolding consisted of 44 gallon drums, with planks arranged one above the other. Underground there are trap doors, dungeons and tunnels incorporated as part of Amigo's mine. Entry to this site is only through one of the many mini bus tours so we gave it a miss.

The Astronomers' Monument is a curious concrete folly. It has a temple of inscriptions in memory of famous astronomers. There is no entry to this site but you can take photos of the monument from the road.

The green door tour specifically stated "dry weather only" and since it had been raining that morning, we thought the green door tour would be our next 4WD adventure. Unfortunately, we made it to the end of the tour without even engaging 4WD but it did lead us to the 1st mine shaft ever dug back in 1885.

On Tuesday, there was more rain in store for Lightning Ridge and surrounding areas. I noticed on the news last night that Brisbane, especially the Sunshine Coast, were really coping it with flooded roads and shopping centre carparks. Even Ann Street in Brisbane city was inpassable as it too was under water. I just hope that all our family and friends back in Brisbane are staying high and dry.

Tuesday morning was spent lazying around the camp site. The other tourists, who are in caravans, kept asking us if we were OK and dry. They seem to think that because the camper is mostly canvas that were wet inside. But in true style, the inside of the camper remained cozy and dry. Having picked up our mail yesterday from Lightning Ridge post office, during the rain we caught up on some reading, bill paying, website updates and generally played card games, watched DVD movies, played computer games, etc. A very relaxing morning all in all.

In the afternoon, we went to the Lightning Ridge artesian spa pool. This bore water comes from 1km underground and runs between 40 to 45 degrees. Quite a bit hotter than Burren Junction but still very nice for a soak. We continued on our car door tour by following the yellow door tour. This tour takes you to the Big Opal where you pay $15 each for a video, opal explanation and underground mine tour. There are 113 spiral steps to go down. That was the easy part! Climbing back up the 113 sprial steps was the hard part!

The next attraction on the yellow door tour is the Chamber of the Black Hand. The entry fee for this attraction is $25 each. On the first underground level you can see some spectacular sculptures and carvings in the sandstone walls as well as an underground coffee lounge and opal shop. I even bought a ring here and reduced him down from $195 to $140. I later got it valued by an independent valuer which said I did get a good deal. The sand sculptures range from Superman and Spiderman to the Golden Logie to the Statue of David. You are then guided down to the second level underground which takes you to a 105 year old mine with opal colours in the walls.

The yellow door tour continues on to Lunatic Hill and lookout which is an open cut mine. In 1986 an opal valued at $2.5 million named Halley's Comet was found here. Wouldn't it be nice to find another one like that again! I'm sure every miner in Grawin and Lightning Ridge are thinking exactly the same.

Wednesday was another lazy day around the caravan doing some domestic duties and rechecking the rocks we had collected at Grawin as well as updating this website.

On Thursday we went out to Lorne Station to visit Dot, an Aboriginal woman we had met at Grawin. Dot is a very amazing woman with fasinating stories and yarns. While on our visit there her husband, Tony showed us his opal collection. The photos don't really do any of the opals justice but it gives you a bit of an idea.

On Friday I found a couple of ticks on my left hip. As we weren't sure what exactly to do with them, I headed down to the local medical centre. A nurse saw me straight away and put some antiseptic honey on them with bandades. Apparantly, they should come off the next day and they did.

Friday afternoon came and we still had one more car door tour to do - the blue one. This tour took you through the Walk-in-Mine that offers self-guided tours down the opal mine. The mine is about 10 metres deep and has a very information video documentary after the tour. The cost of this was $10 each. I told Don that's it for opal tours!

Continuing on the blue car door tour took us to Bevan's Black Opal and Cactus Nursery which has over 2300 species of cactii, the largest collection in the Southern Hemisphere and the world's only opal mining cactus farmers! We didn't pay to enter this attraction but took photos from the road side instead and found a very interesting cactus! See if you can guess what it looks like?

We have booked and paid here at the council caravan park till Sunday however we are thinking of still staying in Lightning Ridge but transferring our camp to Lorne Station.

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