Hi to all

Since our last entry we have left Broken Hill and we are now in a tiny little place called White Cliffs.  More of that later though.

On our second last day in Broken Hill we went to check out a famous local landmark called Bells Milkbar.  It is supposedly a step back in time to the way it used to be.  I will concede that they do sell milk shakes and spiders but that is the limit to their blast from the past.  Maybe a bit of retro (old) furniture but no 50's to 60's atmosphere that was promised.  And also their coffee was horrible.

Never to be put off our travels, it was off to a place called Whites Mineral Art Gallery.  This was a really good place to visit.  The artist, Mr White I presume, makes all of his artworks out of the different minerals that have been mined in Broken Hill.  He is able to concoct fantastic art pieces out of these minerals.  In the dark and under candlelight some of the minerals actually shine.  The photos really don't do justice to his work.

The next stop for your intrepid travellers was to the Royal Flying Doctor display at the airport.  First of all, you watch a 15 minute video, and then a short tour of the building, checking out the radio room.  A really big operation.  The flying doctor service is really incredible.  It is the largest organisation of its type in the world.  The Broken Hill office is the headquarters for a huge area which was 5 branch offices, including offices at Essendon Airport and also in Tasmania.

After the flying doctor it was off to show Deb the miners memorial.  Whilst we were there she had to sit in the naughty chair, giving her best scowl for good measure.  We jumped into the tractors for a bit of mining before heading to the supermarket for supplies.  Deb will be cooking some culinary delights in the slow cooker that will last us for our time in White Cliffs.

Deb with her rebellious look on her face.

Just doing our final checks before departing on the last morning and we are one indicator down.  As we pull off the indicator assembly to check the globe we see that it is L.E.D.s and not globes.  How crap.  Maybe modern technology is not always the best.  Anyway, not to be deterred we stopped at a caravan yard just down from the park and I must say, not the country hospitality you would hope for.  More or less, cant help you for a week.  Cant give advice to fix your problem either.  Awesome.  Did get a phone number off them for an auto elec and rang him.  Cant see you today, maybe tomorrow.  At least he did tell me what it could be, so we pulled out the plug and separated a couple of the pins and, how amazing, it actually works.  Now we are also qualified Auto electricians. 

We continued on to White Cliffs, about 290 k's away.  Most of the trip is really desolate.  Just made up of scrubby type plants, as well as bloody thousands of goats, emus and kangaroos.  Probably nothing else would live out there.

The last 90 k's from Wilcannia to White Cliffs was the toughest of the lot.  The road is fairly narrow and for the entire trip we had those pesky bloody kangaroos jumping on the road in front of us, as well as the ever present goats, and now, as an added bonus, lots of cattle on the roads.  There are no fences out here so the stock just wander where they like.  I was very happy to finally land in White Cliffs.

The township consists of a hotel, general store, caravan park, underground motel and tons of mineshafts from the opal diggers.  After setting up the van, in the rustic caravan park, we headed off on the heritage trail through the opal fields.  It is about 6 k's but felt like 20 k's, as, you guessed it, those pesky kangaroos all over the place.

Settled in for the night with out lifesaver, the hard drive, to watch a movie as there is no tv reception out here.  During the night there was an almighty thunderstorm with lots of rain.  Got up this morning and the park is really muddy, with that horrible sticky red clay/mud.  Decided to walk to check out an underground house this morning.  Most of the houses up here are either fully underground or partially underground.  The temperature here in the summer gets up around 50 C so living underground is a necessity.  The temperature stays around 22C at the most. 

The tour we did of the underground house was just bloody awesome.  The owners make a good living I think by doing these tours twice a day.  I will probably overload you with photos in an attempt to give you some idea of the house.  The owner says that the temperature ranges between 18 to 22C year round and rarely do they need to put on the air conditioner.  This is a huge house.  The first photo is the only part that is above ground, then you walk down a corridor into the underground section.  The walls are all rendered as the original stone facia is really crumbly.  The last photo is the beginning of his man cave still in the original state.  A really grouse house. 

 

Our next adventure was a bit of a drive around the town and to check out the underground motel.  The jeep really earned its money today as the roads were just so boggy and slushy with that horrible red mud.  We got ourselves a couple of bottles of water from the van and went looking for opal during the afternoon.  Both Deb and myself found little samples in rock, at least we think they are opal.  Nothing to make us millionaires though. 

We are now about to fire up the trusty hard drive again before our last night here.  We are off to Cobar tomorrow, a trip of about 350 k's.  Not looking forward to the first 90k's out of here though.  No phone or tv for the last couple of days so if the world has come to an end can you send me an email.  Thanks.   

By4now.