One of the views from Mount Kaputar

We spent the first half of today in the Mount Kapatur National Park. The first part of our exploration of the park involved a drive up to the peak of Mount Kapatur, a drive of around 50km with the last part being a mix of surfaced and unsurfaced routes up some steep and very narrow roads with huge steep drop offs to the side.
The unsurfaced bit in particular really kept you on your toes – it’s one thing getting understeer or the back end stepping out on corrugations when there’s a nice flat desert next to the road, quite another when there’s a near vertical drop with no barrier ! Needless to say I was giving the corners a lot of respect.
The views from the mountain top are, once again, awe inspiring. At 1510 metres above sea level the peak is the highest point for hundreds of miles in every direction. The mountain peaks of the range seem to capture or create their own clouds above them and we were just above the cloud base on the peak. Once again, the camera doesn’t do it justice but looking out over the plains in every direction you felt like you could see forever. What it’s like in summer with clear blue skies, I can only imagine.

Basalt columns at Sawn Rocks

From Mount Kaputar we had to retrace our steps all the way back to Narrabri before taking the road to Bingarra. This road passes through the northern most part of the Kaputar National Park, crossing over the mountain range. We stopped at the Sawn Rocks, quite high in the mountains. This is an area that has basalt columns, similar to those found at Giants Causeway in Ireland. They’re formed when volcanic lava cools slowly, allowing the basalt to form in it’s crystalline pattern. Apparently there are many instances of this in the area although Sawn Rocks is the best example.
From Sawn Rocks we continued on to Bingarra. This whole area seems to be prime pastoral land with wide fertile valleys which seem well irrigated both by the rivers that run through them and presumably from the cloud systems that the mountains seem to collect. It’s mostly cattle farming but by contrast to the cattle farming in the outback this resembles UK farming with fenced off fields and tags in the cattle’s ears. The breeds of cattle are also more like the ones we see at home rather than the more primitive breeds used in the outback.

Sunset at our camp site, camp fire already burning and tea nearly ready

When we arrived at Bingarra it was time to choose a destination for the night. Our old friend WikiCamps showed a few possibilities in the area and we plumped for the state park site at Lake Copeton. It’s an odd site this one, you drive into what looks like a high end tourist park with kids play areas, a cafe, a big car park. The site extends for about 5km along the edge of the lake and most of it is bush camping with no facilities within easy walking distance – suits us down to the ground having no other campers around us. We also took advantage of the available dead wood and had a camp fire for the first time in ages.
Tomorrow we’re anticipating a bit of a transit day, getting some more miles under our belt and getting further north.

A view from the Slide Springs Observatory car park !

The combination of altitude, clear skies and a southerly wind meant the temperatures this morning came as a bit of a shock, to say the least ! According to the coolant temperature gauge in the Land Rover it was down to 4 degrees C this morning and the sun was having a hard time making any impression through the morning mist.

We didn’t hang about, trying to keep warm by moving around. Once we set off though we did make one stop that was even higher than our camping spot. Siding Spring Observatory is perched on one of the higher peaks in the Warrumbungle Range at around 900 metres above sea level. The views from this peak are spectacular and on a crisp clear day I imagine you could see the Vic High Country. Sadly this morning it was a bit hazy and there was a bit of cloud cover yet to be burnt off by the sun. I know I’ve said this before and I will doubtless say it again but pictures really don’t do justice to the awe inspiring view.

The Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT) inside it’s dome.

The main Anglo Australian Telescope and it’s covering dome are an impressive sight and visitors can climb the 4 stories to the floor of the main telescope. As the name suggests, the scope is a joint venture between the UK and Australia. The main mirror (3.9 metres in diameter) was created (poured)  in the USA then polished and formed in Newcastle in the UK and then shipped to Australia. It’s the biggest ceramic glass mirror that’s ever been transported by sea.

This area seems a bit telescope mad ! As well as the collection of scopes at Siding Spring there are a handful of smaller, I think private, observatories scattered along the road down from the ranges. One even has a skeletal radio telescope. One property we passed had a collection of small observation domes in the front yard complete with rotating domes and apertures. I guess the conditions here with no light pollution and clear skies for much of the year make it a bit of a Mecca for hobbyists and professionals alike.

A view from the bottom of the AAT dome.

We refuelled at Coonabarabran before heading north again on the Newell Highway. Fortunately the drop in altitude and the sun burning off some of the mist and cloud meant it started to warm up a bit by then and we were back into just our T Shirts and Shorts.

I’d been “feeling a bit crook” all morning with stomach cramps and by dinner time I was in quite a lot of pain. Pam took over driving but we stopped at a rest area when, as Pam said, “I looked so pale she thought it couldn’t just be her driving”. We stopped there for an hour and I felt a bit better so we carried on northward to Narrabri. By then the pain had subsided and after setting up camp and resting for a few hours all seems back to normal. No idea if it was something I ate or an allergy or what but hopefully it’s all fine now.

On the plus side it’s a lot warmer this evening and hopefully it won’t get as cold overnight. Looking at the forecast and weather reports we’re heading back into the better weather with temperatures in the mid to high 20s. There are a few showers on the coast but hopefully they’ll have moved on by the time we get there !

Tomorrow we’ll head east into the Mount Kaputar National Park to see the sights there. We will probably then head to Bingara although how far we get will depend on how long we stay in Kaputar NP.

One of a pair of Kookaburras that came to check us out when we were setting up camp

As anticipated we had a steady start this morning, in fact it was nearer afternoon by the time we hit the road 🙂 Our thanks as ever to Jim and Sue for their hospitality.
We headed north from Trangie through Gin Gin and Collie before heading east to the Newell Highway at Gilgandra.
As we travelled east we could see a mountain range getting closer and closer which marked the Warrumbungle National Park. As the timing was about right for an overnight stop and we liked the look of it we headed into the park for the night.
The views and the wildlife inside the park make it a really pleasant place to stay. There seems to be a large kangaroo population and lots of bird life with Kookaburras and Lorikeets making their presence felt almost as soon as we made camp.

View from our camping spot of one of the mountains

I think the next few days will comprise of much shorter hops rather than the long 500km days we’ve been doing recently as there are so many places to visit. We’re still heading on a very rough north east track but beyond that we’ll be taking this part of the journey as it comes. In many ways the final leg of the journey starts here.

Much better weather this morning – a real contrast to yesterday’s picture.

The weather was more or less back to normal this morning after yesterday’s and last night’s storms. For the most part we were back to clear blue skies although a heavy dew meant the outside of the tent was quite wet. We stayed at Nyngan for a while to let the tent dry out in the sun before packing it away and setting off.
The trip to Trangie is only a short hop from Nyngan so we got there early and kept going to Dubbo so we could do a full shop and restock everything before returning to Trangie. With that done it meant we were set to head north from Trangie after spending the night there.
It was good to catch up with Jim and Sue again, now in their new house, and we had the luxury of sleeping in a proper bedroom again.
Tomorrow I expect we’ll start a bit late with a steady start to the day and head north and see where we end up camping when we get there. We have a list of possible places to visit from Jim and Sue so it’s given us some very rough plans on where we’ll go over the next few weeks.

Heading into the storm on the Barrier Highway towards Cobar

We’ve had a very steady day today as we’ve continued our eastward journey. At around 3am this morning the rain arrived and by the time we got up the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning. It was fairly patchy though so we managed to get everything packed away and got ourselves sorted in the gaps between showers. Very glad we decided to put the fly sheet on the tent before we left Broken Hill or we might have got a bit wet !
As we headed east we were treated to displays of forked lightning in the distance, eventually catching up with the storm and passing through it with some very heavy rain along the way. The Land Rover is looking a little bit cleaner but not much…

Another view of the gathering storm clouds.

Once we got ahead of the storm we were back into bright sunshine again but whenever we stopped for too long it would catch us up. During one of these stops we fixed the main tank fuel gauge which has been stuck reading full since the second day of the Simpson Desert crossing. The sender arm keeps sticking for some reason inside the tank. Normally a decent bump in the road will fix it but it’s stayed firmly stuck despite climbing sand dunes, rattling along corrugated roads and driving up creek beds and rock climbs at Eldee. The sender unit is now fully sealed to the top of the tank since the Tom Price fuel leak so I can’t take it out and reposition it. Fortunately removing the inspection plate above the tank (after removing the fridge and all the wolf boxes first) gives access to the top of the sender unit and hitting the top of it repeatedly with the wheel brace got it “unstuck”. Hopefully it’ll stay unstuck now although it’s not a major issue, because we know roughly how many miles we get from a tank, it Is quite annoying.
Tomorrow we’ll head south east to Trangie to visit Jim and Sue before we start heading north into Queensland.

Menindee, the filling station is in the background.

Our first destination this morning was Silver City 4×4 to get the propshafts greased and to check that the whining noise the Land Rover has been making is actually the tyres and not a problem with the front axle.
It turns out that they’ve moved since the last time we visited (2008) and now have a shiny new ARB dealership and much bigger premises. Anyway, they squeezed us in and got the propshafts done and confirmed, as I’d suspected, the axle seemed fine and it was probably just the tyres that have feathered. I’ve already rotated the tyres so hopefully it’ll even out again.
Silver City 4×4 were a big part of the OBC offering workshop facilities and assistance throughout the event.
We then left Broken Hill to head South East to yet another OBC landmark, Menindee. I’ve only ever seen Menindi in the dark, often late at night, and then we’ve only seen the fuel station on the edge of town. We would fill up there at least once during the event and lots of the local kids would come out to see the competition vehicles and ask for stickers from sponsors. Looking round it today it turns out it’s a fairly big town with some well preserved old buildings scattered around the town.

A quick stop alongside the river at Viewmont

From Menindi we headed to the south side of the Darling River onto the unsurfaced road to Wilcania. I’m afraid this is yet another OBC throwback as the Viewmont competition area runs alongside this track. Viewmont was always a challenging venue because we spent a LOT of our time driving through very deep water and the clay mud got everywhere. It was Viewmont that killed Neil’s truck in 2008 and nearly finished off Gary’s Range Rover. We stopped off at the cleaning area where we also spent some time welding his axle back together.
The unsealed road to Wilcania is a really nice road to drive. As well as the scenery alongside the river the soft bull dust and sand meant that the going was nice and smooth but occasionally you’d hit bull dust with one wheel that would throw the Land Rover across the road. Just as I remembered it from the OBC (don’t worry, not many more OBC references to go !). Not too many sideways moments, just enough to have a good “play” 🙂
Tomorrow we’re expecting the weather to take a turn for the worst with showers and possibly a storm forecast. We’ll continue east, sticking to surfaced roads probably heading to Nyngan.

One of my favourite views of Australia from one of the peaks above Eldee Station

To start the day off today we relived some of the 2005 Outback Challenge by driving most of the route the final three stages covered although we took the easy route around the winch section !
For me the final navigation stage of the 2005 event was my favourite and I’ve always remembered the amazing views near the end of the stage where we climbed to the top of a high peak overlooking the Mundi Mundi plain. Given it’s nearly ten years since I drove it I was surprised how much of it I remembered although, as everywhere, it’s a lot greener now. The view near the end of the stage was as spectacular as I remembered it and the creek bed and the rest of the terrain are all typical of the OBC so it was great to have a chance to drive it again, albeit at a slower pace…

Another view from the loop at Eldee Station

After checking back in with the station to let them know we had completed it and were safe we headed to Broken Hill and the supermarket before booking into the camp site. All very mundane after a morning driving around the bush.
Tomorrow we’ll pay a visit to Silver City 4×4 to see if I can get the propshafts greased before we head east to start what is really the final stage of our journey, heading eventually to the Queensland coast in the north before returning along the coast to Sydney.

Very much a tourist day today. Our first port of call was to visit the Daydream mine between Silverton and Broken Hill. We went on their guided tour which comprises a short above ground walk followed by a trip underground to see the mine workings. After the tour they serve scones with jam and cream and very nice they were too 🙂
From Daydream Mine we headed back to Silverton to have a look around the remaining buildings in the town. We thought about visiting the Mad Max 2 museum (Mad Max 2 was filmed in the area and there are a lot of film props around). In the end we decided not to bother as admission was a bit expensive and it looked from the outside like a 10 foot square room !
We had a wander around the prison museum though which was cheaper and a LOT bigger.

The Mundi Mundi lookout

From Silverton we headed to the Mundi Mundi lookout which overlooks the vast Mundi Mundi plain. It’s all a lot greener than last time we were here, the picture of my Defender that originally featured at the top of this web site was taken there in 2005 and we tried to reproduce the picture with the 90 this time.
From Mundi Mundi we continued north to Eldee Station, the central point for the 2005 Outback Challenge and also the venue for the final day of the competition. On arriving we had a chat with Steve the owner and he confirmed that the self guided loop that they offer follows the course of the final navigation stage. That was probably the best stage of the event for me and I’ve always remembered it so having the opportunity to drive it again couldn’t be missed.

Sunset at Eldee Station

Tomorrow we’ll have a drive around the loop and then head into Broken Hill where we need to do mundane things like a supermarket shopping trip to stock up on food and beer. We’ll stop the night at Broken Hill before heading east on Monday.

Sturt boat sculpture

We had an excellent night last night, we decided to give the Family Hotel a try (There are two pubs to choose from in Tibooburra). The food was really good, the beer cold and we had a good natter with the staff afterwards. A really enjoyable night all in all.
This morning we visited the Sturt boat artwork. Sturt was one of a number of Victorian gents who, being of their time, were convinced that Australia must contain an inland sea. He assembled an expedition and equipment, including a whaling boat and a cart to carry it on and headed north from Adelaide to find this large inland sea. I’m not sure myself if it’s to his credit that he persisted in the venture as rise after rise, sand dune crest after sand dune crest, revealed yet more arid landscape. Either he was a strong character who was so adamant that the “inland sea” theory was correct or an idiot who didn’t know when to give up. Anyway, to commemorate his expedition an artist has created an exact replica of the boat and put it on some poles. The boat itself was abandoned when Sturt finally saw sense and headed south, never having actually sailed it on the inland sea. Sturt did document his travels though and opened up new areas of the outback as a result. His recommendations and observations of the terrain and fauna allowed others to follow in his footsteps.

Packsaddle Roadhouse on the Silver City Highway

This area seems to be scattered with sites and memorials to the ill conceived expedition and our north to south journey has taken in evidence and locations for three celebrated expeditions. The Sturt  expedition, the McDonnell Stuart expedition and the Burke and Wills expedition. (Burke and Wills infamously died trying to make the south to north crossing having missed their rescue party by 8 hours).
From Tibooburra we headed south along the Silver City Highway to Milparinka, a partially reconstructed gold mining town that was abandoned in the 1920s. There is also a Sturt connection just down the road from the town where the Sturt cairnis located – a cairn that Sturt persuaded his men to build to keep them out of mischief while they waited out a drought period. The reconstructed buildings are an interesting relic of the time and, similar to some UK historical sites, rely heavily on volunteers to keep them open and funded.
From Milparinka we headed south again to a major landmark from the Outback Challenge competition – the Packsaddle roadhouse. During the OBC this was a regular stop for fuel for all the competitors, normally arriving late at night after a days competiton and taking the opportunity to fill up on fuel and food at the same time. We had a steak sandwich with “the lot” as that’s what we had during the competition and it still tastes good, even in the daylight 🙂
Continuing south we eventually got to Broken Hill which is as confusing a town now as it always was with road signs only being thought necessary every 3-4 major junctions. Thanks to Apple maps we found our way to the Silverton road and headed out, by this time heading into a low, setting sun, to Silverton where we are camped for the night. The camp site is only a few minutes walk from the Silverton hotel which, once again, was as frequent a stop on the OBC as we could make it during the competition and was always a popular spot to gather after the competition ended.
Mad Max II was filmed in this area and along the Silverton road and one of the movie cars used to be parked outside the hotel. It has now gone but there is a Mad Max museum that now houses the car and we’ll no doubt visit that tomorrow. For now we’re about to take a walk to the pub and have a well earned beer or maybe two.
Tomorrow we hope to do some of the tourist things in the immediate area before heading to Eldee Station to camp tomorrow night. Eldee hosted the final part of the competiton when I competed in 2005 and offers self guided 4×4 tours that I’m hoping will take in some of the amazing navigation stages we did back then.

The remains of a Bristol Hercules engine at Innaminka

A bit of a transit day today as we headed away from Innaminka to Cameron Corner and then on to Tibooburra which sits on the Silver City Highway. There are a number of routes from Innaminka to Cameron Corner (all unsurfaced) and we opted to use the Old Strzelecki Track after checking it’s condition at the Innaminka Trading Post.

When I went to fill up at the Trading Post I couldn’t help but notice the remains of a Bristol Hercules engine at the end of the pumps. Until last year it wouldn’t have meant much but as Patrick at Maddison 4×4 has two that he’s preparing for a running display I know a fair bit about this particular engine and how it works. It’s got some clever design features including the fact that the cylinder sleeve itself moves to open and close the inlet and exhaust ports, all timed and controlled by an intricate set of gears like a clock – the remains of some of the gears can be seen in the picture. If you want to see what a complete engine looks like, visit Patrick’s blog…

Cameron Corner marker plate

We followed the Old Strzelecki south to Merty Merty where we split from it where it meets the Strzelecki Track (the new one !). We then followed an unnamed track south and then east into Cameron Corner. Cameron Corner marks the corner where three states join – South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. To add to the confusion of which road is in which state the Dingo fence also runs through the border here. We took the mandatory picture of the official marker plate, drove through SA into Queensland for a coffee and scones at the Corner Store then headed out of Queensland into SA, through the Dingo fence (while, through a gateway, to be precise) and then into New South Wales onto the Fort Grey Road.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a typical dirt road…

By way of the Waka Road and then the Toona Gate Road we eventually arrived at the intersection with the Silver City Highway. Tibooburra is only 1km north of that intersection. In all we covered 360km today, all on unsurfaced roads. We very nearly had a close encounter with a young bullock at one point when he decided to run across the road in front of us, fortunately the Land Rover brakes still work OK !

The Silver City Highway brings back a lot of good memories from the Outback Challenge competition as it is the main route into Broken Hill from where most of the competition areas were. It also has the main fuel stop that we used outside Broken Hill – the Packsaddle Roadhouse which, as well as providing fuel, was a good chance for competitors to grab a bite to eat.

So, tomorrow we’ll head towards Broken Hill, stopping along the way at some of our favourite Outback Challenge landmarks along the way. It’s also our wedding anniversary tomorrow and in 2008 on the 23rd May we were competing in the Outback Challenge at Denian and Pam spent part of the day running up and down sand dunes with a ground anchor and winch rope – who says romance is dead !