Customer Testimonial and Trip Report-The McCool Family
Words by Lida and Jim McCool
Exodus 14 trip to Tibooburra 21st September-3rd October (3392km).
Having got our brand new Exodus 14 handed over at the beginning of September, we set out for a memorable trip to the real Outback with our 16 year old daughter, her friend and our 2 dogs, Rudie and Mimi.Our first stop was the Caravan park in Dunedoo where we enjoyed a lovely quiet campsite and an evening meal by the fire.
The next day we pushed on to Nyngan on the Bogan river for an overnight stay and the following day we followed the Barrier Highway through Cobar to Wilcannia where we camped at the new caravan park Warrawong on the Darling. We had a beautiful camp on the shores of the billabong enjoying the spectacular colours of the Outback sunset over the water.
Fishing for carp!
Our campsite at Warrawong on the Darling – and no, the truck on the right is NOT our tow vehicle!
Miss Rissole, the resident pet Emu at Warrawong took a shine to our trailer and wouldn’t let us leave!
When we finally managed to distract the emu’s attention onto something else (and that took some doing!) we started off for White Cliffs, 92 Kms up the road. Here the weather quickly turned to storm and rain overnight and into the next day.
They managed to get over 20 mls of rain in just a few hours!
That didn’t stop us from fossicking for opal, once the rain stopped…
Rudie is surveying the opal fields
After a creek crossing and a very wet road we got back to Wilcannia for the night and the next day reached the historic town of Silverton near Broken Hill where we camped for a couple of days at the friendly Penrose Park.
We had the Oval all to ourselves.
The historic Silverton Hotel.
Silverton very busy main street….
The long shadows in the golden evening sun.
We spent the next day visiting Broken Hill, the art galleries and enjoyed the laid back and friendly atmosphere …
Before admiring the curvature of the earth at sunset from the Mundi Mundi lookout.
After the recent rain the Silvercity highway from Packsaddle to Tibooburra was pretty rough and cut up and we decided it was wiser to make an overnight stop at the rest area in Packsaddle rather than push on.
In the morning we stopped at Milparinka to visit the historic settlement…
Before finally reaching Tibooburra where we set up camp at the Aboriginal reserve campground.
We had a great camp on this wonderful site, feeling the spiritual presence of those who lived here for such a long time before us and enjoying the endless blue sky and night stars.
When we arrived there was no one else there, so we got the best site in the whole campground!
Tibooburra amazing landscape.
Sitting on top of the world on the Sunset lookout in Tibooburra!
Sunrise at Tibooburra campground.
It was time to leave and we set off early for the long drive through Wanaaring to Bourke on the Cut Line. It was a surprise to find the road still closed , and we called into the General Store to enquire about the roads condition. It was all good and the road had just been reopened, “with caution”.
We drove for over 10 hours in very remote areas, dodging wild goats, kangaroos and emus in scorching 36 degrees heat, meeting only a couple of cars on our journey and one or two road-trains.
An epic drive we will never forget!
When we finally reached Nyngan there was an inch of dust in the back of the car…
The inside of the Exodus however, was remarkably dust free. Thank God!
We settled into a lovely warm evening after the best shower of our life on the banks of the Bogan river.
It took us a couple of days to recover and shake down the dust. Our last stop on our way back to Sydney was at Coolah. We camped on really green luscious grass for the first time in our travels, although it was the coldest night we had in the whole trip. But we were snug and cosy inside the Exodus!
The Exodus performed flawlessly on our 3,392km track, in some very poor conditions, indeed. It coped well with water crossings (including an over-flowing creek at flooded White Cliffs, which stopped other vehicles in their tracks), as well as ruts, corrugations, sharp rocks, and bull-dust. While we were free-camping it gave us a degree of comfort that felt like a luxury hotel.
Now that it has proved itself, we can’t wait to take it further and farther afield.
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