Saturday - Cobar to Mudge

Saturday - The holiday that ended too fast Cobar to Mudgee

Resigning to the fact that to drag the little van up any more dirt roads seeking national parks was not fair on anyone – we had turned to home.

We left Cobar and travelled to Mudgee. I didn’t want to go home but I didn’t want Greg to be angry and the van to fall to pieces either so we didn’t have much choice. Didn’t mean I had to like it.

We arrived at Mudgee after a decent sized drive. I have always wanted to go to Mudgee. We found the tourist information centre and the helpful lady gave us some information including where the caravan park central to town was. We then booked in and set up. The van behaved, the fridge decided to work and we put on our hats (beanies as it was freezing) and went into town.

Mudgee on a Saturday night

We looked a bit rough for here – Mudgee gets a lot of people up from Sydney – who obviously haven‘t been camping for two weeks and have warm clothes that look nice.  Not a polar fleece to be seen. It didn’t matter as I carry a bit of makup in my handbag so when we selected the first place to have a drink at – I nicked into the loos to try and make myself look a bit more human.  Made up and still in camping clothes we tried a few more pubs around town. One looked like our ‘King O’Malleys’ in Canberra. The next one had more cheerful staff but didn’t look as good but I must say that they had the best Chardonnays as house wines ever.

Mudgee is famous for its Chardonnay. I was in luck. We decided to have dinner at a little café as I hadn’t prepared anything at home and Greg was getting cabin fever from being either in the car or the van. The meal was nice, I had duck for a change and Greg a steak (which he said was ok)Then we went home for a game of scrabble. Only because I took it along and we hadn’t played it yet. I won by a point.

The next day was Sunday. It was sunny but cool. I planned to go on a run so left Greg sleeping and started running about 7.45ish. I found a few points of interest and mapped out the town, even found a couple of pubs we’d missed from the night before’s check out. Then returned to camp to find Greg still asleep.

I didn’t want to disturb him so I got my stuff together for a shower.

The showers at the Riverside Caravan Park are old but well maintained but whoever installed the shower rose must have though that no female ever grew above 4 feet and 6 inches tall. The shower when convinced to be hot – only hit me in the middle of my chest. I am not the tallest woman either.

Obviously the people here realized this problem but rather than replumb the whole row, they have installed a hand rail. This meant that you could stand with your back against the shower while it was on, hang on to the rail and bob down to get your hair wet. Kind of like water ski practice. Now I have decent muscle tone in my legs and had just been for a run but even I found being in a half squat position to rinse my shampoo/conditioner a little work out. I bet there are older women that don’t exercise as much that would have had a whole month’s worth of exercise just in having a shower here.

It was the same in the toilets when I went to use them. I wondered whether I was trying to sit on a child’s toilet it was so low. Again they have installed a hand rail in case you don’t have enough quadriceps strength to haul your arse back off them. Considerate really.

Anyway after my shower exercise I went back to the caravan to find Greg fully functional and awake so energetically encouraged him to have his shower – not mentioning that the roses were so low and then we would purchase a paper and go find some breakfast.

Greg found the showers as interesting as I did.

Wandering down town, we found a great little café with very slow staff but great coffee. You almost had to crash tackle them to the ground to get them to take your food order – then it took for ever – but that didn’t matter as I had my laptop, Greg the paper and we were desperate to find somewhere hot to go to once we got home.

The original bar in a pub transported
the the Gulgong Museum

Sunday was also the day I forgot it wasn’t my husband’s birthday. I was all hugs and kisses wishing him a happy birthday and all the rest of it until we got the paper and realized it wasn’t until Tuesday. Holidays – you just loose track of time.

Breakfast over and none the wiser as to where we could go to after we arrived home, we made the best of the district. We ventured down to Gulgong which is a small old gold mining town not far away. Its the town on the original $10 note! Henry Lawson county and apparently the best museum. We paid our $10 each to the museum which covered a whole block and went exploring. They weren’t kidding – this museum had everything. If you ever expected to see something in a museum – this one had it. Fossils, precious stones, farm machinery, old photos, rooms set up like the old days including shops, banks, a pub, bedrooms. There were displays of old phones, electrical appliances, books, outfits and uniforms, you name it and it was there. The museum also had a lot of reading about the objects on informative displays. We didn’t realize the time but about 2 and a half hours later with our eyeballs a boggling from all the stuff we saw and read about – we were both buggered.

Never complain your
bedroom is too small!
Gulgong Museum

Time to visit a winery.

I drove back into Mudgee and found  winery. I didn’t want to visit the lot, just a few. The first one was High Valley. He had some lovely Chardonnay so I bought some. He also does cheese and feta cheese so we got some of that too. They were such lovely people and offered to store the van if we chose to go on without it, after I told them what happened. How nice and they had not even met us before! We didn’t take up his kind offer.

Next was a winery whose wines were the same as what you could buy in Dan Murphy’s and weren’t much chop compared to the ones we just tried. The only nice wine was around $40 which was way out of our budget. We did start talking to the lady about caravanning and her husband and her have just got back from a two month trip. Picked up some good tips and bought nothing!

The last one was the Mudgee Winery. We arrived when most wineries were starting to pack up. Greg was driving and not interested in tasting. Suited me. There was a young couple on a tour complete with a mini bus driver. The driver and mine started to have a chat. Apparently he has a van too – so they yacked about four wheel drive cars and vans etc. I tasted some of the wine. Eventually the young couple purchased what they wanted and rounded up their driver – still actively engaged in conversation with Greg, and left.

Vinyards at Mudgee

Greg then had nobody to talk to and was giving me the ‘hurry up’ body language. I had been talking to the chap serving and we mentioned that some of the Mudgee reds were not as gutsy as we were used to. He proceeded to disclaim us and produced some lovely reds that even Greg the non drinker today had a try. Then we got talking to this fellow about how he came to be running a winery he doesn’t own and several things including town gossip until the sun went down and it was time to close up. We bought a mixed case of wine at the top end of our budget, he gave us a discount which was very nice. It was a really nice way of ending the day.

Driving through the vineyards - they are considerate here
they put a porta loo on the side of the road
thankfully I didn't need to use it on this occasion !

We went back to camp and decided to go out to the local Thai called My Thai which was supposed to be really good. We walked there which was not far and really nice. The Thai was excellent and since we were the only ones in the restaurant, the owner came out to ask us how we liked our meals. I greeted her in Thai and won a friend.  She told us she does lots of take aways – which there had been a steady stream of phone calls and people coming and going collecting their meals. We talked for ages. She comes from Bangkok and has been living in Australia for so long etc etc. Her staff started to pack up and her daughter who is also the waitress came for a chat. It was time to close – we paid and went home for another round of world championship scrabble. Greg won by 3 points this time.

Tomorrow it was back to Canberra and although we had enjoyed our day – I still didn’t want to go home. I wondered whether I would have felt this way at the end of the holiday anyway – probably.

Thursday - The long drive to Cobar

Thursday The Long Drive to Cobar

We tried to wake up early enough to catch the sun rise but just missed it. I would have set my phone but the battery was flat and therefore useless as an alarm!

All was not lost though as the sun wasn’t up so we caught the sun coming up over the water in a great big orange ball and it was something out of a tacky Broken Hill art gallery picture.

Pelican on the lake

We packed up without a fuss and headed toward Wilcannia. We really wanted to drive the river road that travels along side the Darling River.

However, less than 1km on the rutted dirt road, it was apparent that it would be the end of the van if we went too much further. We were going less than 40km/hr and it was still too rough so we turned around in a 1000 point u turn and headed back toward Broken Hill. We would have to go through BH to get to Wilkannia as the road is paved all the way. It is longer though but probably quicker. On the bright side we decided we would get some breakfast on the way through. We were really disappointed that the river road that was supposed to be a good road was so bad. Well it wasn’t bad for the car, just the van.

We travelled back to Broken Hill and had some breakfast, I popped into the local IGA for some bits and pieces, we got fuel and headed off toward Wilcannia. We wanted to get to Cobar as Wilcannia is supposed to be a little rough and has a bad reputation. However, it was going to be an all day on the road day and pulling up in the dark to set up camp was a concept that wasn’t overwhelming us with enthusiasm.

Its a sign - but where to???
near Menindee National Park

We drove for ages and came across a whole lot of emus on the road(live ones) so Greg slowed the car while I frantically looked for my camera, wound the window down and half hanging out of the window, taking off seatbelt and throwing sunglasses somewhere else in the car – took some of the best emu shots. It was so worth it. It also made the trip more interesting. Then keep it a bit more interesting, I played music on the CD player. I found CD’s I haven’t played in ages.

Emus on the road - a scramble for the camera

Emus running off the road

Handy hint for the day – Ipods and MP3 players are all well and good in theory but someone can come along and delete all your music with the touch of a misplaced finger on a button. CD’s still work!!

Emus running away. Caz's amazing out of the car window photography!

The landscape changed several times from scrubby low lying bushes to treed areas, hills, flat, dry river bed crossings with bright red dirt. All sorts. We pulled up at a truck stop for a quick lunch and a pee in another terrible smelling enviro toilet. Quick lunch was the operative word. I had bought a fresh loaf of bread and some tomatoes but there was no butter as it was in the van fridge. I don’t care too much for butter but Greg likes it so he had to go without. So after the world’s fastest lunch – as it was so cold and windy that one didn’t want to linger outdoors for long at all. It was back on the road.

Miles of nothing much

Same- same but different - the ever changing not much there

At least the clouds were good.

Wilcannia - the most interesting
part was this bridge thing.

Wilcannia isn’t much to look at and we didn’t stop. We arrived at Cobar at near dark and booked into the caravan park. We were both really tired but the best thing was the site was a slab site. We started putting the van up.

When we opened the door this time we discovered that the glass cover that covers the light that doesn’t work had fallen down and smashed on the floor. What a bummer. I cleaned up the mess and checked the fridge that refused to work on gas while we were at our lake camp. It was barely working from the car battery and the food that was in the freezer had all but defrosted. Another bummer. Then the leftovers I had from the previous days had not been kept at a food safe temperature so I had to chuck it all out. Now this was giving us the shits.

After Wilcannia - more flat scenery

The upper door to the camper that has to be removed and replaced with every setting up and putting down wouldn’t go in its spot.

Greg cracked the shits big time. It wasn’t that we were ungrateful to have a lend of a van from a friend we are but our friend bought the van to be used once per year at Burrunjuck Dam for a 3 week camping stint, once a year. And for that its just the perfect thing.

At last some trees. Perfectly trimmed underneath on
account of the goats and sheep that graze on the side of
the road. Something else to look out for.
I'd never seen so many herds of wild goats before.

 It gets towed there once per year which is only an hour from Canberra and put up for 3 weeks, then put down and taken back to Canberra. Not dragged for hours on end on roads, some dirt, some corrugated and put up and down every day or two days. Its also such an old van that the wear and tear that naturally occurs for a van of its age was catching up with it. She was just wearing out and stuff started to go wrong.

Aside from the fact the fridge now hardly worked. The inside light was buggered and when you pumped water with the hand pump inside parts of the water squirted up through the pump soaking the bench. The little light in the fridge didn’t work so you weren’t sure when the gas was on or not. One slider side also didn’t like to be slid in very much either and the rivets on the lid that clamp down on one part had started coming out. We would have to take her back to Canberra and send her to Jaco for a thorough maintenance.

The long and winding road...
(John Lennon song)

More to the point it wasn’t ours. We became very much afraid of breaking it so that its owner wouldn’t be able to use it come summer time.

Trouble is, we recongnised all of this but what to do now?

Do we go back to Canberra or try to press on?

 If we pressed on and something went really wrong what would happen then?

My NRMA road assistance cover will cover transportation of the van back to Canberra on a truck which is good insurance but didn’t solve the problem.

Lunch stop scenery

We really didn’t know what to do – so we poured a drink and had a discussion. Then we decided that we probably needed a walk, so since the local bowls and golf club is just down the road, we decided to go there.

Greg looked all right except for the black cloud hanging over him but I looked like a train wreck. I hadn’t had a shower so my hair was terrible from being stoomped down in a beanie. I had no makeup on and I could not be bothered trying to find my clean jeans. We could have headed to the showers but that would have taken more time and by which the meals would probably be off in the club. We wanted to have dinner out for a change. I looked rough as hessian underpants but nobody knew me here so I didn’t really care.

The club in Cobar has a big open fire place which was an instant hit with me – and a very ordinary wine list which wasn’t a hit.

We bought some drinks and I dragged out the road maps from my handbag and we discussed strategy of what to do next from a comfy lounge chair.

Going on would probably be foolish and may break the van beyond repair. We would have to start heading home. I was crushed. Greg was not happy either. I just felt like bursting into tears – our holiday over 2 weeks prematurely. Greg said we could go somewhere else – but where? I had my heart set on Queensland – the warm. I’d had enough of this camping in cold shit weather. Turning back would just be headed back into the cold southern areas from which we had come. Undesirable.

For 12 months I had looked forward to a month away – right away not coming home in the middle of it.  A road trip of adventure and seeing things I’d not seen before. Not a resort with lazy chairs so you sit like a jellyfish reading rubbish fiction novels, eating too much stuff and becoming fat because there is nothing much else to do. That’s ok for a day or so…but gee.

Right now I wanted more lakeside camps with nobody else but us there. Listening to the quiet and the still and looking up at the stars from our camping chairs and our fireplace. Even caravan parks with their lint dispensing washing machines and manicured lawns weren’t doing it for me any more.

We decided to head toward Mudgee. Which is cold but I’ve never been there and its supposed to be really nice. We expected to hit home in about 5 days.

To try and lift our spirits we had dinner in the bowls club Chinese restaurant. Common sense said to have steak but we were so bored for flavour we had Chinese. Of course it wasn’t the best Chinese ever, I’m sure the sauces came out of a Kan Tong jar - but the staff were very prompt and attentive and it was clean so we cheered ourselves up a bit and after our meal stuck $5 into a poker machine.

We won our money back and the best part about that was I now had change for the washing machines tomorrow. We strolled back to our cramped camp and went to bed.

Wednesday - Broken Hill to Menindee

Wednesday Broken Hill to Menindee National Park

I woke up with the shits – as a hangover for Greg loosing all my photos yesterday. There was no cheering me up and Greg was still asleep so I got my running kit on and went for a run. I didn’t feel much like doing that either but made myself hoping that the little endorphins that make a cheery face and lift a mood would kick in and I would be Mrs Happy Pants on holidays again.

I ran/walked/looked at houses in the streets for about half an hour and then found a nice bush track and ran it. At least my Ipod was working now so I had some music – even if it was only one play list as Greg had deleted all my music that I had off it by mistake as well. Something else to be shitty about.

When I was in a better frame of mind I returned to find Greg stumbling about and out of bed. I punted him out of there for a shower, meanwhile, I made a dinner of lamb shanks an put it in the shuttle chef for later. Then I set about packing up the camp. When we had had showers we departed bound for Menindee.

We got to Menindee which is not very large and found the information centre. The kind chap told us of road closures – which are now really important pieces of information, and camp sites. We had a quick drive around to see what was there – which took all of  5 minutes. Then we left this little town and went back the way we came to Kincheaga National Park and woolshed.

A flock of pelicans over Lake Menindee. I took
this out of the car window with the coolpix

I handed Greg the camera to take
another shot of the flying pelicans out
of his window. He totally missed them
all but it was a great cloud shot!

It wasn’t that far away and didn’t take us long to get there by which time it was lunch time. I cracked out my picnic basket with leftover chicken legs, salad and wraps. How posh was that! Lunch over we checked out the shearing shed and surrounds of the Kinchega woolshed. It was really well done. The shearing shed had been left like it was only used last week – except there was no wool or sheep about now. The pens were just as they were and there was an explanation as to why and what they were used for. We wandered around it for ages listening to the wind outside and imagining what it must have been like for the shearers who started there in the early days with hand shears – progressing in time to electricity. The last sheep to be shorn on the property was in 1967. After that it was donated as a national park.

Old windmill at Kinchega National Park

Massive old steam engines were on display outside with little stories of what they were used for and whether that was successful. Sometimes the bother of lugging the water and the wood to get them to work was just as much work as using a more manual way of getting the job done.

National Park camps are run by honesty boxes and envelopes to put your money in. We paid our money in the envelope to stay there the night and also our park entry fee and checked out the camp. The sad thing was that there were no toilets at all so we decided to check out down the road. There are 2 caravan parks in the area and some free parks. Mostly on the lake edges.

The Woolshed at Kinchega. It was enormous and now
only half its original size. They downsized the shed
with demand for the shearing.

The caravan parks did not inspire us. They looked like they needed a little TLC. One called Copi Hollow has this strange bunch of old houses on it. Old as in built 40 years ago not nice old like federation style etc. They all looked like they were built from recycled other houses and not been used in years as they were all grotty looking. It was really weird so we didn’t stay there. Apparently at this side of the lake you can water-ski so I supposed that the ‘dwellings’ were holiday houses for people who either lived on massive sheep stations not too far away or in Broken Hill.

Taking a punt and an un named but nicely graded road - with not too many bumps for our dear old and not enjoying her trip much van, we poked along until we came by a little camp right on the water’s edge which would do nicely. It had a long drop toilet too – which would do and better than nothing. We decided to stay here the night. It was a trick to get in and it’s the one time I thanked the van for being so small. It looked like rain so we set up without unhitching in case we had to get out in a hurry.

Squeezed into the little camp site
One of the few times I have blessed
the van for being so small. All hooked
up in case we have to get out quick.

That night was the best apart from Mungo. The bird life was sensational. The peace and quiet was calming. We found wood for a fire that someone else had conveniently left, and scrounged for a bit more wood for ourselves. Set up the camping chairs and little table. I cracked out the laptop still trying in vain to keep a blog up to date – but failing by days now, and had a gin and tonic. We were parked, set up and all good and it was only 4pm!

Pretty soon the sun started to set and the colors changed in the sky. The reflections on the lake were really pretty. Also the sun was setting over the back and that was spectacular too. Greg and I flitted from one to the other with cameras a clicking.

The bumpy road out, all sandy
and rutty.

Then we settled down to watch the pelicans glide past. The wind had dropped and the lake became calm and the slappity noises it was making when we pulled up calmed to an occasional splish. Not far away a fish jumped out of the water, a bird called, it was a really special place.

To make it more special I unveiled my cooked dinner so we had instant lamb shanks. All I had to do was mash some spuds and uncork a wine and we were settled in. Greg made a lovely fire for two and we sat while the sky got ever darker and the stars came out in their millions. I wished we could stay there a week.

Sunset over our lake with a convenient rainbow in the middle

Peaceful lake - I love free camps now!

Yep more pelicans
 Lake Menindee the next day

I had long gotten over my shits over my photos - telling Greg we would have to do the same trip again to Mungo so I can take some more. He didn’t seem to mind one bit!

Tuesday at Broken Hill

Tuesday at Broken Hill – Still!

I didn’t feel like going for a walk today so I didn’t. Greg felt a little better but didn’t look 100% so I elected to stay one more night.

Last night I had been reading all the interesting things you can do in Broken Hill and I had made a list on my phone. So after showers and putting the sheets on to wash – and hang out to dry – in the great big, wonderful, non lint dispensing, front loading washing machine, we started my list. First though a fruit breakfast to follow on from our vegetarian dinner. How healthy.

We made our way with Mrs GPS telling us where to go in her precise way to the Broken Earth Café Restaurant. This is perched right up the top of a mine on a slag heap and gives the best views of Broken Hill. It also has a gift shop where, on the way to the ladies room, I found Tshirst for my nieces on special. So I bought them. The loos were very clean and new (posh pee) and the coffee was lovely. The view was terrific and outside they had this really big artwork in the form of a chair that looked like a park bench so I sat on it and Greg took a photo. What a cheesy, touristy thing to do. Around the place were various bits of old machinery used in mines and it was very interesting. It was also windy and really cold in spite of the nice sunshine so we didn’t stuff around too long outdoors. On to the next point of interest.

Next on Caz’s tour of Broken Hill was some culture. We stopped by the Trades Hall building and viewed their display of union history. The building is really old, and beautifully restored so we took a few photos. Then my cousin phoned me and we had a chat about small business so I didn’t get to read much more of the display.

Outside again and in front of a civic building are the 7 busts of the founders of Broken hill – so we looked at that. Saw it, ticked the box on to the galleries.

Broken Hill is famous for its art. Pro Heart and Russell Drysdale did a lot of their works here. There are art galleries all over the place. We picked two. The first one was the Silver City Mint and Art Gallery which is supposed to have this great big painting in it – world’s largest acrylic painting on canvas. So we chose this gallery. They had some nice works and some cheesy works and really cool bull ants, emus, lizards etc to put in your garden. We were going to see the big picture but it was $7.50 each to go in. So we found a post card and looked at that instead. We were not that fussed on the artist’s style so it didn’t matter to us. There is also a chocolate shop and jewelers shop and I found some Budrim ginger lollies which are my favourite and cannot find anywhere. I bought lollies in the gallery and we left to find the next one.

The next one was the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and it had some much better works in it. There was also some very ordinary photos – in my opinion. Why someone would want to print an enormous photo of an aboriginal child with snot hanging out of its nose and hang it in a gallery stumps me – all I wanted to do was feel sick.

However the next room was another lot of artworks without snot of local street scape photos, taken recently and a long time ago. One is superimposed in one section on the other and it looks really effective. We enjoyed that. Then upstairs was another gallery. The staircase itself was  beautiful. There were some old Heidelburg school artists up there so we enjoyed that.

Culture part over on the Caz’s tour of that over we went back to the van for lunch. Toasted sandwiches in the sandwich press.

After lunch we did a bit of photos and blogging and then got back in the car and went to the Bells Milk Bar. Stopping via the washing line to get the sheets off in case we were late back. This historic place has been in Broken Hill since the 40’s or 50’s and they have some interesting memorabilia in it about the history of milk bars around Australia and the role they played – these are the café style milk bars not the corner store ones. Anyway it was very interesting and of course I had to have a small thick shake as that’s what you do. Greg had a coffee. I got a bellyache from drinking cold milky stuff and that was that.

Then we went back to the information centre to ask where a camping store was so we could buy a lantern for the van. After waiting for a while as they were busy. Found that there was one up the other end of the town. We went there and selected a nice Coleman kick arse camping lantern that can be charged up several ways and you can even put normal batteries in it. That sorted our light problem in the van.

The final point of interest and apparent must see of Broken Hill is the living sculpture. This collection of stone sculptures sit out of town a ways and up on a hill. Its best to go there at sun set so you can see the sun on the stone and its supposed to be an awe inspiring sight for all. We ventured out to the site, guided by tourist signs rather than Mrs GPS and drove up the driveway. There is a walk and a drive. We decided to drive to the site rather than walk as we wanted to take photos and didn’t feel like lumping all our gear.

The actual car park was MILES away from where we paid the cheery lady $10 to get in. She was so cheerful for what must be one of the most boring jobs you can do. Stand under a 3 ways covered in shed and take $10 off whoever happens to be going in. Anyway we drove for about 10 minutes on a one way sized but was actually a 2 way bitumen road. It got quite steep in parts and one wondered how the little tour busses cope with it.

Once at the top, it was find a hat and coat and step out to the wonderments of the Outdoor Sculpture Symposium. There was a family up there of two little girls and a mother. The mother was making so much noise to her kids who weren’t taking any notice of her. As I walked up the path one of the brats yelled, “stop you can’t go here”. To which I just glared at her in my cranky face and walked around her. It was tempting to push her over but I resisted. The mother didn’t bat an eye. Apparently being rude to people is totally fine. All the mother said to her children was to smile as she was taking photos of them.

So leaving the rude children family behind, we walked up to the structures which I must say were not as spectacular as I was hoping. Each had a display board of the artist and what they hoped you could get out of looking at their work. 

There was one sculpture that had hand patterns carved into it and some swirly stuff and that was this bloke’s dedication to his son.

The only one of any interest was an Aztec art inspired sculpture and that’s only because its got a circle with a hole in it at one side and you can get the sun to peep through the hole – which looking at it like that’s not good for your eyes but it is interesting.

We took a few photos, my camera battery went flat as we hadn’t changed it yet from Mungo. Then with the sun nearly set we got in our car just as others were arriving to view the site and left. It was really tricky negotiating the narrow and winding road back to the cheerful lady with the boring job. Some  people, desperate to view the last of the day’s rays on the sculptures had left their run a bit late and were speeding a little too fast for the conditions. This is where having a fat lady land cruiser with a whapping big black bull bar on front that says very politely,  “I’m sorry but I was here first any you can grow some manners please and wait”, is really handy.

We went back home to the little van and I cooked up some honey soy chicken legs in the electric frypan. The van is so small that if I wanted to do some veg, I would have had to put the frypan on the floor so it was all too hard and we just had chicken. The cramped conditions were starting to get to us.

Later that night when I went to upload my photos on the blog, I discovered that Greg has lost or deleted them. All my hard work into my photos all gone without a trace. I got really cross. Greg went to bed. I kept working, eventually going to bed really upset that I could not see my photos or use them in the blog. I was absolutely angry, pissed off and annoyed.

And whats more we are leaving tomorrow whether you feel good or not!

And that was Tuesday.

Monday at Broken Hill

Monday at Broken Hill

I got up early on Monday after a night of weird dreams and decided to go for an exploration run. It was a really sunny day and no clouds in the sky. It was so early that there was hardly a car on the road. Greg was sound asleep and I didn’t want to wake him. The first annoying thing was my ipod was flat. So I called it a useless piece of crap under my breath. Then I couldn’t find my runners or my hat and by the time I got myself organized and without my music, I hit the road. I listen to music because I love to but in the winter time the headphones cover my ears and keep them warm so it wasn’t long into the run that I had a smashing earache from the cold. Never mind. At least my phone wasn’t too flat and I put it on ‘runkeeper’ which has a GPS and you can see where you are. I ran into town which was further than I thought. Found some points of interest such as the street that the famous actor Chips Raferty was born and ran home thoroughly happy.

I was hoping to get a load of washing on as I hadn’t washed clothes in such a while I knew we were down to the last undies and socks. The trouble was the laundry was shut and locked. I checked it out on the way to the loos first thing then again at 7.30 hoping to get a load on the line and go for a run but still they were locked. By the time I got back from my run however, they were open and occupied – RATS! I would just have to grab my washing and wait and pounce. The laundry had 2 sides and one side was full of oldish ladies fussing over clothes but the other side - miracles never cease, not only had a front loader washing machine which was enormous, but a youngish lady was just pulling her wash out of it. Praise the Lord! I loaded all the clothes I had which were quite a lot and still had room – so I then stood and looked at it. I could not fit any more clothes in my sack which would have been 2 loads at home. What was I wearing then that I can put in the machine? I found a hanky in my pocked – in it went. Then my jumper I was wearing – that went in and it was a bit cold without it. Next I took off my bra and tossed it in too. Then I ran out of things to put in without being indecent so cuddled my washing bag all the way back to the van, very pleased with myself.

I fiddled around in the van and Greg still hadn’t stirred so I went for a shower. When I got back he was still asleep so I kicked him out of bed. Time is a wasting!

Greg felt terrible all day. I think it was the news of yesterday reacting against him. He was really out of sorts so I declared it a day of scrounging for free WIFI so I could upload blogs.

We ventured down the street to the tourist information centre to see if they could tell us where one might score some free WIFI and they said that the Gloria Jeans which was right next to the centre had it. Why is it all the chains that sell crap food like McDonalds and rubbish coffee have free wifi? Its not fair.

Deciding that we would go get a decent coffee first then come back, we hopped back in the truck and hit the main drag. There were not that many coffee shops we discovered but there was a pub come restaurant come coffee shop that had free wifi so we ordered a coffee there and they gave us the code for the wifi. You only had 15 minutes of it so I decided to get all the typing done first and then, with Greg doing the photos, upload all at once.  An hour and a half went by, our coffee was lovely and long gone and the staff started asking whether we would like to stay for lunch. Reluctant to spend money on food when we already had some at the camp, we declined, packed up our stuff and left. I had managed to get one blog up but it needed more photos.

Back at the camp I had 2 dishes of left overs so I combined them into one on the stove and we had a nice casserole with veggies. We broke out the camping table and chairs and listened to the traffic, dogs barking and surrounding industry humming and thumping away and ate our lunch in really nice sunshine.

Greg started to go through the photos from Mungo National Park only to find that one of his camera bodies wasn’t operating properly and all the photos were out of focus. This was indeed a major inconvenience, bummer, disappointment and one that did make everyone very cross indeed. However, he still had the photos from the other camera (he took 2 bodies along) which were fine so he played around with them in a program called ‘light room’ which is kind of a photoshop type of thing.

I ventured up to the office to see where we could get some wifi and surprise surprise, we could log in here. I got the code. There was another fellow there and he could not seem to get on the wifi with his computer. They had been having problems so I was hopeful that I could – otherwise it was Gloria Jeans for me.

I typed furiously all afternoon and Greg played with photos, eventually sorting a way that he reorganized them into smaller files that would not take long to upload – therefore cutting the time  we had to fart around with the whole thing and could get on with having a holiday. I managed to get on the free wifi without a problem and quickly got rid of all those rubbish emails you get out of my in box.

Greg also had a look at the light in the caravan which seemed to be ok. The globe appeared to have nothing wrong with it – so we checked it out on battery mode instead of mains power – nothing. It must be a fuse. The trouble is where we expect the fuses are located is at the back of the fridge. This has a screwed, riveted and siliconned back to it on the outside of the van, therefore making it impossible to access. This quickly turned into a problem we would have to sort out when we got home.  An inconvenience. To solve this we decided to purchase a rechargeable camping lamp – it would come in handy for other camping trips. No problem.

We decided all be it a little late to go to check out Silverton which is 20km drive away. As the sun was setting we jumped in the car to check it out. It was pretty closed by the time we got there. It’s a very small town, much of it in ruins. The pub was the only sign of life other than some wild horses and emus on the way there. We took some photos and probably should have read all the bits and pieces and learned stuff but didn’t feel like it. They did have some old cars and things that were in the movie ‘Mad Max’ which I have only seen half of. Apparently the town has been used in a whole list of movies. Fancy that.

Then we did a really exciting thing – we went back to town and found a Woolworths and bought some stuff. We were planning to leave the next day so I wanted to get a few little bits for the freezer in case we were in another national park for a while. I had planned to do a vegetarian meal for Monday since we hadn’t done too much activity.

I made vegetarian chick pea curry – which is far from being one of Greg’s favourites but it packs a heap of veggies in and since he wasn’t feeling that great all day a good feed of veggies is just what you need. Well at least that’s what I told him.

By the time we got back to the camp it was dark and we had forgotten that our light didn’t work. Bugger – no matter it was head lamps again. Must remember to get a light tomorrow.

After our exciting dinner (!) and within the cramped confines of the van, we sat with our laptops back to back on the dinner table which was barely big enough and Greg continued to work on his images.

 Unbeknown to me at the time he managed to delete/hide/misplace all of my photos. This became apparent later. I would not be amused.

We hit the sack hoping that Greg would feel better tomorrow. I was very reluctant to leave a major centre with a husband who wasn’t feeling well and still has not had a diagnosis as to why he has an irregular heart beat and why he had a heart attack in the first place. It wasn’t like he felt unwell like you do with a crook guts or a cold or anything you can tell someone to get over themselves with – so I erred on the side of caution.

Sunday - Mungo to Broken Hill

Sunday – Mungo to Broken Hill

We awoke from our lovely last evening together and after the ritual trip to the pit loo, were delighted to see that a whole lot of emus – 6 in total had decided to give us a farewell gift of a wander through the camp. Arriving back from the loo, head in neutral, I quickly smartened up and scrambled into the van as undisturbingly as I could, to wake my husband.

Emus! Outside! Quick! Where are the car keys so I can get the cameras!! Stumbling, half asleep spouse crashed down the step (amazingly not scaring them off) to the van only to quickly snap to attention realizing what was happening. Cameras out of the car and we were snapping away at these noble creatures - which seemed to be having some social problems within their ranks. One emu kept having a go at another one - obviously males jostling for position in rank. They picked and wandered and looked and came really close. It was awesome! Then they wandered over to Wendy and Pat’s. Wendy only had a small compact camera so I hope they got some photos. Pat perfected the ‘emu stance’ to see if they would come even closer.

He did this the day before. Wendy and Pat left before us at the visitors center on our 75km trip and arrived at the dunes well before us. They were privileged enough to witness a group of emus venture across the dunes. Lucky buggers. The photos that Wendy got of the emus with their shadows against the dunes were amazing. Almost wish that we were there at the same time. Anyway. On top of the main dune, and in seeing the emu, Pat decided to stand like an emu to see if they would get any closer. He placed both legs together, stood upright and pointed his hand like an emu face. It must have worked as the emu got very close to them. We named him the Emu Whisperer after that!

The emu seemed to know that campers often throw out nice things to eat. Not the ones that are there, but the ones that have left. They had a nice graze. We all roused about and stirred our fires and got a nice lot of toast going again – which Greg was thoroughly thankful for as it saved him from cut up fruit. We packed up our van. We didn’t really want to leave.

We said goodbye and see you soon to our nice neighbours – and vowed to stay in touch. It was  bit sad but on to the next adventure. Wendy and Pat had been talking to Ernest the day before and he advised them that the road between Mungo and Wentworth was better maintained than the road we were planning to go so we all went that way. First though we decided to have another shower at the visitor centre. I hate feeling grotty.

We packed up the van saving our toiletry stuff, towels and change of clothes out and headed to the hot showers of the visitors centre. Showered, clean and sparkling we set out down the dirt road back to Wentworth to pick up ‘supplies’ before our treck to Minindee National Park.

On the way, since I was driving I asked Greg to turn on my mobile phone and quickly phone his Mum to tell them we were ok. He usually phones her on a Saturday anyway. He could not get on to his mum so he phoned his sister who we had met the weekend before in Bendigo with the Dutch cousins. What came next was just awful.

They had arrived back in Melbourne on the Sunday evening and departed again on Monday bound for Phillip Island to see the fairy penguins. On the way home from that they had a terrible car accident. Some DICKHEAD talking to his dog in the car ran head on into Janece and coming the other way. There was no way she could avoid it. The smash was so bad that the police were expecting dead bodies and were surprised that all had survived. Ambulances took them all to hospital. Janece had multiple cuts and bruises from the shattered windscreen, Corine had broken ribs and poor Henny had to stay in hospital with suspected internal injuries. What a horrible thing to happen to anyone. We were really upset, especially Greg. We were so grateful that they were all right really and there must have been an angel watching over them. All are out of hospital now and walking wounded around the house. The insurance should cover most things. Corine and Henny were supposed to fly out soon so we are waiting to see if their airline can give them an upgrade to first class as sitting in an aircraft in economy to Holland would be torture – or delay their travel for a week to 10 days.

After the news I, Greg got really upset and we just popped into the club for lunch. It was a huge choice or roast or roast – so we had the roast, not that we felt much like eating.

I left Greg in the car listening to the football and recovering from the shock what had happened and went to the IGA supermarket to get some bits and pieces. We didn’t know whether we wanted to stay the night in Wentworth or high tail it into Broken Hill. While I was in the supermarket I phoned Janece to see if she wanted us there. We were also quite prepared to go to Melbourne to lend support – although the situation was already full of people and I didn’t know whether two more would add to the confusion or be helpful. There was nothing we could do  - all they had to do now was heal and we could not help with that. Janece had lots of help with her two sons in their early 20’s and her husband who had been just fantastic. She said that she appreciated the thought and would like a really gentle hug but it could wait. I understood and promised to send messages every day so they could share what we were doing.

My parents had a head on car crash 2 years ago and the news just bought it all back to me. Their injuries were a bit worse and ongoing but all those feelings – panic, concern OMG - came back just like it was yesterday. The injuries can go away but the psychological trauma stays a lot longer. People should keep their mind on the road when they are driving. Never mind the dog/phone whatever.

I paid for my purchases after taking eternity to find what I needed – everyone sets out their supermarkets differently. Can never find a jolly thing. I got back to the car and asked Greg what he wanted to do. “Go to Broken Hill” was the tern reply. I started the car and we towed the little camper out of Wentworth and on to Broken Hill. The sun was already starting to set. We would be driving into the sun right on dusk which was not the best time to be driving as the wildlife in its abundance has high activity at that time and we didn’t want to hit any of it.

As usual, down the road a bit I needed to stop for the loo and we reluctantly pulled up near an enviro toilet. Unfortunately it was very enviro smelling too. Hold your nose and do your best to get out of there ASAP! However it was not far from a little driveway to the Darling River. The Darling is flodded right up to its banks and trees are waterlogged by it. It was really nice and if we had had a van with a loo – as no way I was going to the enviro loo again – we would have. After visiting the same loo, Greg agreed.

It was so peaceful and nobody around except for one other caravan – very tempting. But press on we did and Broken Hill we went – Greg drove this time as I was getting tired.

We drove into the sun, squinting, looking out for wildlife and listening to some music to cheer us up. Trouble was, the visitors centre in Wentworth was shut and we really needed a book on Broken Hill to tell us where the caravan parks were. We had to rely on my phone. It was dark when we got to broken hill and there were no signs about caravan parks on the way in. KFC, Hungry Jacks and radio stations yes but not caravan parks. Then my phone told me the caravan park was on Rakow Street and that, according to Mrs GPS, didn’t exist. Useless woman. So I then had to navigate, and give directions to Greg through my phone.

Several heated discussions and u turns later, we pulled up into a very busy caravan park – exhausted. The people at the Top Tourist Park were just fabulous and sympathetic and must be used to seeing train wreck people come in all tired from travelling – so I was very grateful to the nice lady at the counter who booked us in very quickly and kindly.

She drew on a map where our site was, we found our spot, squeezed in between a heap of others. At once we missed the bush and our lovely camp at Mungo. You could hear traffic as we were on the Barrier Highway, there was industrial engines that went all night, people had TV’s going, dogs from the neighborhood barked and now and again a kid howled. City life SUCKED!

The other thing that sucked was that the caravan light no longer worked so we had to wear our petzel torches on our heads to get light. No matter, we thought, its probably a globe and it can be replaced tomorrow.

We fixed ourselves some toasted sandwiches – Greg fished our sandwich press from the back of the car, had a few wines and hit the sack.

Thanking God that Greg’s family were alive and not badly injured.

Saturday at Mungo National Park

Saturday at Mungo National Park

This morning was much like yesterday morning.  Very cold but blue sky. This morning a young Kangaroo with a joey moved in to the grass area between our camp and the loos. She was wary of people but not afraid unless you went too close, in which case she distanced herself with a few hops in the opposite direction. As the morning progressed she basked in the sun with her little one not too far away. It was a really nice sharing of space.

This morning we stirred the ashes of last night’s fire to make a new one and over it we got the toasting forks out and made toast. We sat there with our toast and coffee/tea until our eyes smarted with the smoke, by which time we gathered clean clothes and towels, organised the cameras for the day, gathered maps and lunch (I whipped up a hearty vegetable soup in the shuttle chef, it only took 30 minutes!) and headed for the visitor centre. We took turns having a shower. There were two showers so I showered first, then left all the stuff there for Greg to shower after me.

Ahh a  nice hot shower and a good hair wash. I even dried my hair with my hair drier as they had a power point.  Not because I love to have sensational hair – because I, well, would like sensational hair but don’t have it – but I am the first person to get the best headache from walking around in cold weather with a wet head. So cold weather and hairdryers are for me. Thank you National Parks! After that, we made our hot traveller – tea for me and coffee for Greg and started our 75km round trip of the park.

It was going to be a really slow trip as when we approached the lunette, the light changed and Greg had to keep getting out of the car to take photos. There were 37 points of interest marked with a pole with a number on it which corresponded with that point of interest which was on a flyer. Diligently we followed each one. I proudly announced the points of interest to Greg like a well tuned tour guide – even adding my own bits. Maybe I might do that as a career one day.

We had all day so there was no need to rush – and we would not be going back any time soon - so best make the most of it. The day had turned cloudy but not thoroughly cloudy so the sun made brief guest appearances giving the landscape a whole new look. More photos.

At one point we came over another mob of emus on the side of the road. We were happy taking some photos – mainly Greg as they were on his side – until a tourist with a caravan came and scared them away by driving slightly too fast for the terrain. Dickheads. No matter, we rounded another bend and they were there again. This time on my side. How happy I was. Greg and I swapped lenses so I had the big telephoto on my camera and I joyfully captured these amazing animals mooching along. They seemed to ham it up too coming quite close to the car. I dare say they are very used to being shot by cameras rather than guns or spears  nowadays. Another car came along and spooked them so after a brief running photo of them we ventured off to see what else we could find.

The landscape changed totally on the other side of the dunes from low lying salt bush and flat plains to mallee scrub. We did not see much wildlife here but came over a really nice picnic spot complete with table and chairs so decided to pull up and have our lunch. Out came piping hot vegetable soup, bowls, spoons and to really show off, serviettes! Greg commented that it was very strange indeed. Here we were in the middle of bloody nowhere and we are having a hot meal! We don’t even do this at home! The wonderful soup was finished by having a nice piece of sultana cake from yesterday. How civilised!

We packed up our things and hopped back in the cruiser we had been so busy that we had not realised we were starving as it was 2pm.

We ventured around the other side of the dunes and came over an amazing place called Vigar’s Well. It’s a natural spring and in the old days the cob and co coaches, drays carrying wool to Wentworth, travellers, shearers going to and from stations etc. All sorts of people went there to water their animals. Its amazing nobody erected a roadhouse and a pub!

Like walking on the moon!

Although the evidence of that is almost gone the landscape is totally unbelievable. The clouds – fantastic and always changing. It was also really cold and the wind was whipping up. We climbed the dunes and by the time we got to the top the sun obliged and came out from behind a dirty big black cloud. The sun lit the dunes up in a way, being late afternoon, that cast lovely long shadows over everywhere and back lighting the bushes and trees. Simply outstanding.

The dunes  - it was kind of the sun to come out to make
them look fantastic.

Right when we were totally in awe of our surroundings, my camera ran out of memory space on the card and the battery was nearly flat and the car was miles away in the car park. Greg suggested I go back through the memory card and delete the average shots. This was really hard to do as I could not see in the screen whether I was deleting something that could be a really great as the screen is too small. Never mind. I deleted some shots anyway and that gave me space to keep trying to capture this amazing landscape.

Since the sun was starting to set and the afternoon was wearing on. We were taking the longest time to cover the distance, we got back in the car. I found a new memory card and we ventured on.

We passed several points of interest that were interesting but didn’t make good photos. They made these above ground dams that they called ‘tanks’, usually with a windmill to pump water from underground or collect water when it rained. It was a really good idea except it didn’t only water stock, it watered the native animals and all the pests too including rabbits and goats so everyone’s populations thrived and the landscape began to be eaten out. Plants no longer covered the soil. Dust storms were more prevalent. Erosion became a problem. Still they grazed the sheep.

The aboriginals were so busy all their life loving, caring and protecting the land and we came along, kicked them off - and totally stuffed it in less than 100 years. Any wonder they are cross. Now we hand it back in a terrible state and tell them to be thoroughly grateful. Makes you wonder.  Just another of my opinions – whoops.

Zanci homestead is now a wreck but you can still mark out where the house and surrounds were. They also have the best display in the old wool shed which has been restored somewhat. Its built of cypress pine that was recovered from another shearing shed. Inside was very interesting information, mainly of the lifestyle of the people that lived on the station.

Zanci station woolshed - photo by Greg

Although isolated like you wouldn’t believe, the people got together for birthday parties, tennis parties and all sorts of occasions. They were spaced so far apart and didn’t have cars or phones but still managed to respect and enjoy the company of neighbours around them. Sad that these days as many people who live in suburbia, right next to their neighbour don’t even know who they are. These people who were miles away played support roles in each other’s lives. I guess in the remote out back that’s all you had.

A short drive back in the setting sun to Mungo and we had completed the loop. Another wonderful experience. Memory cards full of photos and dying batteries in our cameras we drove on back to the camp. Stopping briefly for another scrounge of firewood from outside the park – this time not too much as we were leaving the next day.

Tonight it was our turn to host the happy hour. Our last night with our new found friends. Wendy wanted to do Pizza and use up all her tomatoes and things as they were venturing into places you could not take fresh fruit. I had no argument. Other than home made pizza was one of my favourite things, someone else offering to cook was a bonus. It pays to take a stick to your neighbour’s fire and make them cake!!!

We had a lovely time. Fire was warming, camping chairs out. I had bought along a platter (not one of my best just a cheap $2 thing you buy at coles) that I cut up cheese, salami, pickled onions, made a sweet chilly and philly dip and put some crackers out. Looked mighty impressive for a bush camp miles from any store.

Wendy bought along a really nice bottle of bubbles – Blue Piranese ( sorry if I spelled that incorrectly)  In any case it was really nice and very fitting to cap off a wonderful time. Greg and I didn’t really want to leave –but there are more things to discover on our trip so we had to. The pizzas were lovely. Some a little sloppy but it all goes down the same way so it didn’t matter and besides we were having such a nice time. Even the feral cat stayed away. Over some lovely bottles of wine we watched the gazillion stars come up, sat in our chairs, revved up the fire and enjoyed our last night in Mungo. What a brilliant time.