This morning we drove back to Broken Hill, and called in at ‘Sunset Strip’ on the way, where there is a view of the largest lake at Menindee.
We could just see the shoreline on the other side of the lake. You can just see me in this shot, which is actually about 10 photos stitched together in Photoshop.Bell’s Milk Bar is one of the Broken Hill tourist attractions, a milk bar in the style of the 1950’s. It’s so familiar that it doesn’t seem very exciting to me. Of course, the music was from the 1950’s too.
We have checked into one of the caravan parks in town. Annoyingly, we had the best sunset here where there wasn’t really a good place to take a photo with all the vans around us. We did our grocery shopping on our way here so that we have all of tomorrow for sightseeing. We also had our Facetime session with Matt this evening as tomorrow night we plan to go to a movie.
The reason to visit Minendee was to see the place where the Burke and Wills expedition launched into the unknown. We were also interested in seeing the lakes, but all of the access roads are gravel and after the rain yesterday we did not feel confident of taking the Winnie. Our ‘home’ lake at the caravan park will have to do.
We drove 13 kms into the town today, doing a little shopping, visiting the Tourist Information Centre and then having lunch at the pub where Burke and Wills stayed. We also walked down to a bridge on the Darling River.
Although it hasn’t rained today it has been quite cold and windy. We went for a walk in the evening around sunset and I was able to get lots of photos. There are more people staying here tonight, but no one is close to us and we still have a sense of space.
the pub where Burke and Wills stayedthe pub from the sidea memorialsunsetwind whipping up little waves
Little Topar Roadhouse to Menindee via Broken Hill
We enjoyed the morning drive to Broken Hill and went straight to the Visitors Centre, which has a Gloria Jeans Cafe. We were going to use their dump point, but after booking our caravan park at Minindee and confirming that it has a dump point we settled in to enjoy our morning tea at the cafe. I wrote yesterday’s blog using my iPad, just to make sure it got done whilst we were on good internet.
Then we drove down to Menindee, going directly to our caravan park without going into the town. Our plan is to drive there tomorrow to explore around. Today is very cold and wet – we arrived here just as a storm came in, and have been dodging showers to plug in and put on some washing. Our ‘lake’ is actually an artificial reservoir, although it is called a lake. We can see lots of bird life, they don’t mind the wind and rain. The pelican we saw looked particularly calm and happy.
We can order fish and chips from the caretakers, and they deliver it to our van, so will do that for tonight’s dinner. It feels rather strange to have 240v electricity. We have water connected as well, but it’s lake water and not suitable for drinking and can only be used for washing up, etc. There is drinking water available from rain water tanks, but we are also carrying a fair bit of drinking water and may not need to fill up here. We have booked for two nights, but could stay for three. We will also stay one night in Broken Hill to give us time to look around and perhaps see the movie Dunkirk Sunday night.
Stormy weather at Copi Hollow, Menindee, NSWApart from doing the washing we are relaxing and enjoying being snug in the van whilst it storms outside. The featured photo shows the Winnie – our villa by the lake.
McCullochs Range Rest Area to Little Topar Roadhouse via Wilcannia
Yesterday was a fairly standard day of travel, with a bit of time in Wilcannia to have coffee, dump our toilet and fill up with fresh water and fuel. The cafe was also the information centre and she told us we could use a tap at the council run caravan park on the river. The dump point was on the road and there we met up with a Salvation Army chaplain and partner (I think the husband was the chaplain, but it could have been the wife). They live in Broken Hill and filled us in on some of the things to see around BH.
The featured image shows the cafe where we had our morning tea. Never pass up the chance to sit in a comfortable arm chair!
The old bridge, which is unused, blocking out the new bridge over the Darling River in Wilcannia. It looks similar to the one in Bourke.
We chose the Roadhouse for last night as rain was forecast and the area for vans had blue metal. We didn’t want to risk getting bogged. We were the first there and chose our spot where it was level. As about six other vans arrived it turned out that we were rather in the way, especially for people with very large caravans. The rain came in slowly at first, then became quite persistent at times. There was also strong wind overnight, which Stephen slept through. No leaks from hatches!
On the road to Little Topar Roadhouse we could see the potentially stormy weather coming in.
We had internet, but WordPress wouldn’t load, so I gave up. I have a few photos to add to this post later, but they are not available to me on the iPad.
I keep forgetting to mention that we are seen a lot of emus on the roads in the last few days. Goats as well. The goats and emus don’t appear to get hit by cars, only kangaroos. We don’t see kangaroos, they must only come out at night. The goats are many different colours and actually very pretty. I just haven’t had a chance to photograph any.
We said goodbye to our beautiful overnight spot at around 9.30 a.m. this morning. We went into town to the Tourist Information Centre where we used the dump point and fresh water tap to fill our tank and water container. We also did some shopping at IGA.
Cobar sunrise
We covered about 200 kms today. Stephen has been reluctant to drive since experiencing some dizziness a week ago, but he did some of the driving today. We stopped at a rather nice place to have our lunch. It would have made a good overnight stop, but was only about 60 kms along the road.
Rest Area where we had lunch
We had a look at a couple of places which on my app looked like places where we could have spent the night. However, this one suited us best. It would be boggy where we are parked if it rained, although we tried to aim for a stony section. We thought we would stay well off the bitumen as this is actually a designated rest area for trucks and we didn’t want to be in the way. Oddly, it actually has a little playground for kids and a covered picnic area. The playground is the first we have seen in a Rest Area.
the Winnie in a familiar looking setting at the McCullochs Range Rest Areathe view across the road (using my zoom lens
We still have a couple of meals from the pressure cooker cookup in Cobar, but I felt like having something different, so cooked a frittata with bacon, tomato, mixed frozen veggies, onion, 2 eggs, milk and a little self raising flour, topped with cheese slices. A simple meal which is quite delicious.
It’s a little cold in the van and we can’t use the heater all the time because the diesel heater has a fan that depends on 12v power. However, we will certainly put the heater on for a while when we have our basin washes in the bathroom. Cooking the meal did help with warming the van. We tried to park in the sun when we arrived, but ended up with partial sun because of trying to have a level spot. It can take a bit of moving around to actually be able to get fairly level. We are starting to leave the curtains open as much as possible to soak up all the warmth we can before dark.
I’ve had a couple of calls about work today, and found out that I said I would be available for work again in August. I told the person it would now be September, and will contact the other person who rang to clarify the date of return to work, which I suspect won’t be until the middle of September. I only work at two places, and was offered a shift in each place, which surprised me. I am contemplating stopping work, and only the fact that I don’t expect to be offered very much makes me tempted to stay on the books for casual shifts. Maybe by next month there won’t be much work around.
