Broken Hill to White Cliffs

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This Broken Hill AirBnB has been quite a wildlife experience!? When we arrived we found generations of daddy long legs (living and dead) hanging behind the bathroom doors. This despite the fact that the owner messaged Cathy on Sunday to say that she had cleaned the house ready for our arrival because her cleaner was sick. What!? Obviously neither of them can see spiders and their webs!! Yesterday, Cathy surprised a skink amongst some carry bags they had in the lounge room. This morning I reached into my toilet bag and took out a tube of hair product that had what looked like Persian fairly floss on it. Ooh, I said to Bernie, I wonder if it’s spider’s web … just as a small huntsman crawled out of my toilet bag! Fortunately I’m OK with spiders.

We decided that we needed to take lunch with us today. Before leaving Broken Hill on the Silver City Highway, the Gatts went to the Sufi Bakery to buy almond croissants because they had been highly recommended by our guide, Ray, on Monday. Meanwhile the Gaffneys went to Woolies to buy some bread rolls, salami, Brie and tomato.

Then we really headed off into the outback. Fifty-two kilometres out of Broken Hill we turned west towards Mutawintji National Park and it was not long before we left the bitumen behind us and found ourselves driving along unsealed road … complete with more dips and floodways! There was more evidence that water had flooded across the roads in this part of the world earlier in the month. We imagine that the road was probably closed for a few days after the flash flooding but, fortunately, it is open again in time for us. The recent rain means that we are seeing the desert uncharacteristically green.

We were motoring along fairly sedately on the dirt road, but still doing about 90 km/hr when a crazy person streaked past us like we were standing still. Probably a local who is familiar with the road and the road conditions? When we reached Gairdners Creek we found Cathy and Steve parked beside the road, so stopped to check that all was OK. Cathy had decided to stop for a photo from the Gairdners Creek Bridge and was on the bridge when the SUV that had passed us, flew over the bridge. Despite a recommendation that the bridge be navigated at 45 km/hr he didn’t slow AT ALL. Cathy’s heart was still beating fast when we arrived. Despite her near death experience Bernie and I wandered onto the bridge to take photos!

Arriving at Mutawintji NP we used the facilities at the entrance. Flushing toilets no less! The plan was to proceed to the Homestead Creek picnic area to do the Thaarklatjika Mingkana walk. It’s an easy 800 metres walk to the Aboriginal rock paintings from there. Unfortunately the road into the picnic area was closed so we had to backtrack to the Homestead Creek campsite where we ate the almond croissants … for energy, now that we were going to have to walk the 1.5 kilometre Link walking track BEFORE we could start the Thaarklatjika Mingkana walk!!

Most of the walks in the park are Grade 5 so it was a relief to be able to view the rock paintings without a strenuous hike. Even so, we reached the rock overhang adorned with Aboriginal rock paintings and then spied the (now) dry waterbed trail below which looked so pretty that we had to venture down for a few photos before finally turning around to return to the cars for our picnic lunch.

We had hoped to do the Old Coach Road drive after lunch. We headed in that general direction and reached the gate that leads to the restricted area of the park that can only be accessed with a guide. We took the left turn heading for Eagle Rock, but had only driven a short way when we decided that the road was in no fit condition to continue.

We re-traced our route to the Mutawintji Road, where we turned towards White Cliffs. The road is unfenced so we saw a range of animals on and near the raod - cows, sheep, goats, a kangaroo and, of course, birds. One large flock of sheep started to rush across the road in a panic as Cathy and Steve approached. They were still straggling across when we arrived and we all had to wait patiently for the last lamb who was bringing up the rear!

Even with the a/c on recirculate we were eating red dust for over 300 kilometres of dirt road driving today! It was surprising to cover that many kilometres and only see one other vehicle speeding in the same direction as us and none at all heading towards Broken Hill.

We are now in the small town of White Cliffs, known for being the first commercial opal field in Australia. We are spending the next two nights at the White Cliffs Underground Motel, which is going to be an interesting experience. Especially the shared bathrooms that can only be reached via a veritable rabbit warren of corridors that have been hewn out of the hillside!

It was magical watching the sunset from the hilltop that is the roof of our lodging for the night. While we were up there Bernie was using his photography app to work out the passage that the Milky Way will trace across the sky tonight. I think he is planning to get up at 4.00am having determined that that will be the best time to photograph it!! I hope the sky stays clear for him.



Steps for the day: 11,882 (8.1km)

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