Tibooburra, NSW to Noccundra Hotel, QLD.

Said our 'good-byes' at Tibooburra at 9:00 AM and eventually arrived at Noccundra Hotel at 3:30 PM. That means we covered the distance of 245 km in 6.5 hours with only about 45 minutes of stop time for meals. We may be travelling cautiously but at least we arrived 8 tyres still intact. Before we drove out to Cameron Corner I had reduced the tyre pressure to 200 kpa, this reduced the ride harshness over corrugations but didn't unduly risk side wall damage. Well, it worked for us. I was also prepared to lower the tyre pressure further if we had encountered soft sandy terrain. We encountered changing road conditions during the day. The final 55 km of the Silver City Highway in NSW was very similar to our previous experience, we could safely travel at 60 kph but had to continuously dodge large rocks on the road surface. Once through the Warri Warri Gate of The Dingo Fence and into Queensland the The Noccundra - Warri Warri Road had been reformed into more of an 'All Weather Road' for about 25 km it then reverted to clay pan that would have been impassable with 25 mm of rain. This section of the road was very smooth and quiet to travel on but there were many patches of "Bull Dust", some of it quite deep! I forgot about sealing all the vents on the caravan and this caused quite a mess inside. There will be a mammoth clean up job when we get home. At about 35 km from the Noccundra Hotel the road deteriorated drastically, down to 25 - 30 kph for about 15 km until we struck sealed road for the final 20 km into "town". There is nothing at Noccundra, except for the Pub. The permanent population is 2 people the Publican and his wife, plus there is a temporary resident, Liz, a Pommie Back Packer who works in the Pub. We camped beside The Wilson River Water Hole with several other caravanners and motor homers. While walking to the Pub for dinner some inquisitive steers thought we were quite interesting and followed us along the track. As usual in these small country pubs a crowd arrived from somewhere and we all had a very interesting night.

I haven't mentioned before but we have been seeing many Wedge Tail Eagles along the roads for several weeks now, what magnificent birds these creatures are!

Jude is opening The Warri Warri Gate in The Dingo Fence for us to enter Queensland.

We are now in the Bulloo Shire.

Many destinations available to the traveller after passing through The Warri Warri Gate.

Our lunch stop, it was about now that we discovered the red dust inside the caravan.

"Road Works" out here! Crew working creating a causeway at the creek on the tree line and a grader ripping up the road beyond that. There is a very wide diversion through the creek bed and when we drove through it was deeply rutted. When we got to the pub we found out that a live stock road train had been bogged to the axles.

Our camp spot on The Wilson River Water Hole. There were reports of fish being caught here.

This is a fairly large expanse of water on The Wilson River.

The Noccundra Hotel.

Cameron Corner and Sturt National Park, NSW

While at Tibooburra we had to do 'The Must Do' drive out to Cameron Corner, the junction of South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. It is a 141 km drive from Tibooburra, gravel road all the way. We left at 9:00 AM precisely and returned at 5:00 PM.  We drove out via Cameron Corner Road and returned through The Sturt National Park via Middle Road, 'Jump Up' Loop Road and the final 20 km on The Silver City Highway, 313 km for the round trip. We had a lunch break at The Cameron Corner Store while we were in Queensland. The scenery was arid, interesting and always changing.

Salt Pans.

Coolabah Trees.

Clay Pan.

Cameron Corner, Jude is standing in Queensland.

I have my right foot in Queensland and my left foot in South Australia.

Jude on the Queensland side of the Dingo Fence.

Parked out front of Cameron Corner Store.

We had to shut The Gate at the Dingo Fence after returning to NSW.

Ghost Trees. All these trees died due to prolonged inundation during the Big Wet of 1974.

Gibber and Salt Bush Plains.

Heading into Sand Dune Country.

Bottom Bore, and water tanks from a bygone era.

Old Windmill and water tank. This is a common sight along the route on abandoned stations.

One of the many dry creek beds we crossed.

Fairly recently abandoned Olive Homestead.

The Out Buildings at Olive Homestead.

The Jump Up on the left of us.

Mountain Range to the right of us.

Jude standing on the edge of the Mesa.

The view that Jude is looking at in the above photograph. You can make out the red soil track that we will be following out.