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The Trip Home

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Sunday the 20 th we left St George for the final leg of the trip, almost, ie we would be stopping that night at Bann Baa before heading to Linda’s parents place the next day to visit them before going home on Tuesday. I stopped at the Nindigully Pub, established in 1864, to show Linda. I stayed at the campground there last year on the way up to Carnarvon Gorge and had a good visit at the pub. The pub was closed so a couple of photos are borrowed from that trip. We headed off from there and stopped at Thallon to see the painted silos. They were really beautiful, well done. After lunch in the great park there at Narrabri we went on to the Old Baan Baa School which is 38 km south of Narrabri. This camp is on Wikicamps. It is owned and run by Karen and her husband. People have commented about how Karen is such a welcoming hostess and they weren’t kidding, and can talk.   They bought the school and are restoring it as a labour of love. They have turned...

St George

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Friday   the 18 th we left Mitchell for St George. We went via Roma which is quite a big town. We had a short walk on the main street to check it out and then head off again to St George. We stayed at the caravan park closest to town, the St George Caravan Park. I wanted to stay there as it was closest to the river. However, we had to unhitch as there are no large spots. First time we could not hitch up the afternoon before we left for ages. We took a walk down to the Balonne River. This plaque says it all. The crossing referred to on the plaque was just a natural rocky crossing. The weir and bridge are now in place. You can see areas that Mitchell may have crossed but there is a bridge and weir in place now which changes the way it would have been back then. Unfortunately we did not get photos of the river in that area. Saturday morning we did the tourist drive around St George which takes you to E J Beardmore Dam and then to another weir, various dams, chann...

Mitchell Free Camp - Niel Turner Wier

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We left Ilfracombe just after 7am on Thursday the 17th. We normally do not get on the road before 8.30am but we had a huge drive ahead of us, 580kms. That was maybe the longest drive we have done with the van on. We had decided to have two nights at St George on the way home and as we had indulged at Ilfracombe for two nights we had to cut out a destination in between which was Blackall. But I had a good sleep the night before and it was a great drive. It did not seem to be drag at all. We pulled in to the Niel Turner Wier free camp at Mitchell. I originally wanted go to the Fisherman's Rest camp but I missed the turn off. There would of been no water there so it would not have looked as good as it does in the Camps 7 book. There were so many vans and RVs  at the wier. The drought is still in full force and the wier is not actually holding back any water. There is water sitting in lower depressions in the river. It is a nice spot but it would be a be beautiful spot in a good ...