22/4/18 Change of plans

 Time to pack up and move out to Silverton for a few days , that was the plan , the wheels started to fall off as we packed up - our bedroom slide out wasn't working correctly !!!!!
 Time to do some ringing around - one place in Broken Hill do repairs and also sell caravans , so we headed down there - dipped out there , the guy who owns the store was away on holidays till the following week - hmm . Okay , rang someone in Ballarat that does repairs - can't fit us in till the end of May - hmmm . Ah well Adelaide is only 500 odd kilometres away so we rang one dealer , but they couldn't do anything - it's their busy season . We ring another dealer , same deal again , nothing could be done till the end of May - hmmmmm getting frustrating .
 Finally we got a recommendation for another place , another phone call , success , they could have a look when we get there , so off to Adelaide we go .
  The countryside from Broken Hill to Peterborough is all new territory for us and was quite stunning. It's all outback , saltbush and not much else apart from the odd kangaroo , emu & goat . One section of the highway goes through a huge valley and there's a house & sheds out in the middle of it .

 The rail line to Adelaide runs beside the road as well . Further down the road it just gets flatter & flatter , with some hills off on the horizon .

 One little town is Mannahill , this is it's railway station .

 There's not much more to Mannahill so we didn't stop , continuing on to Peterborough . There was the compulsory stop at Oodla Wirra at the Quarantine Station , where they check to make sure you're not bringing any fruit & vegetables , honey , potatoes etc into South Australia . We were good and had a cook up on the side of the road after leaving Broken Hill ( a bit reminiscent of our crossing into WA in 2015 , where we did the same thing !! ) You can take any of that if it's cooked - except honey!! The inspectors go through your van and check , they gave us a new booklet as ours was 3 years out of date - the new one dates back to 2016 , ours was 2013 - the new one has the same cover and looks exactly like the old one - pretty clever !!
  From Peterborough we headed to a little town called Yongala - there are some great examples of the architecture from days gone by , with old buildings lining the main street , very little new ones , oh and a pub . We caught up with Frank & Margaret who also own a van like ours , and we camped with them overnight in the recreation park at the end of the street . It was also Frank's birthday , so we dined out at the pub with more of Frank's friends - we had a great night .

 After a good night's sleep , breakfast and chatting with Frank & Margaret , we headed off to Adelaide to get the repairs done . The company is busy and can't fit us in till the end of the month but that's okay , we'll amuse ourselves for a week or so , no problem !!
 We were greeted with a great sunset , here's a few photos of it .

 Next day we headed in to Semaphore and got the bikes out and rode 5 klms up to Port Adelaide , had some lunch and headed back . This is the beach looking north from Largs Pier .

This is the magnificent building of Largs Pier Hotel .

 After the ride we headed toward Glenelg , finding Glenelg Boat Harbour , these are the views from the road bridge .

 Down the road a little further we were in Glenelg , well it was Sunday , but the people - it was packed , cars everywhere - we turned and headed back out - ridiculous !!

 Another nice sunset finished the day off .

   We're both battling a nasty cough - it usually hits in the middle of the night and doesn't want to let go - we'd gladly give it away !!
 Here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=11FaYa0_-R-kTjiXV8N4Ff8YiBibXL-8Z&usp=sharing

22/4/18 To the hill & beyond

  Leaving Cobar early , well earlier than most days , we headed to Wilcannia then onwards to Broken Hill . Long straight stretch's of road going to the horizon with different vegetation and soil colours along the way - extremely dry out here , drought is hitting hard .

  The bonnet of the car shows the result of a shower of rain at Nyngan - it rains dirt when the wind has been blowing , the airborne dust gets deposited with the rain - the result , an instantly filthy car & van !! Here's the view through the van window in the sun .

  As we were driving , a cloud bank appeared and as we drove it passed through . The trailing edge looked like a wall of cloud - you can see it in the next 2 photos .

 It shows up a lot more in black & white .

 Had a bright idea - lets take a panoramic photo as we drive - the road was a little bumpy hahaha .

      We came to a section of road that was the worst for road kill we have seen for a long time - maybe ever !! There were kangaroo carcasses in every state of decay you might imagine , and the telltale marks on the road from where they were hit , emu's also featured in this as well . Speaking of animals , we have seen hundreds of goats , lots of emus and kangaroos , some sheep and very few cattle .
 Arriving at Wilcannia , we drove down the side road to the BP station - we discovered when we got back to the highway that we had saved 12cents per litre compared to the fuel station on the highway!! Wilcannia also surprised with the buildings - quite impressive - here's a few of them .

 When you drive in the outback , you get excited by little things , like mountains in the distance - the roads are long and the landscape pretty flat .

  Other things that get your attention are wide loads , some wider than others , today we had 2 wide loads . When I say wide loads I mean 8m wide loads - it's a case of pulling over and stopping till they go past - this was one of 2 - it's the body of a tip truck minus the wheels and tray - bloody huge !!!

 A couple of the many emus .

 Further up the road we neared Broken Hill where we will stay for for the next week or so .

 A new day , time to check out town , first stop was the Line of Lode Miners Memorial up where the BHP mine once stood . There are plans to have lots of attractions there , but it's a work in progress , at present there's a cafe , the memorial and some old mining equipment on display . The memorial we found to be a bit disturbing - the miners that died here have there names put onto glass tiles in the memorial - they also detail how they died - some exited the lift early , others fell down shafts , others caught in machinery or buried in rockslides - very gruesome .
This is the memorial .

 This is the view over Broken Hill .

These are old mine buildings no longer in use .

  The architecture in Broken Hill is quite amazing also , we did part of a heritage walk , here are some of the buildings .

This is the inside of one hotel - art deco inspiration .

 Back to the van for lunch before heading out to the Living Desert Sculptures . The sculptures are about 15 klms out of town up on top of a hill with views all round . There are walks to do and some captive ( fenced in ) kangaroos , a picnic area and around the other side of the hill is a campground . We parked at the picnic ground and started walking up the hill to the sculpture park and had made it over half way when we had a thought - the gates close at 6:30pm , so you have to be out before then - if we are going to watch sunset at 5:40pm , that leaves 50 minutes to make our way back down in the dark and get out - with that realisation , I walked back to the ute and drove up to the sculptures , Lyn continued walking up the hill .
 So here a they are .

 There are certainly not many creature comforts up here , so we walked around looking then went back to the ute to wait for sundown - cars started rolling in as the sun was getting lower - there would have been 60 people up here ! Unfortunately a cloud bank started coming towards us and blocked out most of the sun , this was the result .

 And so ended our culture for the evening , and it was back to town . Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JrNUm25edAc6JUJAwoOZCPcpst6VMZqM&usp=sharing

19/4/18 Into the new

 No guessing where we are . Visiting the Information Centre at Cobar that's located in this building revealed quite some history about Cobar . The building has been used in a lot of different ways - as the offices of the mine and a family home to name just 2 , a grand old building !!

 This house was dwarfed by the Great Cobar Mine and it associated buildings that covered the adjoining mining lease . Taking a driving tour of Cobar took us from this building , down beside the pit . All along the fence lines were piles of dirt & rock , one section looked like a huge section of molten rock .

 There are lots of heritage houses & buildings in Cobar , all worth having a look at .

 There are still many mines in the area that are still producing gold , one is Peak Gold Mine , and there is The Golden Walk , where you can check out the old timber head frame that dates back to the early 1900's - it won't be there for too much longer though - the timber doesn't have a lot of life left in it .

 This is Conquerer Shaft 15 head frame , there are 3 shafts that are fenced off to look at , some old machinery , boiler & stamper and a puddling wheel . The active gold mine is about 200m away , here's the new head frame .

  Back in town is Newey Recreation Area , usually a water based activity area - the levels are down - a LOT !!

 Back to the van for a quiet beverage and plan our next moves , we were joined by some parrots .

 Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WXgCeg0DCuBlDO4VW00Au8tHMwdWTrjl&usp=sharing