Back O'Bourke - Where the true outback starts

More than one week on the way now. We've had no rain to date so keep fingers crossed. As long as it doesn’t rain, we can cope with the cold nights. Our days are rather short, with sun getting up at 7, and down at 5. Once warmed up, breaked and packed ready to go at 9:30 or 10AM, this gives us time to hit the road for approx. 3-4 hours, excluding lunchbreaks and stops to refresh our supplies where available. Setting camp after 3PM is already pretty late – it gets cold and dark fairly quickly to really enjoy the campsite. So we always have to make compromises. If we don’t anticipate things consciously, we end up stressing around and not enjoying at all, with every innocent winge of the kids winding us up unnecessarily. We are still in the transition between city life and bushcamper routines…

We're spending a couple of nights at May's Bend a few kilometers north of Bourke. It's a tranquil fishing spot along the Darling River, the longest river of Australia. The scenery is fantastic. There is prolific birdlife around the river and nearby billabongs, bordered by mighty gumtrees that provide a beautiful contrast to the flat horizon. The same trees also carry some signs of recent floods, with mud sticking up to 4m high onto their stems. Using Google Maps Satellite View, you can see the flood area, indicated by grey sedimentation, compared to red sand elsewhere.
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Despite the thought that our current campsite was at other times flooded by over 2m, the sunsets are a beautiful dream come true. Sunrises however, still remain in my dreams - as it is too cold out there for me in the morning to leave my warm nest...
The kids are doing great despite the harsh conditions of cold, dry air mixed with wind, dust and sun. They sort of got used to the idea that our home is no longer in Maroubra, but instead on top of our car. Also, they don't seem to mind the cold as much as their parents. They do need 100% attention, but in the same time are very willing to participate, and can be very concentrated at enjoying helping us to prepare the campfire or set the table. The challenge is for us to think of them first before everything else, and give them tasks which in turn can set us free for a couple of minutes to do something else…

Today, we didn't have much chance to warm up during the day, as there was a strong south-westerly wind blowing with some cloud coverage. Temperatures oscillate between 5 and 20 degrees C. What's tough is that we don't really have any indoor refuge or heaters unlike the other camper travellers with their caravans. We'll need to get used to this (and typing the blog texts on the passenger seat). The option would be to head north towards Queensland and the Northern Territory. But we have already decided to visit the Corner Country and the Flinders Range in South Australia. With occasional warm wood fires, hot chocolate and a family video to start the night, and yet a couple of thick jumpers in the bag, we should manage just fine. Better than searing hot 40+ degrees of the summer. Next stop will be towards Tibooburra, the hottest place of NSW (Don’t believe it will feel so hot to us, though…).

See our Far West NSW photo set including some amusing animal features taken at the excellent Eastern Plains Taronga Zoo at Dubbo, and some glimpses of the Eastern Section of Sturt National Park near Tibooburra via this link: Flickr Photo Set - Far West NSW