Thursday, 6th June ~ Bourke, NSW

Thursday, 6th June ~ Happy Queensland Day !

Bourke (pop. 2,145 - approx. 33% Indigenous) "Gateway to the Real Outback" !

It has 40 police in the town! And I just read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, that states Bourke tops the list "more dangerous than any country (town) in the world  ... mmm.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bourke-tops-list-more-dangerous-than-any-country-in-the-world-20130201-2dq3y.html


We're staying in Kidmans Camp (where we stayed during our 2012 trip). I'm happy to say that it's a very relaxed atmosphere.

 

with a couple of walks around the property as well as good bird watching (of course). The PV Jandra operates on the Darling River, just a short walk from Kidmans Camp.

 

 

 Something to do with those horseshoes you have hanging around the place.

 

 

The amenities need a little work though ...

Cook on duty (again)

One of the not-so-friendly encounters
(scorpion trying to wear my shoes !)

Here's a couple of snoozy types

so relaxed here at Kidmans Camp, you can snooze the day away.

Tawny Frogmouth













While out bird watching we came across a flock (300 plus) of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos .. whoop whoop de whoop !

 

 

 

A little bit of history:  In 1892 young writer Henry Lawson was sent to Bourke by Bulletin editor to get a taste of outback life and to try to curb his heavy drinking. In Lawson's own words "I got £5 and a railway ticket from the Bulletin and went to Bourke. Painted, picked up in a shearing shed and swagged it for six months". The experience was to have a profound effect on the 25 year old and his encounter with the harsh realities of bush life inspired much of his subsequent work. Lawson would later write "if you know Bourke you know Australia".

Fred Hollows, the famous eye surgeon, was buried in Bourke after his death in 1993. He had worked in Bourke in the early 1970s and had asked to be buried there.

Wednesday, 5th June ~ Cobar, NSW

With such a beautiful sunrise at Warrawong on the Darling, it was a bit sad to leave. But what can you do?  Move in ?

See what I mean ...
no photo enhancements here,
and all pics
taken using my trustee HTC phone !
Beautiful ...

Each evening, Warrawong on the Darling, has a fireside happy hour and a few people had commented about the numbers of goats grazing near the roadside. Up until Warrawong, we had seen some goats, but not in the numbers that we saw driving from Wilcannia to Cobar ! There were thousands.

Interestingly though, no road kill. I thought goats were supposed to be dumb, but they've worked it out, stay off the road. They must be smarter than emus - we've seen a few squashed ones, that makes me sad, but oh well. When they dart out across the road, it's no wonder.

 

 

This section of our journey offered plenty of rest stops to choose from for our smoko stop.

All of them had vans (varying numbers) parked up, and no doubt would have been there for an overnighter - and why not? The rest stops are very roomy.



The 'ornamental' trees along the highways have been interesting too. We'd seen a cup tree near Elliston (SA), and on this trip we saw other ornamental trees; a bottle tree, a cap tree, a shoe tree, a toy tree and a 'left over tree' (you name it, it was hanging in the tree).

Gives you a laugh along the way and
makes you think you should bring
something along for the next tree ...









We arrived in Cobar at lunch time, set up, had a quickie 'healthy' lunch (more on that later), did a bit of shopping for some necessaries = grape juice and cow juice. Did a quickie tour of Cobar to ensure that nothing had changed since we were last here and back to the van to update the blog. Ha ! The internet speed was sooo sloowwa, that I couldn't operate and gave it all away. Up early to try again - it was faster, but who needs that stress. Abandon update altogether. Still, I shouldn't complain, we live in a big country; this is the outback afterall. (Backdated update now being done in Bourke!)

On our 2012 trip, we visited Cobar (pop 4,500). The town looks cleaner than we remembered this time. The bakery is still the same .. yummy (yeah, remember I said about the healthy lunch ...?). While the pies are yummy, we now have a new benchmark, set by Peterborough. And I have to say, Peterborough is still on top ! But when it comes to a matchstick .. well, Cobar is the winner. That delicate crisp pastry, with lashings of luscious whipped cream and a stream of sweet strawberry sauce, topped with a generous swipe of strawberry icing. Awh stop !  I want another one now.

 this is my half, it's double the size.

Cobar is "The Jewel of the Outback". It's a bustling and prosperous town with a mixture of old and modern buildings which chronical its history through its last 140 years. The town is steeped in pastoral and mining history. Cobar mines copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc. You can learn all this and more in the Cobar Heritage Centre (information centre). What a fantastic building.

Did you know? During my research about Cobar, I read that, should you decide to move to Cobar, you may be eligible for a $7000 grant? WOW.

When you see all the travellers on the road, I do wonder about a town's ability to cope with the influx of people and provide assorted basic services. Is it a drain on its resources eg water? This is the sign in the shower in Cobar. I'd like to think that the traveller $$ is doing some good for the town/community, in other words, "I hope the books balance". And everyone's a winner !!  that's ok, now break into song ...

 

Monday, 3rd June ~ Warrawong on the Darling, NSW

It's one of the places, you just need to stay another day. Relax, kick back, take in the serenity. (Especially after a couple of rainy days.)

For you to enjoy just a little bit more, here's a link to the website.
http://warrawongonthedarling.com.au/

These Red-tailed Black Cockatoos fly in every afternoon

Waking up to a picture perfect morning, that clinched the decider ... we're staying another day!

 

Camping is on offer here too .. just go up this road to the campsite

 

Another angle on that gorgeous water view

 

Just hanging around, some charm and character

 

This 'tree painting' didn't escape me

 

 

 



Saturday, 1st June ~ Broken Hill, NSW (Silverton and Plan B)

We are at a decision point in our trip, and finding it hard to make the decision. Which way do we go next?  The trouble being, when we make that decision, the road kinda sets things in place and we're set on a journey. Road choice is getting smaller and the distances between towns increases.

However, the decision was made for us ~ the weather set in, so move to Plan B, stay put and do nothing.

Luckily, before the weather turned bad, we visited Silverton (pop 89). 25km north-west of Broken Hill.

Some interesting facts about Silverton:
Silverton's unique landscape has drawn filmmakers from around the world. Print and television commercials have been made there for decades. A commercial is shot in Silverton every few months. There are too many to mention, but some of the some of the companies to shoot the landscape include the British Lions, Panasonic, Landrover, Telstra, Coca Cola, West End Beer, Dove Soap, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, Pajero, Ampol, Pennzoil, Smiths Chips, Gatorade, Pepsi, and Master Card. Movies too of course, Mad Max and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, plus 24 (or so) others.
If you feel inclined, here's some more info

http://www.silverton.org.au/films.htm

Just outside of Silverton, is a look out where you can take in the vast views of the Mundi Mundi Plane. It stretches 400km to the west to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Mundi Mundi means no water, that seems pretty accurate. You may recognise this road from a movie or two?

 

Back in wet Broken Hill .. What else do you do when the weather turns bad ? Coffee with a view.

We love our Travel Scrabble

Listening to our latest audio book

and research
"The closest major city to Broken Hill is Adelaide, which is more than 500 km to the southwest. Unlike the rest of New South Wales, Broken Hill (and the surrounding region) observes Australian Central Standard Time,  a time zone it shares with South Australia and the Northern Territory.

About Film Broken Hill  ::  Like Mining and Tourism, Film Making has been played a big part of the Broken Hill mentality.Film Broken Hill is a go-to source for production companies, and has now been opened for over 10years.

http://www.nfsa.gov.au/blog/2012/10/15/broken-hill-time-capsule/

Did you work out the 'Stop Creeping' sign from South Australia?

'Stop Creeping' over the speed limit ...