Day 27 – 30 March 2015
The day has finally arrived for us to leave Wentworth and continue the trip westwards. It was good being able to catch up with Steve and Anne for a tea and coffee before we left. It has been a wonderful trip to Wentworth and we leave having met some lovely people. We look forward to our next visit.
Our first stop for the day was the Ten Mile Bridge on The Greater Anabranch of the Darling River. The view along the river here is so typical for the area, with River Gums lining the banks. The spot we decided to have lunch at, also had the added feature of a red sand dune. On the opposite bank you could see black sheep grazing, and a lone pelican making his way along the river in search of his next mouthful of fish.
It wasn’t long before we left the sealed road behind us, and we could see a large dust cloud in our rear vision camera. We both had a little chuckle as we passed a caravan park named Fort Courage. Our minds quickly turned back to the old TV series F Troop, and an old style of comedy which has been so lost to the past. We hoped the goings on at this Fort Courage were not the same.
Lake Victoria soon came up on our right and it is amazing to see the amount of bird life that sits in the spillway waiting for the fish to be flushed through. In the pano below you can see how dry Lake Victoria is.
We soon came to the South Australian / New South Wales border crossing. Time to set the watches back 30 minutes.
Shortly the bush tracks started as we made our way towards Chowilla Game Reserve. Duck shooting weekend had just finished, so we hoped there were no hunters around. At one of the creek crossings we could see a large amount of dead fish, literally hundreds. If you were in the city and you came across a site like this, you would suspect foul play, but here it is typically caused by the creek drying up and resulting in simply not enough air in water to sustain the population.
Camp was setup on the banks of the Punkah Creek. Late afternoon, whilst we were enjoying the scenery, we heard a crackling noise. On investigation we found a local goanna making its way up a tree.
It is amazing the size of the limbs the River Gums drop in times of drought, with some of them over a metre across. Locals call these gums widow makers due to their habit of dropping limbs without warning.
To see many more photos of Chowilla – read more
