The morning looked a little overcast as we woke to another day in Tibooburra. Branch had detected an issue with the Wells water heater – Rose had showered with hot water and Dave then went to have a shower – no hot water. It was NOT due to Rose using all the hot water…. The water had failed to heat after Rose had used all the hot water – so after investigation it was determined that dust had played havoc with the gaspoint. After Dave had given it a good blow with the blower the problem appeared to resolve….

Dust was also playing havoc in the back of the Ranger – Branch stopped in to check the Waeco fridge which had also been having issues  – after cleaning it up and testing with Klaus’s lead, the cause of the issue seemed to be a faulty lead which McGyver and Branch promptly went to work on and fixed…

The plan for the day was to do the Gorge Loop Drive east of Tibooburra. The Outdoor Pastoralist Museum was the first stop along the way and was a very interesting collection of exhibits of early farming equipment and machinery. Ingenious yet cumbersome methods of obtaining water and pumping it into troughs for the cattle were on display as well as other steam driven equipment. Again we were struck with just how hard it must have been for the early farmers on the land managing in the heat. Drought and lack of equipment – and the sheer size and weight of some of the steam driven machinery!

The large wool scour area was visible where the wool was washed and cleaned before transport.

We drove on to the Mt Wood shearing shed – big flocks of budgies were in abundance along the creek area.

Mt Wood shearing shed was still in operation in the 1970’s but now is no longer used. It was again the same style of shearing shed that has been used for over 100 years…

Swallows were now nesting in its roof area…

We walked out and over to the suspension bridge that crossed the creek to the shearers quarters. These are now used as accommodation by the NPWS – people can book and stay there in the original but refurbished quarters.

We drove on past the historic Mt Wood Homestead which is now used by the NPWS.

As we drove on we spotted a large bearded dragon lizard  on the road so Klaus stopped to take a look and some pics. The reptile did not move off the road so Trev picked him up to relocate him off the road. Every time he moved the lizard, it ran  back onto the road and climbed up onto the inner side of Klaus’s wheels…Trev extricated him several times but he kept insisting on returning under the car…. Finally Trev put him on  a tree and there he stayed…

Halfway around the loop drive was the Mt Wood Gorge Lookout so we stopped and Trev put up the drone for a good view of the surrounding landscape. The gorge that followed the river was obviously green and the land around became progressively arid the further from the water source you went…

There were more ruins on the last section of the loop road. Two tanks filled with water were home to some duck families. Lots of old relics lay around the area.

On the way back in to Tibooburra we stopped at the third of the silhouette series at the entrances to Tibooburra – the largest one which made for some great pics!

The cloud cover was increasing but we went out to Sunset Lookout over Tibooburra where there was a free telescope to look out over the area.

Rose and Dave were feeling the flies so had their flyscreens firmly on…even with the wind!

Trev was behaving like a mountain goat jumping from rock to rock  – Rosie joined in with some assistance – thankfully Trev assisted to prevent any possible injury….

We watched the sun go down  – not so spectacular due to increasing cloud….

It began to rain when we got back to camp so we had dinner in the vans.