Day 2
Martin and Bev arriver around 7:30 pm last night and had their tents up just before the heavens opened up. Half an hour later it was gone, not to be seen again. Damian arrived around 9 pm. Only to discover he left behind his sleeping mat. An uncomfortable sleep in the car ensued.
Morning saw us slow away – like about 10:30. Wet tents and this being the first night camping for this trip didn't help.
Next stop was
Mildura – to grab a few things we needed (like a sleeping mat). That was a slow stop too.
Lunch was at a
Wentworth, in a picnic ground looking over
the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers.
Our plan from there was to head up the
Wentworth Pooncarie Road to
Pooncarie, then on to
Menindee and
camp at the lake. However a little geographical embarrassment when leaving
Wentworth saw us on the wrong side of the Darling. When we discovered our problem we decided to continue on that side of the Darling to
Pooncarie. When some confusion arose over the exact track we should be on, a local resident butted in on our conversation to help us. What we learnt was that while we could get to
Pooncarie via our current route, the road from there to
Menindee would probably be closed because it is black soil country, and last night's rain would have made it impassably slippery. If it did indeed transpire (that the road was closed), we would have to head all the way back
Wentworth before we could take an alternate route – a very long detour. Hence we chose to abandon our
Menindee camp plans and head to
Broken Hill and
camp at a caravan park. We were planning on passing through
Broken Hill tomorrow anyway, so the only down side was missing out on seeing the
Lake Menindee area – which I am told in a very pleasant experience.
It was after dark when we rolled into
Broken Hill. We have a nice grassy
camping area – the same one we had when we passed through here two years ago on our way to Lake Eyre. Most cooked tea tea at the caravan park, but Bev, Martin, Jan and I went into town for a quite acceptable pub tea.