Thursday, 30th May ~ Broken Hill, NSW

Broken Hill, BHP and Pro Hart spring to mind.

A bit like Mount Isa, or most mining towns, the mine is there, always there. Here is Broken Hill's mullock heap looming over the area.

Pro Hart's gallery,
complete with his car collection
.. very interesting.

Sculpture by Pro Hart,
shows the various faces of the miners.

Some of the houses are fascinating .. not only corrugated iron for the roof, but used for the walls as well. This is one of the better looking houses, nicely painted and fairly neat looking. I'll leave it to your imagination to what some, not-so-good looking houses look like (remember that corrugated iron rusts). 

 



When you come to Broken Hill, a visit to the Living Desert is a must. Those sculptures are something to see.

No doubt, you've seen the most photographed sculpture ..

but I didn't know there were more .. did you ?

 

 

The sculptures are on top of a hill, such a magnificent platform, offering 360 degree views

 

 

Another must see is Menindee Lakes - Broken Hill's water supply - and great for birds. Just 110km drive from Broken Hill.

Kinchega National Park falls within the Menindee area with the Darling River forming one of the park boundaries. Camp sites are available along the river drive (mental note for the next trip).

 

You can see the high water line on the trees .. we'd be under water.

 

Right about here, an emu ran out of the bush at us, we just about ran over his toe !  All of us got a big fright and said 'oh dear, that was close'.

Tuesday, 28th May ~ Peterborough, SA and Broken Hill, NSW

Such is the landscape and roadways, we have to go south to eventually go east. Anyway, there it is, destination, Peterborough.

We were welcomed to Peterborough by a model steam train, and knew that trains had played a large part in history here. In fact, all four entrances to Peterborough have a model train to welcome you. 

The tourist information centre is housed in a railway carriage

where you learn some more Peterborough railway history

There's also a couple of 'in tact' compartments

Here's 'Bob the Railway Dog' who has a similar story as 'Red Dog'

For lunch we had a pie .. it had to be the best pie of the trip and we were in good company, surrounded by movie stars. The Capital Theatre has been converted into a coffee shop .. with heaps of character ...

 

 

 

Today we said farewell to South Australia and hello (again) to NSW.

 

We've been touring around SA
for four weeks and
tallied up 161 bird species.

It'll take us a few days to get out of the habit of waving to drivers, it's very big in SA. Everyone waves, not just the caravaners.

 

 

Once we crossed back into NSW, the waves were limited to caravaners.

 

It's also farewell to these signs .. a SA road safety initiative. We were very curious as to who it refers to. Are you?

 

 

Destination: Broken Hill

 

 

Here we are in Broken Hill - yes, short sleeves (for a few hours anyway). You can see that it's a bit 'cosy'.

 

 

Every kit should contain the TV Signal Finder .. this is before I wound up the TV aerial ! We may never leave !

 

I was interested to read the 'blurb' about Broken Hill that 'it's smack bang in the middle of nowhere'. Hah, well it is, but we're ready for exploring.

Sunday, 26th May ~ Flinders Ranges (all covered)

For three excursions now, we followed all the helpful instructions and directions to find the Short-tailed Grasswren, but failed. We've been stuck with spinifex (ouch!), stumbled on loose rocks, scrambled up hills, walked and walked to try and find the little 'b' but, nope, nothing, zero, ziltch ! We declare them extinct!

However, we did see the rare Red Throats and the gorgeous Elegant Parrot (sorry no pics). Always a treat to see the little Silvereyes (right next to our van)

 

And Mallee Ringneck (again, right next to our van and throughout the park - or resort as it's known here).

Would you believe we saw Wood Ducks on Wood Duck Dam (the 2nd time - nobody there the 1st visit)

Intrigued by the landscape, and the colours, I've taken so many photos. Everything changes colour every day, some times the hills are pink, some times blue. I've chosen a few to show you.

More intrigued with the shape of everything, I went onto Google maps satellite view and found Wilpena Pound.

Thanks Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound, the weather was absolutely perfect (cold, but that's ok, it is almost winter).

Here's the cook in the kitchen .. yummy Indian Tuna and dahl.

Friday, 24th May ~ Flinders Ranges, SA (part 1)

Hello from Wilpena Pound .. woof woof :)

where GLAMPING has well and truly hit top of the tree .. we arrived at 11.30am in a cool 11 degrees, with an awful wind from a glacier, so we tucked up with the heater on !  We're booked in for four nights, so we don't feel too bad about chillling out.

You can't stay cooped up in the van all day, so we stretched out our muscles for a 'cool' afternoon walk (just 7km !).

 

We woke to a very cool 6 degrees (inside the van, ie colder outside), and didn't waste too much time before setting off for the day with smoko and lunch packed. Thankfully little or no wind from the glacier today. The scenery is just breath taking ... no mistaking the view of Wilpena Pound from Stokes Hill lookout (the blue hills in the background).

Driving down Stokes Hill (Wilpena Pound in background)

 

We drove on to Winkawillina Gorge and walked (about 3km), to see more stunning scenery and rocks.  

The slope was quite steep on parts of the track, but it's ok, it's safe, there is a safety fence.

And here's a pic of the last goat who walked the track ... mmmm

More walking and scenery to come ...

Wednesday, 22nd May ~ Port Augusta, SA (again)

Here we are, back in Port Augusta after looping around the Yorke Peninsula and a smaller loop around the Eyre Peninsula. (sounding like a local now ...)

The weather turned quite bad during the afternoon of our stay in Kimba and on waking, it was only going to get worse with heavy cloud, gusty winds and showers (not heavy though). Lucky for us, our trip to Port Augusta was a short one and as the weather deteriorated further (very strong gusty winds), we were safely tucked up in the caravan park. Sadly, there were no en suite sites available, but happily, there was a spare site for us.

MENTAL NOTE: might be a good idea to think about booking ahead. The number of caravans on the road increases with every journey.

As we covered most of Port Augusta during our last visit, it was an ideal time to rest up, shop up, cook up and catch up in readiness for our Flinders Ranges sector. We've booked ahead at Wilpena Pound. Of course, I had to find out what the name means. Locals call it the Pound. Is it somewhere where we'll be 'locked up'? The name for the Pound, Wilpena, is reported to be Aboriginal, meaning "place of bent fingers"; this might either be a reference to the mountains resembling the shape of a gently cupped hand, or the freezing cold of the ranges in winter. The traditional owners, the Adnyamathanha, however, have no such word in their language. Their name for the Pound is Ikara which means "meeting place". Sounds like I need to find our more about Wilpena Pound the natural amphitheatre of mountains.

I've seen some beautiful photos of the scenery, hopefully the weather will be kind to us and enable the beauty to shine for us.