Wilcannia to Brewarrina Pt 178-179, April 12-13^th…(Pictures)

By the time we left White Cliffs we were low on unleaded petrol, out of autogas, had no refrigeration except blocks of ice and we had no beer!   Actually there was only hi octane unleaded left in White Cliffs and the station owner had gone to get more regular.  50 “clicks” down a blissfully paved road, we got to Wilcannia, a mostly Aboriginal town.  They had autogas and unleaded but it was the most expensive we had seen, $.90/liter for autogas (it was under $.50 in Towomba when we got back there.)  We didn’t fill up all the way but bought enough to get us to somewhere less expensive.  They did have a nice park on the Darling River.  The pictures show some trees and contrasting styles of art.  Take a close look at the Darling River to see the kids playing on the banks.  Our next two days journey would take us far away from the Darling and back by it again when we went through Bourke.

            Bourke is an active mining town, but perhaps its most dominant attribute in the popular parlance is that it is considered the western edge of habitability.  Everything “back of Bourke” is the “Outback”.   Our next two days journey pretty much confirmed that.  After Wilcannia, we stopped at Emmdale, a one-servo (gas station) town and bought some beer.  We tried to get a frozen jug of ice but found out that it was the station owner’s private reserve, along with some decent-looking steaks that he kept in the same chest freezer with some bagged cubed ice that was actually for sale.  We called it a night at a rest-stop near the turn-off to Bulla Bulla.  It was actually a fairly nice place with big trees and the standard spectacular sunset.  We found out early in the morning that we had some neighboring campers in the bushes when they left honking their horn.

            The next day we made it through Cobar in the morning, after picking up a replacement trailer plug at a well-secured (with bars on windows and entrance) repair shop.  Then we went East through Bourke and the scenery was definitely getting greener.  Of course we had pretty low standards by then.  Our last city stop was Brewarrina, or “Bre” as the locals call it.  It was another Aboriginal town and like most, it was poor and somewhat boarded up.  Crime must be a problem but the people were very nice.  Some folks at a “Milk Bar” or “Sandwich Shop” told us how to find a free campground nearby on the Barwon River, actually a dam or “weir” on the river, with some standing water making it a lake.  Despite the over-friendly flies, it was a nice place and we had some nice neighbors, Peter and Emilda.  They were pulling a good-sized caravan with a station wagon and had been traveling around Australia for a couple of years only stopping occasionally at their home in Perth.  Both Peter and I played the harmonica in the evening.  Peter had a very complete set of tools and tried to make sense of my refrigeration situation to no avail.  They too had a bit of excitement when they first got there and were napping in their caravan.  They woke up to find a mob of native kids smiling and staring in the window at them.  We were glad to be near some water and make some friends. The best was that it was a peaceful night at a greener spot and only some silly “interesting” things happened that day. Like when Joe tried to get some ice and the store proprietor didn’t understand him until he said “frozen water” and she said, “Oh, oyce!”