A freezing day in Broken Hill. The sun has been shining all day but its freezing. Our car temperature read 12C but I’m sure it was colder than that. We spent the day around town, as we have had a slight problem with the car electrics and were waiting for the one and only auto electrician in Broken Hill to ring us. Its currently 4pm and we are still waiting. We’ve decided to stay another night here as we want to go out to see the Menindee lakes and possibly an odd mine or two before we leave. And today we wanted to stay close to town in case the auto electrician could see us today so we went to see the living desert sculptures, http://www.visitbrokenhill.com.au/pages/the-living-desert-sculptures/ they were magnificent set on the top of a hill with nothing but open desert around them. The cold wind stopped us from doing the cultural walk, I couldn’t feel my ears by the time we finished looking at the sculpture. From there we went to visit the Pro Hart Gallery. It was lovely and warm inside and the lady behind the counter was very helpful with her knowledge of Pro and his work. www.prohart.com.au It was a privilege to share in Pro Harts life and work.
We have just spent 3 beautiful days at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges. The weather has been warmish, a little rain but mainly at night. The wild life in the area is amazing. Wild emu and kangaroo abound. The bird life is abundant. We did a short half day walk to the old pound farm house and then up to the look out. The next day we went on a 4WD trip around the flinders ranges and followed some of The Heysein Trail. The weather being mild and the peaceful nature of the Flinders Ranges made for a restful stopover. Tonight we are sitting in the Broken Hill Caravan Park, listening to millions (I mean millions) of sulphur crested cockatoos and semi trailers. A contrast to Wilpena Pound. There was just enough rain on the trip here to stick the orange dust to the car, but not enough to wash it off. We need to do some washing and buy some food to eat as the reserves are low. I’m really missing banana’s. The last time I saw them was in Burra and they were $15.99 kg. I haven’t seen any since. Hopefully off to Menindee lakes tomorrow. We finally started our long awaited long service leave road trip on 31st May 2011, we left Melbourne around 11.15am and proceeded to drive out of the city. A forced stop on the Monash freeway had Fred questioning if the electric brakes on the caravan were in fact working. He kept asking this question over the next couple of days. Our first stop for the night was Horsham Victoria. It’s a caravan park we have stayed at before next to the Horsham Botanical Gardens and on the Wimmera River. The temperature got down to zero overnight and we were very grateful to our new caravans heating. We left around ten the next morning and headed toward Murray Bridge SA where we stopped for the night. Along the way we lost the arm of the extension mirror and drove over it. Fred walked back to get it and a semi trailer also ran over it so it wasn’t much good when he finally got it back to the car. Some gaffa tape later and we were off. We stayed at the Long Island Caravan Park at Murray Bridge SA which was a little way out of town but nice and quiet. I’m sure in the summer months it would get very busy as it was right on the Murray River. Our next destination was Burra SA. We had planned to stay two days here to look around the town. Burra is a living heritage town, its full of old miners cottages and shops some over 200 years old. There is lots to see and we have enjoyed not sitting in the car. The caravan park is very small but lovely and clean and a 2 minute walk to town. We had tea in an old pub last night with a big open fire. As we are in the Clare Valley area, they also had some delicious wines on offer. We visited the town of Clare today and had lunch and now we are about to explore some antique shops in Burra North. Tomorrow we head off to the Flinders Ranges to spend 3 nights, do some bushwalking and visit the surrounding area before heading to Broken Hill. The weather so far has been fantastic but I have a feeling rain is on the way . Back to the electric brakes, Fred asked another camper in Burra about the electric brakes which sent him on a journey to find an auto electrician, he finally got hold of a gentleman who was already in the caravan park working on someone else's caravan. To cut the story short, when we had the caravan hotwired by an auto electrican the day before we left he unplugged the electric brake connector and didn't connect it back again, so we did over 950 kms with no brake lights or no caravan brakes!!!!!! 9 days until we head off for our eight week trip. We still have no definite plans, but that's part of the fun. Today, we took the cover off the caravan to prepare for a week of packing. We like to take as much food as possible as it saves a bit of money once on the road. Its been a long time between trips for us. Our last big trip was more than ten years ago to W.A. We have taken the caravan away at least once a year since then but not for any length of time. Keep checking back for updates.
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AuthorChristine, owner of Trail Mail, wife, mother,grandmother sister, aunty and friend. Archives
April 2016
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