This morning we headed off into the Kinchega National Park. Such a drama buying park passes in NSW! We did try to buy one online as we did (easily) for South Australia, but they wanted us to submit a copy of our vehicle registration showing our home address and a copy of Bernie’s Seniors card. Well, gee whiz, we didn’t think to bring the vehicle registration documentation with us!! Today at the park we need to pay $8.00 for a day pass in actual cash money, put it in an envelope and post it into a slot. How archaic. Fortunately we managed to scratch together $16.00 worth of change to make both vehicles legal should we be stopped by a ranger. We started with the River Drive now at least partially reopened after the rain last ... read more

As planned, we were up at 4.00am this morning, threw on some clothes and made our way up to the roof of the motel. Bernie set up the tripod and camera and pointed it towards the Milky Way. Our stop here in White Cliffs was specifically planned around the new moon so that the sky would be as dark as possible to photograph the Milky Way. We’re not sure what time moonrise and moonset were, but we could not find even a sliver of moon in the sky this morning at 4.00am. Bernie took some shots at around 16/17 seconds exposure and then we went back to bed! This morning, when it was properly morning for normal people, we had a look around White Cliffs by navigating our way around the Heritage Driving Trail. We started ... read more

The AirBnB we are staying in is actually the front unit of a pair of units. The bedroom we are sleeping in must adjoin a bedroom in Unit 2, the occupants of which like to wake to the sound of heavy metal music. Fortunately we have already been awake on each of the last three mornings when their heavy metal ‘alarm’ has started blaring through the wall. Today we went sightseeing in Silverton. Silverton is about 25 kilometres from Broken Hill on a road interspersed with (lots of) dips and floodways! At first it was hard to tell the difference between a dip and a floodway but, eventually, we noted that the floodways seemed to have flatter bottoms AND they were the ones with the flood markers! What was consistent was the amount of red dirt ... read more

We started today with a visit to the Tourist Information Centre hoping for some advice on how we are going to fit everything on our list into just three days! It may have been a mistake because we ended up with information about even more places of interest here in Broken Hill and surrounding areas?! We decided to start with a Heritage Walking Tour at 10.30am. The walking tours are conducted by volunteers who have, generally, worked in the mines so have first hand knowledge of the mines and mining. Our tour was conducted by retired miner, Ray, who spent 35 years working in the mines. He provided us with heaps of mining information and interesting anecdotes. It’s always great to hear about a place from a local. The tour started at the TIC before crossing ... read more

We covered a lot of ground today. We set out from Sceale Bay about 8.30am and pretty much repeated yesterday’s trip, but joined the Eyre Highway at Wudinna rather than Minnipa. Wudinna is the home of the Australian Farmer Statue. First conceived in 1992 the eight metre, 70 tonne granite sculpture, carved by Marijan Bekic, was unveiled in 2009. With another 100 kilometres on the odometer we found ourselves in Kimba. Kimba has several art installations in and around town. Before lunch we viewed the Art Silo completed by Cam Scale in September 2017, the recycled steel sculpture of Edward John Eyre and an indigenous tracker at Whites Knob Lookout and the mural at the recreation reserve. Cathy was also excited by the fact that the football oval is named after former Geelong player, Corey Enright. ... read more