Menindee Lakes to Manildra

Pamamaroo Lake where we camped at Menindee

See that green stuff in the distance, it's grass. It's supposed to be water! Menindee Lake was totally dry

Copi Hollow, where the local Broken Hill people normally water-ski. Not now! The water should be up to the grass, which is was when we were here last.

Driving from Menindee to Broken Hill we went through a locust storm. The birds at Wilcannia pecked my car clean. thanks birds!

Our stop after Menindee was Wilcannia which is an infamous Aboriginal town that has every shop with windows iron barred up and normally lots of indigenous folk in various stages of inebriation hanging around the main street and therefore is normally avoided by all tourists.  We in fact don't stop there even to get fuel. Now I'm not being racist, its a fact, which I really wish wasn't the fact, but it is.

We have stayed there years ago at a caravan park run by one of the indigenous locals and it was good, but this park isn't reliable as it's often closed and this was the case when we drove past this time. But there is another brand new park 4 kms from town and we thought we would try this. It turned out to be fantastic, nice green lush grass to camp on and even had a "friendly" resident emu. Besides Bailey not knowing what to do with this new two legged friend, he tried to assist (or harass me) with everything while setting up the van.

Emu: "The water hose goes onto the tap." Me: "Yes, I know that you silly bird. I would do it except you keep pecking at me!"

Can I come inside?

A nice camp in Wilcannia. The ablutions were really over the top!

Our next stop was Cobar, where Wikicamps informed us the local council had just opened up free camping at Newey Lake. Normally camping at Cobar is expensive and basic, but this was a real gem & only a 2km stroll on Halloween Night into town. The kids were great, we actually were given sweets both ways! All the locals were super friendly here. A very nice stay.

What a great free camp! Thanks Cobar.

We enjoyed dinner at the Empire Hotel where the meals were super sized and exceptional quality.

Jayne and her pork belly.

My 450g Angus. Bailey had half of it!

Bailey had to wait outside in the heat. Poor Bailey.

Manildra

Our last night of this trip was spent at Manildra!

Where is Manildra I hear you ask? Well it's famous for its grain company also called Manildra strangely enough. We've been through Manildra many times and didn't realise the place even had houses or that it had this really great "RV Stopover" park which is on their showground and next to their Golf Club. Another Wikicamps recommendation. Wikicamps is really very good, way better than Camps 7, and that's saying a lot. It's up to date and accurate.

For $15 a night including power and water it's a bargain, and what a view!

Last night Champers

So after nearly 20 weeks we'll be home tomorrow. So sad, but also exciting as we get to see the kids, family, friends and of course little Tequi!

I have to do the summary of the trip, so that will be the next and last post on this blog. Look out for it, the statistics are quite something.

If you're wondering, we missed a turn there and went through Dubbo, we weren't supposed to!