Blogs from New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 13

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

After a week's delay due to all the bureaucracy to get into Australia we finally arrived in Sydney to be greeted by daughter Helen and her fiancée Blowy. They drove us up the coast to Avoca Beach which is their home town. We settled in to a nice apartment near the sea. The following morning we walked along the beach and Helen's dog Metta remembered us and came bounding over to give us a warm welcome. The next few days were spent meeting Helen's friends and Blowy's relatives, eating out and getting to know their way of life. Helen and Blowy live in a shed on a plot of land on which he intends to build a house. We drove up to Hunter Valley and did a wine tour with a good crowd, 9 of us ... read more

2 more sleeps then we hit the road!! The caravan is mostly packed just a few last minute food items to load up and the Land Cruiser just needs a bit of a clean up before packing the last few items in it. The weather forecast for the trip from home to Melbourne looks a bit on the ordinary side however as this is mainly just a point A to point B part of the journey we won't be doing any sightseeing so not too concerned about the weather. We haven't got the weather forecast for the ferry trip from Melbourne to Devonport yet so will need to wait till tomorrow for the 7 day forecast. During our travels around Tasmania we will be staying at a combination of freecamps, National Parks, farm stays, community donation ... read more