With the new truck (Mazda BT50)and
camper, we (Lizzi the dog included) left Gympie on Monday 3 December
and we travelled south and west: going on the Wide Bay Highway
through Dalby, Newell, Oxley and Mitchell Highways then the Barrier
Highway to Broken Hill.
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| Our first night camping at Yarramlong Weir in Qld |
We stayed a couple of nights outside of Broken Hill about 20 kms, in an old place called Silverton whereby we did some touristy things. We descended underground at the historic “Daydream silver mine and were able to appreciate the amazing challenge that mining once was, we were given a real sense of of what it must have been like wielding a pick and shovel in such challenging conditions.
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| A beautifu lcamp spot at Penrose Gardens |
Silverton town, a quiet spot but in the 1880's it was a mining boomtown. Today it is a classic outback town for real but it has a different kind of boom – the Silverton Hotel played a leading role in many movies, from Hollywood blockbusters like Mission Impossible to 'Australian cinematic icons, Mad Max and a Town like Alice.
A stone building ruin in the streets of Silverton
We drove around Broken Hill and saw the sights especially the lookout over the town. It was located on a huge mullock heap and housed a very modern structure, the line of Lode. Here the Miners Memorial lists more than 800 miners who lost their lives on the job – a very sobering sight.
Miners Memorial at Broken Hill
A glorious river gum in the dry Umberumerka River Bed
We made a run for South Australia,
taking a couple of days and staying in a great Free Camp at Lowly
Point outside of Whayalla. We reached Ceduna on Day 6 whereby I also
started playing the Nullarbor Links holes. The greens were sand so
that took a lot of adaptation but a very good course in comparison to
others I would encounter. We stayed 2 days in Ceduna where it was
very windy and very cool! The seafood was to die for and we had some
beautiful meals of oysters, King George whiting and prawns. While
drinking a bottle of Oyster Bay wine I did think we were enjoying the
'good life'. We looked around the town and surrounds, beaches,
rugged and rocky bays, natural bush, dry salt lakes, granite outcrops
– quite diverse scenic beauty.
Smoky Bay about 40 kms out of Ceduna
The next couple of days we hit the
Nullarbor Plain and I played five more holes on the Nullabor Links
course, a very testing and trying time for my golf – very rough
scrubby terrain and the astro turfed greens were a whole new
experience – both caddy and dog were dragging their heels by the
time we finished the trek across the Australian Bight into Norseman.
Playing the holes were a great diversion to the tedious scenery and
provided a lot of relief and insight into the flora and fauna of the
arid zone.
Caddie extraordinaire
A bunker!
A battered ball!
What a fairway!
Some rabbit and wombat burrows
The tested golfer!
To be continued ......
