Waking up to this is hard.

While I had done a fair bit of planning for the trip one thing I didn't overly think was where was I going to spend the night.  Travelling solo makes this concept easier in that it is only a discussion with yourself if you should turn here, try that track or keep going, that occurs. But tonight's camp was several hundred km away as I was making my way following the Darling to Menindee. 

The drive from Tilpa to Wilcannia is a nice drive as the road weaves in and out following the river. The colour of the track changes from deep red to white floodplain soils leaving a unique Manly coloured uniform on the car (luck for me I'm a Manly supporter!).  The vegetation also changes from open flat pasture grasses to more tree lined shrubs of riverine woodlands.  

The section of road from Wilcannia to Menindee was less eventful with a monotonous mallee and Belah woodlands.  This was only punctuated by the wandering cows that considered the track to be their own.

The track itself was in not bad condition with the usual sections of corrugation and dust holes.  A track out west has the ability to take on different forms.  There is the smooth wide dirt ones that makes you think you are on a highway (until you come to a bend and the car decides to not follow the road). There is the track composing of 2 wheel ruts, generally something that kangaroos and goats have left. There is the deep wheel rutted ones with the scars of previous rain events.  And there is the most common one - miles and miles of minute humps that in isolation would go unnoticed, but when they come together they form the most bone shaking, teeth rattling, car destroying experience.

But for me it was time to find a track to lead me to camp for the night.  Heading out to Pamamaroo Lake the aim was to find a track that would lead me to a secluded spot (not that hard out here).  Following a random track however can be a bit of pot luck.  Some lead in multiple directions then return you to where you started. Sometimes they will disappear out into nothing requiring backtracking. But if you are lucky it may lead to something interesting.  Luckily for me the one I chose ended up in a clearing overlooking the magnificent lake just as the sun was setting again.