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 ...

 

 

 

 

 

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.