Bourke to Trilby Station - 3 July 204

A very cold morning in Bourke to say goodbye to us. We have really enjoyed our time here and could probably have had another day or two. We would have liked to go out to Mt Oxley and also to Brewarrina, which is only about 90 kms away. No doubt we will be this way again at some stage.

We took the road to Louth which follows the Darling River. You don't actually see the river, although it comes close to the road in a couple of places. There are 2 roads which follow the River, one on the east side and one on the west. We were told the east was better and it was pretty good, except for a few corrugates in places in the last 20 kms. The land is very flat around the area. We were told in our tour of Bourke the other day that the fall of land in the area is 9 inches per mile, so not very much at all.

We saw a fox and crows sharing a feed of a roo killed by a car. The fox didn't look in the best shape. We also saw a few wedgetail eagles.

Our morning tea stop was at the end point for Captain Sturt and Hamilton Hume's 1829 expedition in the area. Our stop was on Hume Creek. Thomas Mitchell was also in this area. Sharing their footsteps, although in much more comfort!

Louth was a very small village on the Darling River and is where we needed to cross to the west side of the river. I certainly wouldn't like to play cricket or football on their oval. Pretty hard ground with you might as well say no grass. Diesel is $1.90/litre. Luckily we didn't need any.

Our destination was about 30 kms from Louth - Trilby Station. It is a property of 360,000 acres. There are 5 powered sites and about 15 or so unpowered sites along the river. When we rang the other day to enquire there weren't any powered sites left, but when we arrived they had one. We drove along the unpowered sites to check them out before deciding. The unpowered sites were quite heavily shaded for the most part, so we decided to take a powered site.

The afternoon was beautiful, even warm and we ended up in t-shirts. We went for a long walk following the road round the unpowered sites for a few kms and enjoyed the opportunity to have a really good walk through the bush. We saw red kangaroos and budgies, as well as pelicans on the river. The river banks are very deep and steep with not as much water as round Bourke. It was hard to imagine that Trilby Station floods and sometimes the homestead is isolated for months at a time.

There is a fishing group staying here in the Shearer's Quarters. They are from the Riverina area. There were 12 men originally and they were quite noisy round the camp fire last night before we got here. 7 of them left this morning with the rest leaving tomorrow. I spoke to one of the men this afternoon. He said they haven't caught a thing even in their boats. There is not enough water.

There a group of 3 families next to us. They are from Brisbane. One of the guys came in to tell us late last night to tell us a fox had just got into the front of their tent where they store their food. We stood outside with him as a couple from their group followed the fox by the light of a torch. We could see it, and it certainly wasn't keen to move away. The stars at night out here are just beautiful. Crystal clear.