Broken Hill Holiday ... Part Three

We left Tibooburra at around 9am, after packing up the tents (again) and refuelling. More dirt roads ... approx. 250 klms of them ... which take quite some time to travel, due to the conditions. The roads were interesting, to say the least. We (yes, it had to be us !!) got a flat tyre ... it was only flat on the bottom, though !! ... but many hands make light work, and it was replaced in no time.

We detoured via Mutuwingi National Park, where we stopped and made ourselves lunch, and then went for a bit of a walk. The river was dry ... as were most of the rivers we passed on this trip.

There were some caves along the walk, with some aboriginal art ... unfortunately my photos don't do it justice.

There were some beautiful rock formations, and I love the contrast of the white gum trees beside the red rocks.

Unfortunately, we still had a good 2 hour drive ahead of us, to reach our overnight destination, so we had to make it a short walk.

On our drive out of the park, we came across this lizard which appeared to be petrified in the middle of the road. Of course we all got out to look, and photograph, and the silly bugger still didn't move !! I don't know what sort of a lizard he was, but he sure was cute.

We eventually arrived in White Cliffs, which is an outback Opal Mining Town. It gets so very hot here in the summer, that many residents simply turned their mines and dug outs into homes. The motel we stayed out was dug out into the side of a hill. After we checked in, and entered the motel proper, this is what we saw ... this is the corridor to our room !!

There was a lovely bar in the complex, which of course we had to sample !!

Many of the walls throughout the complex are sealed, and then painted white, however some are just sealed and left to show off their natural colour. This is where a huge staircase takes us up top, to a lookout at the top of the motel.

We had an amazing night's sleep. It was so dark, and deathly quiet, in those rooms. I could hear my head buzzing !!

In the morning, we put all our gear back into the cars, and went to explore the town. We visited a couple of galleries ... one was by a photographic artist called Otto (he was originally from Germany), and he had the most stunning photographs. We also visited a couple of opal stores, where some of us picked up some gorgeous gems. Then we visited Jock's Place. Now that was interesting. Jock is an old timer, with the most amazing stories, and the gift of the gab. The man could talk your head off. He gave us a tour of his mine, which is also his home. He had some interesting artifacts down there !! We then went noodling in the opal fields. Noodling is where you scavenge through the piles of rubble taken out of the mines, to see if you can find some opal that may have been missed.

Noodling ... the landscape is very moon-like, with white hills (with the deepest holes in the middle of each one). It is not recommended to walk backward around here, because if you fall down one of these mines, you may never be found again !!

The guys had a quick drink in the hotel. Attractive, isn't it !!! Years ago, when we visited White Cliffs, we actually stayed in the motel section of this hotel. Interesting experience, that was !!

After leaving White Cliffs, we travelled another 240-odd klms to Menindee, on more rutted, dusty, sandy dirt roads. It was like arriving at an oasis ... it had the first real water we had seen since leaving Victoria on Saturday. The lake the caravan park was located on was a man-made lake, which was about to be drained for irrigation purposes, as the natural lakes in the area had almost dried up. It was a lovely caravan park, and the sunset was spectacular. The photo I started my story with, on the "I'm Back" post was taken here, as was this one. We had a relatively late night, and awoke to strong winds, which tried to rip up our tent. Fortunately, we were able to (with teamwork) get the tents down safely.

Next stop ... Lake Mungo National Park.

Till next time, take care,

MEOW