Broken Hill to Olive Downs (Camping Area, Sturt National Park)

We enjoy a lie in and a leisurely self-serve breakfast at the Imperial, where we sell a copy of the book to fellow travellers we meet in the kitchen. We do some shopping (folding spade) before heading to the Visitor Information Centre. After a longish discussion they decide they would like to stock the book, but would rather order direct from CSIRO. We refuel us (coffee) and the truck (diesel) and leave at 11:45.
We stop in Packsaddle for a burger lunch, sell two more copies of the book, one to fellow travellers, one to the lady in the roadhouse. We are there long enough to flatten our battery because we left the lights on, but a nice bloke jump starts us, and we drive on to Tibooburra, where we plan to deliver some new stock the Corner Country Store and stay the night in the tiny motel they run. Sadly, they are closed due to illness, so we can do neither. We refuel, buy jumper leads, and head further north, reaching the Olive Downs camping area in the Sturt National Park just on sunset. Two other campers, but plenty of room for us. It is a clear night, and the stars are wonderful in the couple of hours before moonrise. Even though the clear sky means the night is very chilly, we are snug under our doona in the slide out upper bed of the truck.

Wentworth to Broken Hill

We breakfast alfresco, looking out over the river, away from motel (very clean and comfortable, but typical 60s motel architecture, all dark tapestry brick, indoors and out, somewhat gloomy). Down to the IGA to buy provisions, then we head towards Pooncarie. Fortunately Peter just catches sight of the sign which says which roads are open in his peripheral vision, because when we turn back to read it properly, we find that the unsealed section of the Pooncarie-Menindee road is CLOSED. This is a nuisance as we have books to deliver to Menindee, and we thought it would be nice to revisit Pooncarie on the way. Last time we came to Pooncarie from Balranald, following the Expedition route. This time we would have come from Wentworth, on a road new to us. But it was not to be, we would have to go to Menindee via Broken Hill.
So back through Wentworth, and up the Silver City Highway. Terrain becoming more desert-like, soil redder, trees are mallee, mulga, gidgee, and there are lots of what Wills describes as "salsolaceous" plants. We also see our first feral goats. No live kangaroos, although a fair bit of road kill. Emus looking more natural here than when we saw some yesterday, standing in a field of barley.
We make contact with the Menindee Information Centre on the way to Broken Hill, discover we won't be able to get there before they close. However we get the phone number of the bloke in charge who placed the order for books, and leave him a message. He responds as we are enjoying a very good Sunday roast with all the other pensioners at the Alfresco Cafe in Broken Hill and we make arrangements to meet him at the Information Centre later in the afternoon. After lunch we have time to book in to the Imperial Hotel before we drive to Menindee and deliver the books. After a chat with Bruce we stop for a soft drink at Maiden's Pub where we give them a poster, show them the book and have a chat about the Burke and Wills connection. We then head back, reaching Broken Hill again before sunset, and enjoy the luxury of the Imperial (electric blankets!).

Tocumwal to Wentworth

Peter's sister makes us beautiful scrambled eggs for breakfast, and we spend a bit more time with her before heading off at around 9:45. At midday, we stop for coffee in Hay, and then head west, meeting up with the track in Balranald, arriving about 2:15. Now we feel we've really started our expedition, as did Burke back in 1860. Balranald was a significant jumping off point for the Expedition - they were leaving the "settled districts" of Victoria, Burke left behind some of the excess baggage he was carrying and some which had been damaged in the crossing of the Murrumbidgee. He also dismissed some of his men. Here Wills started taking bearings and began real navigation as they set off across country towards the Darling.

New Discovery Centre at Balranald

Since we last visited Balranald two years ago, they have built a wonderful new Information Centre and Discovery Centre. We talk to Kath in the Information Centre, who remembers us from previous visits and promises that the centre is going to stock the book as soon as she can get the necessary authority to order some. We eat at the Discovery Cafe (very good), investigate the Discovery Centre, go for a walk up and down the main street. 

As we've already driven the Expedition's track from Balranald to Pooncarie two years back, today we take the route Burke should have taken but didn't, continuing through the Riverina to Mildura, then following the Darling north. He chose to head northwest, straight to Pooncarie, which looks shorter, but was then and is still a slower and more taxing journey, albeit more interesting. We continue west along the Sturt Highway, where the sand and mallee scrub eventually gives way to the orchards and vineyards of the Riverina. We finish up in Wentworth, discover it is Wentworth Show Weekend, but still manage to find ourselves a place to stay (too cold to camp). The pub is packed, with a waiting time of over an hour for a meal, so we have a beer, get a takeaway pizza and go back to the motel for Saturday night television.

Crossing Victoria

Have book, will travel

We leave Melbourne, grey, cold and gloomy, about 12:30 on Friday. There is an accident on the Tullamarine Freeway which delays us a little, but once over the hills and on to the Goulburn Valley Highway the sky clears, the sun shines, the fields of rapeseed echoes the gold of the wattles, and we start to feel more relaxed.
We arrive at Goodfellows in Shepparton on schedule, the camper is waiting. We transfer our stuff from the car, sell a copy of the guide to Butch (Graham Goodfellow, the camper's owner), have a strengthening coffee and then drive to Tocumwal to visit Peter's sister, who gives us a delicious dinner and a very pleasant evening.

Background

In 2008, when the Royal Society of Victoria began organising commemoration activities for the sesquicentenary of the Burke and Wills Expedition in 2010, Peter and I met Dave Phoenix, who, in that year, walked from Melbourne to the Gulf following the route of the Expedition. Some time in 2010, I persuaded Dave that we should use the material that he had gathered to produce a guide for people who wanted to drive the route, and that I would do a structure and first cut for him if he would trust me with his material.
He agreed, but when I saw how much there was to deal with, we settled on the idea of producing "Following Burke and Wills Across Victoria".
During 2010, as we went to the various commemoration activities that were held between Melbourne and Swan Hill, Peter and I drove parts of the Victorian Route. Dave finished the first book and we self-published in 2011. We then persuaded CSIRO Publishing to take on the publication of the complete book, "Following Burke and Wills Across Australia". By 2013 we had a draft of most of the book, and in October that year Peter and I drove back and forth in the back blocks of NSW checking out both the draft and the driving route. We started in Swan Hill and went as far as the Dig Tree (near Innamincka) before heading back to Melbourne. Our findings were fed back in as Dave refined the draft in 2014, sorted out the illustrations and drew the maps. We delivered the final version to CSIRO Publishing early in 2015, and the book was officially released 1 June 2015.
Peter and I have been enjoying outback trips for many years, and we've previously travelled from Cloncurry to Normanton, and visited Innamincka, Birdsville and Bedourie. But we haven't travelled the section of the Expedition's route between Birdsville and Cloncurry. So we decided that this year, we would get some red dust on to my author copy of the book by renting a 4WD camper and going bush again.
The story now starts...