TIBOOBURRA & HEADING EAST

The road east from Tibooburra traverses through some pretty interesting terrain. Starting just out of Tibb you soon enter Sturt National Park- this is part of the stony desert and it is just that- bloody stony. Its flat, rocky, harsh and …seems to go forever. These gibber rocks shine as the sun hits them and can be in size from marbles to as big as bricks. having broke a rear window in here before I am always a bit wary of this area. Ha, after slowing down l always fold the mirrors in so l cant see the rocks flying around !!!…. not ideal but thats how l do it. This is one area that l old hate to be in during summer.

Its not long before you leave this barren rocky crappy landscape start travelling uphill to the top of a small plateau- giving you views of the west behind you. We found that if there has been a high traffic volume the roads here for the next 40-50 km do get pretty chopped up, because of the soft sand. We came across one long downhill section where there had been some previous rain a week ago and there were some pretty serious wheel tracks in there. Out here if there is some rain and the roads do get shut- best not to drive them, bloody big fines apply.

Getting towards the 100km mark there are several basin areas that sometimes contain water. Luckily for us there is a bit of water here in these low pans and the bird life varies like on the coast again. We couldn't decide wether the pans are salt because the road section here and some of the landscape is stark white- could just be granite, not too sure. 

Our goal today was to head to Wanaaring for lunch, which is around 240km from Tibooburra. There are some long stretches on this section, but we stop every chance we get to take pics, look at anything or just to stop !!

Wanaaring !!!… what a place !!…. seriously its not that bad. Has a general store/servo ( great coffee ), a park across the road ( normally has green grass and good for the kids to play on the swings ) about 2km of a tar road section, a pub and….. thats it !!!

No honestly its a great stop, really friendly people here and always willing to stop and say hi. Even though we were ok with fuel, just be careful as sometimes they do run really low and will ration fuel out to those who need it. Saw it here last year. 

After a kick back for an hour we were back on the road crossing the Paroo river and its overflows. Wasn't much water flowing- more like still pools. We camped on the Paroo last year about 150km north in Currawinya and it was the same then, the water had just stopped flowing.

Our afternoon stint was only a 3 hour drive towards Bourke. But our camp destination was on the Warrego River ( which if flowing joins into the Darling River about 50km down stream ), this is part of the Gumbalie district which we have camped many times before. Its about 300 metres off the main road, firewood can be found nearby and it's just a nice spot. The road out of Wanaaring widens out and the base becomes much firmer. You leave the sand behind and the base is a typical red stoney gravel road. Give plenty of room if there is any traffic approaching and we found we just gave them a wide berth as some cars didn't even slow down or move over- bloody idiots !!!

Sight seeing along here can get a little boring as the roads are lined only a few gums here and there yet there is a low scrub preventing you from seeing any more than 20 or so feet into the bush. We did pass several old windmills, abandon farms and we did follow an old telegrah line for a while- not sure if it was for power or phone though-but nothing of real interest. We know where the 'secret' track to our camp is so our timing was right with the 3 hours to do the 15km trek towards Bourke- like l said we don't rush out here- just cruise along. 

Got some firewood from the recently pulled down old bridge nearby, found the turn, setup camp near the still waters of the Warrego and soon settled in for our last night in the outback. 

Tomorrow we hit the tar, pump the tyres up, join civilisation and blend in like we haven't even been away---YUCK !!!!!