Wednesday - Broken Hill to Menindee

Wednesday Broken Hill to Menindee National Park

I woke up with the shits – as a hangover for Greg loosing all my photos yesterday. There was no cheering me up and Greg was still asleep so I got my running kit on and went for a run. I didn’t feel much like doing that either but made myself hoping that the little endorphins that make a cheery face and lift a mood would kick in and I would be Mrs Happy Pants on holidays again.

I ran/walked/looked at houses in the streets for about half an hour and then found a nice bush track and ran it. At least my Ipod was working now so I had some music – even if it was only one play list as Greg had deleted all my music that I had off it by mistake as well. Something else to be shitty about.

When I was in a better frame of mind I returned to find Greg stumbling about and out of bed. I punted him out of there for a shower, meanwhile, I made a dinner of lamb shanks an put it in the shuttle chef for later. Then I set about packing up the camp. When we had had showers we departed bound for Menindee.

We got to Menindee which is not very large and found the information centre. The kind chap told us of road closures – which are now really important pieces of information, and camp sites. We had a quick drive around to see what was there – which took all of  5 minutes. Then we left this little town and went back the way we came to Kincheaga National Park and woolshed.

A flock of pelicans over Lake Menindee. I took
this out of the car window with the coolpix

I handed Greg the camera to take
another shot of the flying pelicans out
of his window. He totally missed them
all but it was a great cloud shot!

It wasn’t that far away and didn’t take us long to get there by which time it was lunch time. I cracked out my picnic basket with leftover chicken legs, salad and wraps. How posh was that! Lunch over we checked out the shearing shed and surrounds of the Kinchega woolshed. It was really well done. The shearing shed had been left like it was only used last week – except there was no wool or sheep about now. The pens were just as they were and there was an explanation as to why and what they were used for. We wandered around it for ages listening to the wind outside and imagining what it must have been like for the shearers who started there in the early days with hand shears – progressing in time to electricity. The last sheep to be shorn on the property was in 1967. After that it was donated as a national park.

Old windmill at Kinchega National Park

Massive old steam engines were on display outside with little stories of what they were used for and whether that was successful. Sometimes the bother of lugging the water and the wood to get them to work was just as much work as using a more manual way of getting the job done.

National Park camps are run by honesty boxes and envelopes to put your money in. We paid our money in the envelope to stay there the night and also our park entry fee and checked out the camp. The sad thing was that there were no toilets at all so we decided to check out down the road. There are 2 caravan parks in the area and some free parks. Mostly on the lake edges.

The Woolshed at Kinchega. It was enormous and now
only half its original size. They downsized the shed
with demand for the shearing.

The caravan parks did not inspire us. They looked like they needed a little TLC. One called Copi Hollow has this strange bunch of old houses on it. Old as in built 40 years ago not nice old like federation style etc. They all looked like they were built from recycled other houses and not been used in years as they were all grotty looking. It was really weird so we didn’t stay there. Apparently at this side of the lake you can water-ski so I supposed that the ‘dwellings’ were holiday houses for people who either lived on massive sheep stations not too far away or in Broken Hill.

Taking a punt and an un named but nicely graded road - with not too many bumps for our dear old and not enjoying her trip much van, we poked along until we came by a little camp right on the water’s edge which would do nicely. It had a long drop toilet too – which would do and better than nothing. We decided to stay here the night. It was a trick to get in and it’s the one time I thanked the van for being so small. It looked like rain so we set up without unhitching in case we had to get out in a hurry.

Squeezed into the little camp site
One of the few times I have blessed
the van for being so small. All hooked
up in case we have to get out quick.

That night was the best apart from Mungo. The bird life was sensational. The peace and quiet was calming. We found wood for a fire that someone else had conveniently left, and scrounged for a bit more wood for ourselves. Set up the camping chairs and little table. I cracked out the laptop still trying in vain to keep a blog up to date – but failing by days now, and had a gin and tonic. We were parked, set up and all good and it was only 4pm!

Pretty soon the sun started to set and the colors changed in the sky. The reflections on the lake were really pretty. Also the sun was setting over the back and that was spectacular too. Greg and I flitted from one to the other with cameras a clicking.

The bumpy road out, all sandy
and rutty.

Then we settled down to watch the pelicans glide past. The wind had dropped and the lake became calm and the slappity noises it was making when we pulled up calmed to an occasional splish. Not far away a fish jumped out of the water, a bird called, it was a really special place.

To make it more special I unveiled my cooked dinner so we had instant lamb shanks. All I had to do was mash some spuds and uncork a wine and we were settled in. Greg made a lovely fire for two and we sat while the sky got ever darker and the stars came out in their millions. I wished we could stay there a week.

Sunset over our lake with a convenient rainbow in the middle

Peaceful lake - I love free camps now!

Yep more pelicans
 Lake Menindee the next day

I had long gotten over my shits over my photos - telling Greg we would have to do the same trip again to Mungo so I can take some more. He didn’t seem to mind one bit!