9. – 14. May

We decided to do some part of the Darling River Run and followed the river up north via Pooncarie to Menindee. It was quite interesting that the Darling River had much more water in Wentworth (where it ends) than in Pooncarie or Menindee. In Menindee we stayed two nights at the Pamamaroo Lake which is a catchment area of the Darling River. The weir regulates how much water runs down the river to Wentworth and at the moment they’re still filling the lakes which we could notice very well. We had a camp fire going and the next morning that place was under  water. There are several lakes close to Menindee. – Menindee actually means “lakes made by man”. The nights felt like sleeping at the beach as the lake is so big it creates a lot of waves. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the free camping next to the lake. There  were a lot of other people doing the same. One Caravan or Campervan next to each other. Not at all a big surprise because these lakes are full of water only every 10-20 years. – Thanks to the flood water from Queensland!

 

Our next stop was Broken Hill – I wanted to see the “Living Desert & sculptures” again. This meant we drove directly to the Tourist Information to obtain the key and then headed out to the place. We arrived in the late afternoon and several  other people were waiting to see the sunset from this hill as well. But we could still have a look at the sculptures with the afternoon light and to be sure that we didn’t miss anything we returned the next morning to see them in the morning light. I have three favourite sculptures – the horse, the motherhood and the tiger moon. We went to the mining monument as well to see the city from the top and checked if the big red bench was  still there. While we were sitting on the bench, one long train rolled through Broken Hill – it looked like 3km long. Unfortunately we didn’t see the Indian-Pacific going through (wrong day or wrong time).

See you later, Tom and Anja