Over 300km
driving today - all on dirt. Travelled
from Kinchega National Park near Menindee, NSW along the Menindee to Wilcannia
Road until we reached an intersection with the Barrier Highway about 8 km east
of Wilcannia. Crossed the highway and
then continued onto the Wilcannia to Bourke Road for 150km or so to our next
campsite at Kallara Station (12km from Tilpa, NSW).
The ride on
the 300km of dirt roads all the way from Pooncarie to the Tilpa Pub was not too
bad as far as corrugations were concerned.
While not as rough as we had expected, it was very dusty. Luckily there were not many vehicles on the
roads we were on. Just two vehicles travelling
in the opposite direction and we saw no one else travelling in our direction. We certainly were on ‘the road less
travelled’! A quick stop at the Tilpa
Pub for a leg stretch (and an ice-cold country pub beer) then the last 12 km to
our destination for a couple of days - Kallara Station.
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| The Tilpa Pub was a welcome rest stop after almost 300km of dirt roads |
We
established our camp to stay for a couple of days at a beautiful spot right on
the bank of the Darling River just a kilometre from the homestead but totally
secluded and private. We had the place
to ourselves except for the kangaroos, emus, feral goats, pelicans and an
echidna.
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Campsite on the banks of the Darling River at Kallara Station.
|
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Ant eating Echidna rolled into a defensive ball.
For those not familiar, the spikes are hard and bone-like!
|
Heather
asked the owner whether she could do some metal detecting along the river and
was given the all clear to hunt wherever she wanted to. With that said, she promptly got her bug hat
on as the flies were thick and she was off!
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| Metal Detecting Heather decked out in Hi-Vis and fly/bug hat |
While
Heather went detecting, I checked out the caravan to see how it had handled the
dirt roads. A bit of dust had got in
here and there so I cleaned that out and squirted some silicone sealant into
where I thought it was coming in. While
looking for dust I had noticed a couple of the cupboard and drawer
handles/latches were not working. It
turns out that the roads must have been shaking the insides of the caravan more
than we could feel from inside the truck.
To cut a long story short I ended up having to check and tighten the latches
on all 32 of the drawers and
cupboard doors in the caravan. To make
sure they could not rattle loose during the next dirt road leg of our journey I
put a little bit of ‘Loctite’ (essentially glue for the threads of nuts and
bolts) on every threaded part of every latch!
That should do it (I hope)!
Just as I
was finishing up the repair job, Heather returned from her hunt with a beaming
smile on her face – I knew she had found something special! She then showed me the source of her
happiness. She had found a hat badge
worn by Australian Cavalry Soldiers from around the turn of last century, i.e.:
1900.
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| Hat Badge from the 1st Volunteer Australian Horse Regiment |
The badge design
is a kangaroo and an emu supporting a shield on which is the badge of the
Colony (St George cross with the 4 stars of the Southern Cross on it). Across the face of the shield is a crossed musket
and sword. On the bottom of the shield
is a boomerang on which the regimental motto of FOR HEARTHS & HOMES is
written. Across the top is AUSTRALIAN
HORSE, denoting the regiment.
The Australian
Light Horse Regiments, which existed up until 1943, started with the 1st
(Volunteer) Australian Horse regiment, which was established in 1898. The men were typically shearers, station
hands, farmers or squatters (large-scale sheep or cattle farmers). Finding this badge along the banks of the
Darling River where some the largest sheep stations in the country could be
found at that time, makes this a really great find!
If we had more time we would have stayed longer. We will definitely go back and really take our time relaxing in the solitude of the bush.
Hope you are
enjoying the story so far and keeping up to date as to WTF- Where are The Farrows?
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