Thursday 21 June (The shortest day)

We left Lake Mungo for Wentworth, the detour route, which would add about 200 ks to the trip to Menindee.   The road condition varied from good to bloody rough, though they are working on it from the Wentworth end.    We are talking dirt roads so maybe some explanation is needed, good is where the grader has been through recently and the going is easy though the surface is often loose, (in which case four wheel drive is advisable) but generally these are as good as (and sometimes better than) sealed roads.   At the other end of the scale we have corrugations, gibbers(sharp stones) which are sometimes embedded in clay, potholes and washouts.   In the case of corrugations, if they are reasonable you can get up to a speed (could be 60–80 kph) at which you are riding over the tops and the ride can be quite good.  

 The downside is that at these speeds you have to be watching the road ahead constantly as the surface can change in a matter of metres and hitting a washout at speed can do an awful lot of damage.   The point is that you have to travel as fast as is practical because driving at 30–40 over corrugations will shake the vehicle and van to bits.  We also talking of this being the case for (potentially) hundreds of ks.

Today we were on unsealed roads for about 150 ks, 100 of which were not good, so the rig has had a good shake and a check around in the morning will be top of the job list.

We looked for the ‘Big Orange’ at Wentworth and were somewhat disappointed!

We are now at Menindee Lakes and guess what, it’s raining after apparently having been sunny for the week!   We will re-assess our plans tomorrow.

Friday 22 June

A sunny start to the day for a change but the wind is bitter, we have decided to have a drive round and see some of the sights!   Several of the roads by the river are still closed from the flooding of six months ago so our tour is going to be a bit restricted and we start with the pub for lunch!   This is an amazing area, surrounded by literally hundreds of thousands of hectares of virtually empty bush is this area of rivers and interconnecting lakes with a huge variety of birds (you would be in 7th heaven here Pete!), we’ve not seen so many different birds in one area for a very long time.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog these waterways have been exploited and plundered for over a century and a half and at last controls are in place to try and manage them to everyone’s advantage.    This is achieved by holding the water back in the upper reaches and lakes until it becomes necessary to release some water.

This particular lake, Menindee, is 12 miles wide, 16 miles long and up to 6m deep but until 2010 it had been dry for over 10 years because of the drought.   As a result of the water management water was allowed to flow and fill the lake.   Of course, as soon as this happened the irrigators started using their government issued licences to start pumping it out!

It is a beautiful place nonetheless, just enjoy the pics…..

 

Saturday 23 June

Today the sun is shining and the wind is not so bitter. After a leisurely start, we head off for Broken Hill, Australia’s iconic mining town.   A detour to Sunset Strip –  a miners playground on the shores of Lake Menindee, I say this tongue in cheek as it is really a collection fishing shacks that have grown into houses in some cases, mostly without much reference to building standards or material specs!   These places go back many years to when the BH miners first decided that nipping down to Menindee for the weekend was good idea.   Many look as though they could do with some tlc but when you consider that for ten years there was no water in the lake, they probably weren’t used much.

Back on the road and a beautiful day for travelling, the sun shining and nothing much on the road (pretty normal).   One caravan overtook us (not difficult since we’re driving for economy at around 80 kph), once past he called us up on UHF and we chatted for a while about destinations etc.

This road again reminds us of the reason we enjoy travelling this way…………

…it is awe inspiring.   It is difficult to find the right words to describe this country, particularly when we demean superlatives such as awesome by using it, for example, to describe everyday trivialities.

Nevertheless, this country is awesome………………… this is the Barrier Range, from about 30 ks away, the range itself is about 15 ks south of Broken Hill.

Broken Hill from the south.                             Broken Hill from the north

Broken Hill has wide streets, set out in a grid, called Sulphide, Iodide, Oxide, Kaolin, etc.), it seems that each street ends in a slag heap but this is probably an illusion!   It is a typical mining town, ie; a place where work is done without fuss or fancy trimmings.   There are fine buildings but they seem to blend in with the rest of the town.   Its reputation was built mainly on producing silver, lead and zinc which has reputedly produced a wealth of 180 billion dollars to date. BHP (Broken Hill Property) was born here but no longer operates in the town.

Sunday 24 June

A lovely sunny morning after a very cold start. We have decided to do the tourist bit today and visit Silverton, a small silver mining town to the north of BH and in fact was operating before BH around 1860.   Today, its claim to fame is that the  pub, the Silverton Hotel, has been used as a set for over 100 films and adverts, including Mad Max and the church (the one at the back) was used in the film ‘A Town Like Alice’.  

It has become a tourist spot but as in many similar places it has been presented with mostly local effort with the resulting mixture of good restoration, sad ruins and ‘tat’. The restored cafe serves good outback style meals, everything came with a damper –  we didn’t try the Stockman’s balls!

Not far away are the Mundi Mundi plains, which again were used in the filming of Mad Max and featured in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The rather faded photos of the filming of both covered   the walls of the pub, amongst other things. 

Twenty or so ks to the SE of Silverton is a hill called ‘Sunrise’, where in the mid’ 90s a sculptor persuaded the NSW government to allow him to get a load of well-known sculptors together and put a series of their sculptured sandstone blocks on top of the hill, we’re not really sure why but they are impressive to a degree.  Sunrise’s 360 views are worth the effort.