Mitchell Free Camp - Niel Turner Wier

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 season.






We are taking off in the morning but it would be good to spend more time here. I have felt the same about 90% of towns that I have driven through. That is a happy dilemma we have in this great country of ours. It is impossible to get time to do all the towns justice.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cunnamulla, Charleville and Slim Dusty

Image
On Wednesday morning before leaving the Bourke Kidman Camp we took a walk down to the Darling River. Back in 2013 on our ‘First Big Trip’ we took a ride on the Jandra Paddlesteamer from this location. It was a great little cruise but the walk down to the river was all we wanted this time. So off we went and crossed over into QLD. At Cunnamulla we stopped for lunch and to check out the town, but mainly to take in the Cunnamulla Fella story. The Cunnamulla Fella was imortalised in song by the author/singer, Stan Coster, and the singer of the song who made it famous, Slim Dusty. Back in the 50s snd 60s when Australia was still riding on the sheep’s back to a large degree, there were many young men who worked on the numerous sheep stations. They would work from sun up to sundown, many of them as young as 15 and 16, chasing scrubbers and breaking in horses. At the end of the day they would sit around campfires on their saddles or swags yarning about the days events. The towns...
Read more

St George

Image
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...
Read more