Thursday – Saturday 2-4 September 2021
We drove back to Rose Isle Station slowly at 60kmh with the canoe. Louth was still empty. Two Wedge-tailed Eagles flew alongside the car but Ted missed the photo/video opportunity. The breakfast and dinner spot we regularly used in Bourke, the Diggers Retreat, burnt down Wednesday night. It was the old RSL and hall, and had lots of memorabilia and old photos of Bourke that will be missed by the community.
NSW still didn’t look like lifting lockdown restrictions anytime soon, so Ted and I decided to head off on Saturday and give-up trying to continue paddling down the Darling River to Wilcannia. Ted knew people in Molong with a property north of Euabalong West that he could shoot kangaroos on, and I could stay with my brother and sister-in-law at Carwoola, south of Queanbeyan. The NSW Covid-19 hotline indicated that as we were both re-locating, and not from a Sydney LGA, this would be legal if we minimised our stops and interactions with other people.
Friday was spent getting the cars packed and gear sorted, the washing done and the shearer’s quarters and kitchen clean and tidy. The river had dropped a metre by Saturday, back to where it was when we arrived 3 weeks prior, so we were grateful we would not have to launch and land the canoe on the muddy banks, although disappointed not to be able to continue down to Wilcannia. As we were sorting out payment with Samantha, she suggested the people at Nangarra Bend just north of Tilpa might be prepared to mind a car for us. If we had known, we probably would have chased up the option, but having already packed, with the river falling, and with the uncertain health of the downstream owners, we decided to move on anyway.
The drive from Rose Isle Station to Louth, and on to Cobar was on a rough and corrugated dirt road, where the VW and canoe were down to 30kmh at times. Fortunately the 5mm of rain overnight had settled down a lot of the bulldust, but had not made the road too slippery. At Cobar we refuelled, got coffee and headed south in the rain along the Kidman Way toward Mount Hope. We parted ways at Gilgunnia, apparently an old gold mine but now a desolate, cold, wet T-intersection. Ted was heading east along wet, muddy tracks north of Euabalong West to collect goats, herd cattle and shoot kangaroos. I kept heading south on the bitumised Kidman Way to Mount Hope.
The not very exciting Gilgunnia location 
Ted collecting goats
At Mount Hope the sealed Tipping Way beckoned heading toward Euabalong West. I was keen to stay on the bitumen but had no idea how long the sealed road would last. The road shoulders were thick, red mud that would eat my car if I ventured off the tarmac. Eventually I found a road cutting beside Round Hill Reserve that had an old road to one side that was firm enough to drive on. Unfortunately it was way too wet and muddy to bother with a fire, so I just tried to keep the mud out of the car as best as possible while getting the canoe gear out into the rain. The sunset was spectacular and the site would have been excellent in drier conditions. The next day (Sunday 5 September) I climbed up to the trig point at the top of Round Hill for the views across the Mallee plains.
I stayed with my brother for a couple of weeks before meeting up with Ted at Gundagai. Meanwhile, once Ted had had his full of goats, cattle and kangaroos, headed down to Batlow to store his boat. On the way to Gundagai he checked out the Tumut and Murrumbidgee rivers, ready for our next adventure.
Burnt out harvester 
Mother and child wombats