川の端でのキャラバンライフ | マレー川のダーリン！

川の端でのキャラバンライフ | マレー川のダーリン！

[Music] good day
good day
thanks for stopping by thanks for joining us
well we are on the last leg of our trip down the Darling River
bit sad really
all good things must come to an end
darn as we do this last leg we leave Manindi head down through Puneri into Wentworth and the adventure continues so come and join us as we share this last leg of the Darling River on with you
definitely worth it well we’re heading out of Wentworth and onto the Puner Road great to see the road open and even better to find it sealed and in top shape last time we drove this way way back in 2013 it was a dusty bone rattling dirt road rolling into the heart of town we pulled up at the iconic Pune Kerry Hotel it’s not just a pub it’s also where you check in for the Riverside Cancel Campground of course couldn’t resist checking out the menu might be back here for dinner tonight so the Palmer has um on being a Sunday night they only have pizzas on tonight um so that’s the bad news the good news is they do have gluten-free bases so you could actually get one
so that’s not so bad 10 $10 you’re paying there $10 for the site
$20 if you want power
okay
$28 if you want power that’s pretty good not bad at all so all right let’s go check out the campground
okay
driving into the campground it all came back to us this was a pretty well setup spot there’s a dump point heaps of space up top where there’s powered sights but we had our eyes on the river tell you it’s hard to beat a quiet spot by the Darling for the box key from the port pit stop or Boom Kerry Hotel before setting up camp so down here right next to the river you can’t get any powered sights but you can see our van up there up on that little ledge there there is powered sights and there’s also drinking water which is pretty cool I reckon toilets and showers are a little walk away but not ridiculously so it’s a great little spot last time we were here we had the camper trailer this time it’s the van and getting it down the hill and then through the trees to the riverside might be a bit more of a challenge
bit of a slow and steady mission getting the van down the hill threading the needle between the trees not exactly a driveway but hey that’s half of the fun right all part adventure to score that riverside spot what a magic spot Paul it is amazing it really is i reckon we could be the only ones here wow look at this it’s got a five pit and tables and chairs but I love this spot and it’s so peaceful good stopping by yep i think this will do just nicely so here is the original amenities block this is the block that we used when we were here in 2013
so here’s the coin deposit box you would need to get ready quickly pop your money in the deposit box and hop back in multiple coins will not accumulate time so if you’re not done in 5 minutes and you’re all soaked up you have to come back out and put another god dollar coin in there oh my goodness we were seriously impressed with the new amenities here what a step up everything looked fresh well cared for and super clean there’s a laundry toilet six shower shower
hot showers that actually feel like a treat after a dusty day
nice showers look at that
it’s always a bonus when a remote spot like this has facilities that are this good a single dollar
it really adds to the whole experience and toilets that are honestly some of the cleanest we’ve seen anywhere on the road
we came out here in 2013 this toilet block here wasn’t here it was just the other one was still the same it was a dollar for a couple minutes of water uh we came up in a camper trailer at that time and camp down by the river down where we are now actually almost the same spot we were here for the Punker races but I tell you they’ve really done the park up nicely here and I think even back then in 2013 it was still $10 a night now it’s $10 a night uh even today with our power $20 with power and water hookup I think on a couple of those sites we’re not that fast about the water and the power tonight cuz it is a bit cooler the forecast was originally 41 but it’s certainly a lot cooler than that you don’t need the power so not fuss about having the air con on
we took a stroll over to the old Punker Warf where an info board shares a bit of the town’s riverboat history hard to imagine now this place was once a bustling stop along the Darling apparently the wolf here at Pune Kerry is a natural wolf i’m thinking where that land is flat down there is what they would have considered to be the port what a surprise find the old Warf Cafe we wandered over for a look and couldn’t resist checking out the goodies at the counter safe to say lunch was sorted right
he said “Yeah he said that road was built in the 1920s.” He said “And it cut um it cut the Murray River off from the Fletcher’s Lake system.” He said “If you’re interested in
Well that was quite an experience the Old Wolf Cafe definitely worth a visit the owners there are so lovely and um having a good yarn there with them so that was a lot of fun after a peaceful night by the river we packed up and hit the road onto that final stretch of our journey along Mcdoody overcast morning a real change from the scorching 40° days that we’d been experiencing earlier mind you the cooler air made it for a pretty cruisy drive into Webworth crossing the Darling River one last time felt like a fitting end to the trip we rolled into Wondrous Crossing River Retreat ready to put our feet up for a few days and soak it all in thanks
well we finished up our trip here at the Wanderer’s Crossing used to be called Willow Bend but since the floods and they had to um redo it all it got washed out was shut down for ages but since the floods they’ve actually rebranded it as Wanderers Crossing brilliant park now I tell you this is um really welllaidout park you got um some nice sightes by the river but also some slab sites a little bit back from the river got cabins uh camp kitchen is amazing the um the undercover area here where I am it’s got a couple of tables and things i have barbecues fridge things so it’s a great little setup they got a fire pit going there um so that’d be great happy hours around that’d be pretty cool of course got the dump point which is um always handy for those that haven’t gone to um composting toilets yet like us um but it’s a great little park like this is really nice beautiful and pelicans out the water the two rivers where they meet great spot i love this place it’s interesting the how how different the the river is at the moment like the two colors of the water they really are different compared to um other times as well the main reason for that we’ve been told is that the Darling River is a claybased river so the bottom of it all clay whereas the Murray River is sandy so that doesn’t get quite as murky looking as the Darling River so it’s interesting the merge where they come together and just the different shades of the water anyway so that’s the park here um beautiful park here for a few days check out Wenworth a bit all right pretty excited today we are off to grab the new drone it’s been delivered here in Wentworth already
it didn’t take long no just look i think they sent it on Friday today’s Monday in Wentworth and it’s already ready to be picked up i’m very impressed yeah I’m very impressed
beautiful day that the temperatures dropped a fair bit now we’re actually cool overnight last night think we better get the Duna back out isn’t that lovely
what a contrast so anyway we’re off into the post office in Wentworth and go pick up this drone cool
let’s do it
yep oh what’s that
a new toy
your new toy here it is the new drone let’s check it out bag this one comes with
one wow
wow oh I’m looking at the boy with all this bit i’ll get back to you shortly once I unpack it and this is the DJI Air3s tell you it’s much bigger than the other one or feels a bit bigger anyway not that I got anything to measure it against cuz my other one’s gone but um yeah it certainly feels a bit bigger and bit more solid the camera I notice is different it’s got a whole new different um couple of lenses on it so that’s huge um the other thing is this time around I got the controller with a screen in it last time I put would put the phone at the top of it and you do it through that this one has its own screen so it’ll be interesting to see how I go with that it seems to have the same features as the previous one with the uh cinema mode normal and sports mode um the controls look the same so there doesn’t seem to be too much difference there uh we got the the battery pack with it so this is the um the the three batteries and the charge in that way uh a few extra propellers and things so yeah looking forward to testing this one out and I’ll certainly be a little bit more careful with it we’ve had a couple of comments and questions about drones recently particularly when you go into places like national parks and that all right first up before you even take off you need to make sure you have your remotely piloted aircraft accreditation RPA accredititation and for drones like the DJI Air3s you also need to get it registered with Kaza once you’ve ticked those boxes you need to be aware when and where you can fly the good news is there are plenty of cars accredited apps that can help you with that some drones like ours will even alert you if you’re trying to take off in a restricted area which is very handy now when it comes to national parks the rules actually vary state by state for example in the Northern Territory you can apply for approval to fly your drone in the national parks and you can get that approval for a 12- month period so it’s one permit 12 months it was relatively easy to do you do it online takes about a week to come back and then you just carry your permit with you everywhere you go electronically or on paper however you want to do it however the Northern Territory one while it covers all of the national Northern Territories national parks it doesn’t cover Ularoo or Kakadoo National Parks they’re actually managed by the federal government which is another permit altogether i didn’t even bother with that one within the parks themselves there are restricted areas where you’re not allowed to fly uh for example in Lichfield National Park there’s signs up in places where uh it says no drone if there’s an area in the park that clearly states no drones even with your permit you’re still not allowed to fly there new South Wales they have a different system again where you apply to the parks and services um for a permit to fly in a specific park on a specific date and from a specific location for example when we went to Barington Tops we had to apply online uh for a specific date that we were going to be at Barington Tops and we had to let them know where we were going to launch the drone from for example we launched from Thunderbolts Lookout and Pole Blue so we had to list those in the places that we wanted to take off from it only took 3 days to get the the permit back from there it didn’t cost anything so it was easy enough to do it’s just I think they just like to manage and be aware of how many drones are flying around the place in a particular time in Queensland it’s a bit more relaxed and you’re actually allowed to fly a drone in a national park without a permit but of course you still got to be mindful of the usual cars and rules like not flying over people staying under 120 m in height and always keeping the drone in line of sight things like that so while there are rules and regulations for flying within national parks it’s not necessarily off limits it’s just takes a bit of planning and understanding of the local rules before you fly so try and do the right thing get the permits and you’ll be rewarded with some breathtaking shots anyway so this is a new drone it’s registered got my license i’m not flying in an area that’s uh restricted so going to go check it out tia there’s something magical about taking to the skies with the drone soaring over the meeting point of the Murray and Darling Rivers the way the sunlight just dances off the water golden reflections and landscape i tell you it’s breathtaking capturing this moment from above feels like seeing the world with new eyes and I’ll never get tired of it we’ve heard that the Wentworth Information Center is a place to see apparently it’s one of the best going so we got a bit of time up our sleeve now we’ll nick across there and have a look at the information center oh it looks all right doesn’t it
does it looks really lovely
the interpretive displays ps Ruby Wentworth Visitors Center is packed with history and surprises from local stories and displays to hands on exhibits it’s like stepping into the past and honestly we could have spent hours here just taking it all in well I must say this is a very impressive visitor center so much to see here and learn all about the region certainly the Murray and the Darling my two favorite rivers well it’s dinner time and the Royal Hotel comes highly recommended and we’re hopeful the meals are just as impressive as the atmosphere promises no it’s not the end of the world i’ve moved away from my pali tonight and gone with a look at that glutenfree spaghetti bolognese $20 meals here at the Royal in Worth ripper value so last time we were here when we did the Murray River tour we never went out to this place here but down at the junction there’s actually a junction river walk you go across a foot bridge that takes you out to this little island um basically where the two rivers meet so anyway thought we’d check it out this time we’ll go and see what’s here it’s a nice little um picnic spot here too
lovely got toilets and
Yeah toilets picnic tables so here we are here and you walk up here to the junction so that’s the Darling River over there and over this side is the Murray River i was just reading they’re not even sure if this is man-made or if it’s a natural causeway between the two of them so so that was interesting they can’t even be certain if it it’s man-made or if it’s not so now we’ll head out to the um merge point which I got some nice shots of last time and we’ll look at it from this angle [Applause] so we are now making our way to the end of the Darling River where it flows into the Mray or merges with a Mray and finishes up this road trip it’s not a particularly long walk here but it’s interesting the different types of flora they end up walking through to get to this place here from sort of scrubby bush land to these reads type things
reads i think
I suppose it’s a type of swamp grass or something
yeah possibly
maybe there’s an interpretive board somewhere to tell us
h Let’s hope so and sure enough there was one just waiting around the corner so this is the Darling River almost to the very end of it within meters of the end of it then you come over here on this side and you got the Murray River and you’ll notice it’s much clearer you can actually see the bottom over here it’s totally different water we did it
the end of the Darling River there is the end right here
right here after that no more Darling River no we’ve managed to find the very start of the river back in um halfway between Bwarina and Burke where the Kolgoa River and the Bowen River meet to form the Darling and here we are at the end where the Darling River now flows into the Marray River start to finish
wow
journey complete tick anyway here we are
here we are
end of the Darling River we’ll just stay here and enjoy it for a few minutes
yeah definitely the viewing platform wasn’t enough for Wenda oh no she spotted a sketchy little path and thought
why not
so now she’s out on the tip of the junction island channeling her inner explorer and maybe just testing our health insurance this could be good that could be even better woohoo end of the down river yay today is our last day on this epic Darling River run road trip what a great experience it’s been so we spent the past few days here at Wentworth and the weather’s just turned today talk about uh time to perfection it’s um raining a bit today it’s been so warm recently last couple of days cooled down a little bit but overall it’s been very hot run this time of year and we’ve done this in where are we the the beginning of March basically and but I think it’s unusually hot for this time of year that’s it another big tick the Darling River run
most definitely
well most of it except for that bit we couldn’t get to but
just the tila bit for all the rest we got to
we’ll have to go back and do it again
yeah definitely definitely hopefully you got as much out of it as we did
oh we sure did
and we’re looking forward to you joining us in our next adventure as we continue to explore this amazing country of ours it’s
such an amazing country so much to see so much to do we’ll just have to get on with it Paul thanks for stopping by
bye for now
bye

It’s the grand finale of our unforgettable caravan adventure along the Darling River—and what a way to wrap it up!

We kick off this final leg by farewelling Menindee, before heading south to the peaceful and picturesque town of Pooncarie. Along the way, we drop into the iconic Pooncarie Hotel, enjoy a bite at the historic Old Wharf Café, and discover an awesome low-cost riverside camp that’s hard to beat!

From there, it’s on to Wentworth, where the mighty Darling River meets the Murray in a stunning natural confluence. We set up at a fantastic campground right by the water, explore one of the best visitor centres we’ve ever seen, and Paul gets his hands on a brand-new drone—taking it for a spin and sharing some handy tips for first-time flyers.

We finish our Darling River journey with a serene stroll on Junction Island, soaking in the peaceful beauty where two of Australia’s greatest rivers meet. It’s been an epic ride, and we’re so glad you came along!

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