Darlin' Companion - A Challenging Ride Along a Majestic River
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Darlin' Companion - A Challenging Ride Along a Majestic River

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By AusMotorcyclistMag - 27 September 2017

WENTWORTH 

The town centre is to the west of the Darling and you’ll find all grades of fuel available plus a Super IGA on Sandwych St, just around the corner from the very well equipped and staffed Tourist Info Offi ce at 68 Darling St. 

The Darling Junction Motel, is on the eastern side of the river at: 26 William St, T: 03 5027 3636, but if you need any servicing or tyre changing on your bike you’re best to ride back to Mildura and see the boys at Mildura Motorcycles at 733 Fifteenth St ( T: 03 5023 2046). 

For Road Conditions for your ride north it’s best to go to the Council’s Tourism website at: www.visitwentworth.com.au and hit the links.  

POONCARIE

The General Store, known as the ‘Port Pitstop’ is open 7.30-6.00 M-F and 8.00-6.00 on weekends. You can get 91 and 98 BP fuel here and it’s best to top up here as part of your ‘keep the fl uids up’ routine!  

MENINDEE

You can get 91 and 98 at Coombes Transport Depot at 10 Henley St and the best place to stay is at Maidens Hotel on Yartla St. (T 08 8091 4208) If you want to camp, probably it’s best to head west on Nora St and follow the brown signs to Kinchega National Park. You don’t have tar for long. At the park entrance take the first left onto River Rd. You now have the Darling River on your left elbow. Every few hundred metres you’ll find a camping spot. If one’s already hosting some travellers, you can be pretty sure the next one’ll be free.  

TILPA 

Tilpa reminds me of the hostelry equivalent of a legal oath: it’s the pub, the whole pub and nothing but the pub. (so help you God). Actually it also sells 91 fuel but the price is bordering on exploitation and so better to keep going to Louth. Owned by locals but run by backpackers, one of whom had good English.  

LOUTH 

Louth is like Tilpa but here the pub, Shindy’s Inn, is still family owned and run and has the friendly feel of a family business. You’ll get the idea from their website at: http://shindysinn.com.au/ They sell BP 91 at a justifiable rate during pub hours.  

WILCANNIA 

There’s a couple of fuel outlets here. The very friendly Pat runs the BP on Martin St and sells 91 and 95 from 7.00am til 7.30pm everyday. At Miss Barretts Coffee and Cake Café on Reid St. (T: 08 8091 5888) you’ll find very acceptable coffee and delicious homemade cakes and slices which self-described, “Shearers’ Cook” Chris, bakes fresh each morning. An absolute gem of a place, but not always open on weekends.  

BOURKE 

This town is nothing like you probably expect. Proud of its noble history with some beautifully restored and maintained buildings, friendly locals and a few good watering holes and cafés, topped off with at least one very good pub in the Port of Bourke on Mitchell St (T 02 6872 2544). Gotta say the Bourke Riverside Motel on Mitchell St also appealed as a place for couples to stay. 

There’s a huge Supa IGA on Oxley St and the best bar and restaurant is the Diggers on the Darling inside the RSL at 23 Sturt St. 

Paul runs the BP around on Mooculta St. It’s open and selling 91 and 95 on Mon to Sat from 4.30am til 8.00pm and an hour less at each end on Sundays.  

AND DON'T FORGET

  • Riding in the outback is hazardous and requires planning and care. In addition to the usual tools clothing etc, we each carried the following essential equipment: 
  • A FindmeSpot GPS Satellite Messenger to message our ICE’s when we are all good, or when we need help. 
  • Scala Rider inter-bike coms so that we could keep in contact with each other 
  • GME UHF transceiver to keep in contact with local heavy vehicles and homesteads 
  • Mobile phones 
  • You should NEVER be totally out of contact. 
  • Also: spare tubes, tyre levers and a 12V compressor for inflating tyres. Using this stuff, Robb changed a rear tube and was back riding in 22 minutes! 
  • A Camelbak 3 litre hydration backpack with another 3 litre backup. We didn’t leave any town without 6 litres of water each. 

DOWNLOAD THE MAP HERE

Ah the Darling River! Part of this land’s greatest river system; host to the only act of piracy in Australian waters; a place of myth, of history, an aortic artery to our history and development.

If you pretend to be even slightly interested in the life story of this land, you must ride the Darling River. Doesn’t really matter which direction. Downstream from the waterhole beginnings at Bourke to its confluence with the still mighty Murray at Wentworth makes sense if you start your days early and don’t fancy the sun in your eyes. Against the current will suit you if you enjoy the feel of a ride that pushes you farther and farther into the outback, literally to the Back ‘o’ Bourke.

I chose the second option and spent the pre-night at the Darling Junction Motel run by Lynton and Sandra. I first met them both when they lifted my bike off me after I’d broken my leg for the second time in 24 hours a couple of years back and I figure you can’t overpay a favour like that. Lynton’s is a keen biker and he rode with me on the first leg to Pooncarie. I was picking up a mate at the Pooncarie Pub and was glad for the company. These are not roads to ride alone and they are not roads to ride unplanned. 

The obvious place to start this ride is beside the confluence of these two great rivers at Junction Park in Wentworth. After your mandatory photos, head back through the town and cross over the Darling River and take the first left onto Wentworth St, which becomes Pooncarie Rd. From here you’ve got 120km fully sealed deserted road ride through increasingly dry country up to Pooncarie, the last extended stretch of tar for a few days. There’s BP 91 available at Pooncarie during General Store hours on the right as you head through the town. The stretch to Pooncarie is also pretty much the last time you don’t have a choice of route but from here on, there are options for you on either side of the river. Every stretch can be ridden on either side of the river with very little difference in length or road conditions. The local councils will be able to advise which track was most recently graded and which is in the better condition when you plan to ride. For this guide, I’ve just chosen one option for each stretch but there are crossing at Pooncarie, Menindee, Tilpa, Louth and Wilcannia.

Usually the most groomed track north from Pooncarie is to the east of the River so once you’ve refreshed at the Pub, continue north along the same road you came in on and you’ll soon come to the end of the bitumen. Your first stretch is an unsealed 30km section usually with few corrugations but a variety of gravel, hard packed clay, sand, bulldust and well-formed twin tracks. You then, for some reason, have just on 20kms of sealed road in the middle of absolutely nowhere (go figure!) before the final 60kms of unsealed smorgasbord into Menindee. Menindee has a good feel about it and has a great pub and top riverside camping a bit out of town at Kinchega National Park (See Town Notes), but whether you are overnighting or just taking a break here, once you’re ready to move on, head north out of town on the Broken Hill Rd. 

Ride out for 16km until you get to the Wilcannia Rd, with your target 137kms away. You’ll have a few kms of bitumen before you hit 128kms more of unmade but reasonably maintained gravel/ sand/clay/corrugations/dust/ etc. Generally the better riding in this section at this time of the year is east of the Darling, so head south east out of Wilcannia for a bit over 6kms and then take the left onto Wilcannia – Bourke Rd, signposted Paroo-Darling National Park 43km. There’s no courtesy strip of sealed road here, just straight onto the gravel for the next 137kms to Tilpa. Again you have the full variety of road surfaces from hard packed cracked clay to wide gravel to twin tracks to bulldust to everything in between whether it be red, yellow, grey, brown or black. And you won’t have much passing traffic to worry about. 

At Tilpa there’s the pub. And a petrol bowser. That’s about it. Best to swap sides of the river at Tilpa and switch to the western side of the Darling so head northwest from the pub and then after 1.5km take the second on the right (not the turn to the airport.) It’s then 85km of dirt up to Louth where you are greeted with a couple of kms of tar before crossing back to the east bank of the Darling and the town which is only just bigger than Tilpa but with much cheaper fuel. If you’re a bit over the sand, the bulldust and the gravel, you might fi nd this next stretch a bit frustrating as it has no less than 6 small stretches of false dawn tar in its 100km length. Hang in there because by the time you pull up at the Port of Bourke you’ll have joined the elite band of riders who’ve ridden the Darling, truly one of the must-do rides for any adventurous Australian rider! 

For a full gallery of photos, reviews of all mentioned hotels plus links to a google map and downloadable .gpx routes and POI’s please go to www.motorbikenation.com