2019/11 Australia trip - Kinchega |
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Saturday November 16th
We were off next morning, heading southeast on a very quiet road towards the little town of Meninde and Kinchega national 
park. We stopped at Stephens Creek for a stroll up the dry river bed. This area is famed for its red river gums, gnarled and twisted great trees that have a nasty tendency to drop massive branches with no warning. It’s very scenic country, but not a good place to camp.
We took a side trip to one of the Menindee Lakes; I think it was Copi Hollow, where we found this tree full of corellas. Then we took another trip to a dam, which was sitting near dry on both sides
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Copi Hollow (0.50) |
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Menindee Lakes (0.29) |
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There were pelicans, cormorants, and spoonbills in the water, and a flotilla of coots in the watery mud. 
All the water comes into the area from the Darling River and a complex management system allows it into selected lakes and into the pipeline which goes to Broken Hill; the city has no water of its own. We found a channel of the river and followed that, winding our way around the gums. Sandie captured this small patch of eucalyptus flowers.
Nearby is the Burke and Wills campsite. Back in the 1860s their expedition from Melbourne across the continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria stopped here on its way north. They made it to the swamps around the Gulf but only one expedition member survived the return trip.
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Kinchega (1.23) |
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The drive through Kinchega along the Darling River was delightful, very scenic with even bigger red river gums, and plenty of 
kangaroos, pelicans, goats, and other wildlife. When we camped there back in 2004 we witnessed an almost continuous parade of pelicans passing our campsite. There were still plenty of pelicans around but they were mostly perching on downed trees in the river, and then exploding into action when they caught sight of me with my camera.
With so much wildlife around these sheep looked to be out of place, tourists perhaps.
They were outnumbered by the kangaroos, which seemed to be everywhere, including right in front of us! 