Beside the Darling at Menindee Lakes

This was our first proper bush camp. Driving down from Wilcannia to Menindee, we caught glimpses of lakes swollen with flood waters and Menindee Lake also looked full, but the Darling was just yellow - most of it's water being diverted into the artificial lake system. Still, it was lovely to camp by the iconic Darling, seeing new birds and animals. I pulled out the folding solar panel and hooked it up to the auxiliary battery for the first time. It seemed to do the right thing.
The boys started fishing enthusiastically but caught nothing but a couple of shrimp which promptly got used as live bait. As Fabe had spent hours fruitlessly searching for earthworms, I decided to jog to Menindee to buy bait. It turned out to be a pretty gruelling 8km return run in the cold windy drizzle. My knees got sore and I had to walk part of the way home but paid dividends that night when Fabe caught his first silver perch.
Next day we drove to the old sheep station where we learned the familiar story of ambitious expansion resulting in devastation of country and massive loss of stock. The shearing shed was well set up as a museum, plus there were hot showers! On the way there we saw lots of kangaroos and emus. There were so many of them in Kinchega National park.
That night we fished again in the outlet channel from Menindee Lake and the boys caught more silver perch. The all got thrown back because there is a ban on taking silver perch from the Murray Darling.