Alan & Lyn's Huge Adventure: 12/11/25 Bourke

From Wilcannia , we drove to a spot we've stopped at before - Noona rest area - and set up for the night. Next morning we headed into Cobar with our brakes heating up AGAIN . We had some lunch before going around to see someone about them . They heard my dilemma , and basically said "It'll be fine , and we're booked out , and can't fit you in " , so we headed off and found another free camp for the night - the brakes were happy to have a rest and a cool down !! Another day down , and more checks on the brakes & wiring and anything else we could think of , before we headed off to Bourke . Bourke is a large town perched on the side of the Darling River . It was serviced by paddle steamers travelling up & down the river back in the day . This is the Back of Bourke tourist centre , there are sculptures outside in the grounds , here's some of them .

They are large sculptures standing over 2m tall

Rather large metal flowers

Something from indigenous culture

The biggest Willie Wagtail we've ever seen .

Some different ones on a great sandstone block

And another

Down to the old jetty for a look , but unfortunately the lower decks were closed off , so this is your view of the river from on top .

Here's the dock

We always seem to learn something everywhere we go , today was about a high jumper that came from Bourke - Percy Hobson -an aboriginal with a small stature , but with the ability to high jump . He was good enough to win the gold medal at the 1962 Commonwealth Games . His image is recorded on the water tower in town .

The tanks is painted right around and worth a look if you're ever here .

We took a drive out to the weir on the river , plenty of milky brown water was flowing over .

We stayed at Kidman's Camp - a caravan park in North Bourke - unbeknown to us , the Jandra does cruises up & down the river for paying guests . We discovered the morning cruise was already running , so we booked for the afternoon cruise . This is the Jandra paddlesteamer which has been operating on the river for a long time .

We came back for the afternoon cruise and found that there was only us and 2 others , which was a contrast to the earlier cruise that had a couple of small busloads of school kids on it !!

There's a common thing along the river , the lifting bridges appear to be very similar , here's the old & the new . The last flood was just below the decking of the new bridge .

Mud swallows like to live here as well , there were plenty of nests below the new road bridge .

Views of the river were good from the upper deck .

The Jandra cruises up the river at the staggering speed of 6 knots and the cruise takes about an hour all up , so you don't go very far down & back up the river . It was pleasant trip which we enjoyed .

Next day we headed off again , travelling down roads we haven't been on before . Driving through he towns of Brewarrina , Walgett and then Collarenebri , where we ended up staying for the night . There is a terrific campground that the local council has done . There's showers & toilets , it's beside the local footy / cricket ground and there's access to the river as well , and there's no charge !

Storms have been occurring in the northern areas of NSW and we found one on our way to Walgett . It certainly dumped some rain .