Day 30 Saturday 7th August 2010

Bike with half the handlebar missing


Fractured hold down hook

Hi Folks,
A subdued evening here tonight. Not one of our better days on the road. We set off from Broken Hill about 1130. About 20-30 km out on the Wilcannia Road heard some strange noises. Glancing back in the mirror could see a bike wheel close to the road. Hurriedly pulled over and the state of damage was apparent. The hold down hook on the bike rack had fractured and Susan's 2 month old bike had jumped out of the holder. It was secured to the other bike with an anti theft cable and was dragged along the road at 100km/h getting severely damaged. Very upsetting. If it hadn't been tied to the holder it may have been better or worse but in the end it just was. We took some pictures and i emailed the manufacturer. We will see what transpires. We are now camped in the trailer in a parking bay about 50 km from Cobar. Tomorrow we should hit the road reasonably early and pass through Bourke and beyond. They have some pretty decent parking bays in NSW and there would be around 10 caravans in this one. The toilets are pretty fundamental and smelly and the water in the tanks not for drinking but they are free.
Anyway that's all for today. As Tom Hanks said in Castaway "The sun will come up tomorrow and you never know what the tide will bring in" In his case it was a portable toilet that was the basis for his escape boat.

Cheers all

Day 29 Friday 6th August 2010

Interesting pattern created by the early morning sun and raindrops on top of the canvas


The floral emblem of the outback Sturt's Desert Pea growing on a dolomite verge in Broken Hill


Lift up bridge over the Darling. The last time the bridge was lifted to allow a paddle steamer to pass was 1942. The large concrete counterweight that sat on top of the lifting gears was removed in the early 60's to allow taller trains to pass.


This picture and the following ones are of a bird of prey at the main control weir. I don't have my bird books with me but a little bit of web research leads me to think it is a black breasted buzzard





Hi Folks,
Our last night in Broken Hill tonight. After Susan did a couple of loads of washing and I spent a fruitless search in town for a modem patch lead we hopped in the car and sprinted 100km down the road to Medindee Lakes. These are a popular target for South Australians who feel the waters of the Murray should evaporate from the Goolwa lakes rather than NSW lakes. The lakes are big in fact they are huge and full.
We drove around the town of Medindee and had our first glimpse of the Darling River this trip. The Medindee Lakes are part of a flood plane and in the past would fill naturally when large floods flowed down the Darling. Exactly how full I don't know. A weir was constructed across the Darling in 1949 so in times of high flow water can be diverted into the Lakes. This and other levee banks and weirs are used to control water flow out of and around the lakes. I can't remember the exact figures but SA gets about 30%, 40% evaporates and the rest is used for irrigation and drinking locally. There are some very nice free campsites with spartan facilities. After viewing the area we felt it would have been good to spend a few days here with few neighbours, fishing, yabbying and watching the birds. Of course we did have a very good weather day with little breeze and a warm sun. Our opinion might have been totally different had there been a roaring cold gale blowing!
We returned to the Hill pausing to watch an emu and 2 chicks scampering off the road. Tea cooked and eaten we refilled the car from the last Woolworths petrol station for many km's and dropped in to the Old Willyama Hotel for a last cup of great coffee.
Possibly the worlds slowest carpenters are working here at the caravan park. In the space of a week the three of them have managed to erect the frames of 2 verandahs each with 4 steel uprights. They are obviously getting paid by the hour. I reckon one competent carpenter could erect the whole lot in a day.
Tomorrow after a visit to the sculptures which we didn't see today we will be heading east and north. I would like to think we will get to Bourke around 530km but we will see how we go. There is a lot of flat featureless land to be traversed and I want to knock as much off as possible.
Cheers for now Simon and Susan

Day 28 Thursday 5th August 2010

We have now been on the road for 4 weeks, where did that time go? Tomorrow for me will mark the longest holiday in my life (excepting maternity leave, but that was no holiday). Today we did more touristy stuff after dropping the car off for a complimentary tyre rotation which came as part of the new tyres Simon purchased for the trip, light truck grade (LT) for those that understand such things. What was supposed to be a 2 hour job took 6, which allowed us to pound the bitumen, our feet are complaining.

We started with a visit to the Silver City Mint which houses the largest acrylic painting 100x12 metres "The Big Picture" see the picture here by artist Peter Andrew Anderson, it only took 2 years to complete, and features natural and man made landmarks spanning 300 kms. In the next couple of days we will head off to see the sculptures. We also visited Jack Absalom's gallery. I had not heard of Jack until just before our adventure started when I purchased some dozen DVD's of the outback which we have now watched several times over. The DVD's feature Jack, Ted Egan (didnt know him either) and Mike Leyland (knew of him). It is perhaps true I have lived under a rock as Simon is always saying..... anyhow I have found Jacks bush hints and general patter to be most enjoyable and had hoped he was in residence today, sadly not. Would have liked a painting or two but the price tags were a little more than my visa would allow, we did purchase a postcard though. Walking back we looked at another gallery which had me thinking about the prices asked.... when compared to a regular job x hours taken to create the work, the asking price is totally reasonable... why then do Mr and Ms average not value such creations and pay the $'s?

Stopped for lunch about 2ish after which muscle seizure was abated by some brisk walking albeit somewhat clumsily on my part...damn legs/feet! We collected the car and treated ourselves to a Bells famous milkshake mine turkish delight, Simon's caramel, and a walk through the museum attached to the milkbar. Sister-in-law Robyn swears you can gain weight just thinking about their milkshakes. We felt sufficiently satisfied with the milkshake that we didnt have tea, nibbles and a glass of white, followed by a glass or red and some chocolate... life is certainly tough on the road!

Cheers Susan

Day 27 Wednesday the 4th of August 2010

42kg native silver nugget in the Geology,Mining and Metallurgy Museum

Town hall 1891
Bon soir mes amis comment ca va? Nous sommes tres bien.
Pardonez moi I have had red wine ,white wine and port so i take no responsibility for what follows ;-)
Another great sunny day in the Hill. Today we accepted the challenge of the Silver City tourist drive. The drive is scheduled to take 2 hours to pass by the 118 points of interest. We completed the drive in 6 hours! but to be fair that included part of the historical walk for which there is no longer a brochure. Much of the old town appears to have been built and rebuilt after burning down in the period between the ore discovery in 1880 and 1905. The construction includes a dominant proportion of hotels! When one observes the scale of mining and the wealth removed in the past century there has been very little lasting benefit left behind to the community and a huge mountain of slag and rock. Makes one think that a mining tax to increase our national superannuation benefit is not a bad idea at all. The list of workers that perished in the mining operation is extensive and coupled with the horror stories from the Daydream mine yesterday is a reminder of how much we have improved in workplace safety in 100 years. The highlight of the tour for me was the visit to the Geology, Mining and Metallurgy museum which has some great displays and audio visual presentations.
Tea tonight was scotch fillet steak (cooked by Gordon Blue) and vegetables with a great follow up coffee at the Old Willyama Hotel.
It has been raining lightly but steadily this evening.
Tomorrow a tyre rotation for the pajero and hopefully a new light socket at the Mitsubishi dealer... exciting hey! We will go to visit Jack Absalom's Gallery. Apparently he is actually there so i will be able to advise him on some finer points of camp cooking and commend him on his bravery in driving a GJ Sigma in the desert onn his DVD's we have been watching or maybe not.
Bon nuit Simon

Day 26 Tuesday 3rd of August 2010

Down the mine i was tempted to suggest we were standing on the wrong side of the sign


Before the descent


The cut down camper trailer set up with no awning or kitchen enclosure. Pull the kichen out the back of the trailer for easy access to the cutlery. When we cook the stove goes on top

Hi Folks,
The great thing about Broken Hill is it is warmer than Peterborough as are most places in the world.
The day started under a slightly cloudy sky that soon gave way to warm sunshine enabling us to pack the swag away. A fragmented morning dealing with the minutiae of life, a new trailer hitch to raise the drawbar height of the trailer to obviate the need to back a pajero up a ramp to get the jockey wheel down, booking a free tyre rotation from the local Bridgestone dealer and ordering a new brake light socket from Mitsubishi broken by a heavy handed butcher trying to stop the globe from dropping out in service.
After lunch we proceeded to the Daydream mine on the road to Silverton and did an underground tour complete with hard hats and miners lamps. The only thing missing was a canary! When we returned to camp two girls on the mine tour were having tea in the camp kitchen next to our plot with the rest of their entourage. Life is like that on the road!
We had a nice tea at the Old Willyama pub just down the road from the campground. Willyama was the suggested aboriginal name for Broken Hill.
Interesting the difference between parks. Copley a park with some social life due to the fact the owners created a gathering point in the form of a campfire every night which drew people together to chat (and drink). Here at BH it is quite sterile with only immediate neighbours and people that you bump into in the camp kitchen or ablution block having a passing conversations.


Ciao

......POSTSCRIPT

I was reading some time back about the federal government plan to have Australia asbestos free by 2013 (don’t quote the year but it wasn’t too far in the future) I remarked at the time this would not be possible. Now having travelled many places country I am absolutely sure this is unachievable. Not only would most every caravan park need amenities blocks demolished and rebuilt, but homes in country towns would need dozing too. I am sure the government person responsible for the statement has no idea how many asbestos buildings are “out there”. Judging from the money Hardy’s made on the products this would amount to hundreds of thousands of buildings. The OHS person in me notes with dismay that fixtures would have been applied with the use of power tools, however judging from the age I figure this was some time ago, and so have continued to breathe whilst attending to my daily ablutions.....

Susan

Day 25 Monday 2nd of August 2010

Groovy frost pattern


Ice from the awning



That is thick!

Hi from Broken Hill where mercifully it is not blowing a gale nor is it raining.
A frosty start to the day at Peterborough as you can see from the pictures. The highligh was when I investigated why condensation was dripping from under the awning. Answer water was condensing due to the large sheet of ice on top of the awning. We had an ambling packup until more dark clouds appeared on the horizon and then a more frantic pace ensued. The trip to Broken Hill was uneventfull apart from several sections where rocks were scattered on the road and sprayed by passing vehicles and we arrived about 2pm. The swag was a bit damp so we elected to do a partial camper set up with no kitchen or awning.We are finally getting the hang of efficient camping :-).
We did a quick scoot around the shops buying socks and trousers for me, nibblies for tea and a cask of red and white wine since bottles last no time at all! Shortly we will sit down with the tourist guide and plan out the next couple of days. Looking forward to some warm sunshine!
Cheers Simon

Day 24 Sunday 1st of August & postscript

Susan examines a sleeper compartment in a Steamtown carriage in front of what she though was an inanimate dummy!

Hi Folks .. the consolation about moving on tomorrow is that we cannot possibly go anywhere colder than the weather is at the moment. We are sitting in the rather pleasant camp kitchen nibbling on cheese and salami, drinking red wine listening to the rain hit the roof and pools of condensing breath from our mouths. Today actually started last night when on returning to the swag i decided it would be a good idea to pack up the awning over the swag lest it ascend Mary Poppins like into the stratosphere in the gale blowing. Susan did this in her PJ's (wink) and on returning to the swag managed to sprain her finger. From her description of the pain I believe it must be almost severed although i can see no blood. With the awning down the rain protection was non-existent but the rain was falling almost parallel to the ground anyway. Of course rain it did but the swag was almost totally dry this morning just a couple of drips in the corner.
After composing ourselves we did the tourist thing. A pleasant couple of hours at the local rail museum SteamTrain with a guided tour. Followed by the Dragon Rest a local private garden haven planted to enhance the breeding and survival of bearded dragons. We then proceeded to Magnetic Hill where your car appears to roll up hill from a stationary position.
Returning to the camp ground we are confronted by artic like conditions. Thank God for the swag and its toasty warmth. Tomorrow Broken Hill.

cheers Simon


Magnetic Hill!

......POSTSCRIPT

It doesn’t matter how cold it is outside when we are camping be it camper or swag, we are usually toasty warm inside with our combination of opened out sleeping bags x2 and a feather doona in the middle. Of course when we retire it is usually freezing so we slip between the covers still clothed. But as many would know I am not one for PJ’s (family members would recall my need to borrow nighties for hospital visits for the birth of children after the hospitals stated a policy requiring such attire...) I get a claustrophobic feeling as the clothing winds itself tighter with every turn, so each night at some wee small hour I am tuggling furiously to rid myself of the clothing and again settle into sleep. This has not been a problem except for last night. As Simon reported the night was cold, it was also extremely windy so much so we were sure the awning would take off with the car attached, we had retired and became concerned so Simon (still fully clothed in is makeshift PJ’s) required my help...... geeze it was cold rolling up that awning with nothing for protection other than some baggy pink wrinkles, had the neighbours been at the ready they would have some amusing film.


I was impressed with the health clinic carriage on show at SteamTown. The distinctive carriage provided a mothers and babies clinic to country South Australia. The nurse lived onboard in 1/3 of the carriage with the other 2/3 allocated to the clinic. The nurses’ quarters contained single wrought iron bed, chair, table wardrobe, sink, shower and toilet. There were some photos of the original set up unfortunately my photos of those photos were not clear enough to upload.....so here is one of Simon instead!







Dragons Rest Dragons Rest was inspirational and Barbara Parry the owner/designer gave us a guided tour for about an hour. The property has been in her husband Barrys family for a couple of generations and in recent times was a market garden, some remenants remain, nowadays for self sustainability rather than as a commercial enterprise. The Barrys recycled many everyday items e.g. bath tubs, rain water tanks, machinery parts to create their garden. I particularly liked the rotunda.


Susan