Day 3 - Broken Hill

Written by Jocelyn

On the agenda today was a look at an almost Ghost town, Silverton. Silver and lead was discovered here in the early 1800’s before Broken Hill was settled. The population grew, the silver and lead was mined then the population shrank again.

Tyler and Brett followed the heritage walk through town for the entire 12kms while the rest of us took a short cut. We had lunch in a busy little cafe that also contained an impressive collection of antique dolls, old town memorabilia and the best tea pot collection I have seen in real life. Also interesting was the old gaol and school museum.

Again the weather was horrible – cold and windy, the kind of weather that gives you an earache.

We drove back into Broken Hill to re supply and to have a wander through town. I was really looking forward to that as there are some really gorgeous old buildings in town, but unfortunately time got away on us, so Broken Hill remains a place I have to come back to so I can have a really good look.

A highlight for Brett and Tyler was getting a photo with the Interceptor from the Mad Max movies, which were filmed around Broken Hill. We also found out that filming was starting on the next Mad Max movie about 15 kms out of town, so we took a drive out to see if we could see anything.  Unfortunately no Hollywood stars in sight, but plenty of trucks and cars driving fast backwards and forwards creating a lot of dust.

Back at camp that night we had Beef Rogan Josh for dinner cooked by Brett, and another good bottle of red wine.

Day 2 - Driving to Broken Hill

We didn’t even get out of bed until after 7.30am today. 10 hours sleep we must be on holidays.

It’s funny how often you hear people saying three’s a crowd. We have three girls on this trip aged 9, 10 and 12 and they have proven that three isn’t always a crowd. They have entertained themselves happily, making up games and running around whenever we stopped for a break. So far they have not done much school work but their imaginations have been working overtime creating scenarios for playing. 

280kms of our journey today was along the Silver City Highway between Mildura and Broken Hill. We really noticed the red dirt along here. Just a taste of what is to come the closer we get to Central Australia. The extreme flatness of the landscape here was amazing. Living in Canberra we are surrounded by mountains, but out here its flat as far as the eye can see. Its times like this tat sense of how vast this country is becomes so much stronger.

The fruit fly exclusion zone well and truely surrounds us so we were able to buy some locally grown fruit and veggies to eat while stil in this area. We stopped at a house in Wentworth that had fresh citrus, tomatoes, eggs and other foods. Fresh veggies and omelette for tea – yum!

We arrived in Broken Hill in the early afternoon and set up camp, and despite the cold we managed to sit out and sip a very nice red wine to toast our journey.

23/8/2010 Lakeview Caravan Park, Broken Hill

Written by Kelly

We spent six and a half hours in the car (I went in Holly's car) It was long and boring. So we had an emu spotting competition. I didn't spot any. We had a break on the side of the road. We found some desert peas, they are really pretty I wish they would grow in Canberra.

We arrived in Broken Hill and got lost while trying to find a campsite, but in the end we stopped at Lakeview Caravan Park. Our site was next to the camp kitchen where there were tables and chairs to write on. I have put a padlock on my lollie jar thing so hungry siblings can't steal any.

After writing in my journal, Holly, Hayley and I made a game that is a mix between handball, soccer, netball, softball, baseball and hockey. I win everytime we play it. While having dinner in the camp kitchen we counted how many cats we saw, there were 12. Dad told us they were feral. I only believed him after I saw them trying to steal food from our cupboards very viciously. I guess that is another reason to have a lock on my lollies.

23/8/2010 Broken Hill

Written by Hayley.

We just arrived at Broken Hill, again we looked for a park. We found a park. It's huge, it has two flip bars, one huge flying fox, and one bit you can jump off. Its also really high.

22/8/2010 Hay

Written by Hayley

We've just gotten to Hay Caravan Park the Big 4, we are going to look for a playground.

later on...

we were just at the playground there was grass everywhere. We did heaps and heaps of cartwheels. I reckon I did the best cartwheels.

Catching up...

Finally we have a few days of internet connection and some time so I will update the blog with the happenings of the last few weeks. There will be a little bit of input from all of our bloggers, so just keep reading :)

Hello from Tennant Creek

Internet access has been sporadic, so most of our updates will probably appear later in out trip when we are at Airlie Beach. We are in Tennant Creek right now, enjoying the mild evening 19 degrees minimum. Everyone is still travelling well and enjoying our trip. We are all looking forward to spending a few days in Lawn Hill National Park in the next few days, and just staying in the one place for a few days.

We have covered a lot of kilometres so far, and taken a lot of photographs, so as time permits there will be more on here to show you what we have been up to.

Until then...

xxx

That's one big rock!

SOOC this is what we saw yesterday. This was taken at sunset from the roof rack of a landcruiser 4wd. It is worth coming to see Uluru, every Australian should see it. Foreigners are welcome too lol

Day 1

Day 1

Tendrils of excitement started to wind around us this morning. There was still a bit to do before we could leave but the end was in sight. We ended up leaving at 10.30am a bit later than planned, we met up with the McDonalds near Sutton, then the adventure was begun.

Lunch was at a chilly Gundagai where the Dog on the Tuckerbox resides. The car temperature gauge showed 10 degrees while we ate sandwiches and chocolate cake (leftover from Hayley’s birthday on Saturday 21^st)

Next stop was a balmy 15 degrees to eat some of our fruit before crossing into the fruit fly exclusion zone. These zones are set up to try and stop the spread of fruit fly through the agricultural areas in Australia. After eating the apples and mandarins we jumped back in the car only to have to stop a few kilometres down the road to get rid of the tomatoes and capsicums too.

By this stage the sun was well into the afternoon sky and Balranald was looking about an hour and a half too far away. So in the spirit of things not going to plan we decided that Hay looked like a good first nights stop instead. This meant that Day 2 will be 131 kilometres longer than planned, but as Day 1 at 640 kms was the longest in our itinerary it doesn’t put us too far out.

Crossing the Hay plain was a different experience than it has been in the past. Normally it is bros and dusty. This time there were areas of lush green growth and stretches of water pooled alongside the road. The skies were overcast all day, which means there is still the possibility of more rain in this area.

As we were only staying one night in Hay we unpacked the bare necessities and even left the campers hooked up. The Hay Services Club provided a courtesy bus that collected us from the Big 4 Caravan Park took us the club where we filled up on Chinese food, then dropped us back to the camping park again. Our bus driver on hearing that we had not been to Hay before took us for a quick tour on the way home.

Into bed before 9.30pm for a good sleep before another big drive to Broken Hill on Day 2

22/8/2010 Hay - Big 4 Caravan Park

Written by Kelly

We travelled in the car for five and a half hours. The original plan was to stop- in Balranald but had travelled too long in the dark so we stopped in Hay. Me, Hayley and Holly escaped to the park while the grown ups set up the trailer. I've cartwheeled and hand stand until the grass was flat then we caught the mini bus to the pub to have dinner.

While we waited for the mini bus there was another couple waiting with us. They were going to Alice Springs fro a truck show. They had a really big truck to show at the show. Another couple started walking to the pub but because is was 2 kms away we picked them up half way . Me Hayley and Holly sat at the back and made faces at people driving behind us. It took ages for the food to come out. I had chicken nuggets and chips.Then we went home and went to bed.

One Sleep!!!!!

Wow we are really close now. The camper is mostly packed. All we need to do is put ice in the esky, pack the fridge and the clothes bags into the car, and we are ready to go.  People keep asking if we are excited yet, but to tell the truth we have been too busy to get too excited. I think at about 9.30am tomorrow the excitement will start!

Our current plan is to leave home tomorrow morning around 8.40am and head over to the McDonalds place, then get on the road on our way to Balranald. Here's hoping that everything goes according to plan.

Thanks to those of you who have left comments, its great to hear from our friends while we are on this big adventure.

More soon, from the road :)

Two Sleeps!!!

The excitement is really building now. All of the kids are now on holidays, Milo the dog has been delivered to his holiday home (my guess is he wont even want to come home after spending seven weeks with A&M they sure know how to spoil him), and the trailer is half packed.

Today has been super busy, and tomorrow will probably be worse, but it will all be worth it when we hit the road on Sunday morning.

Six sleeps

Six sleeps until we leave on our long awaited trip. The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least, there have been modifications to be made to the camper trailer, bookings to be made, equipment to be purchased, and lots of "thinking" about how good it is going to be.

Some of the places we are going may not have internet connections, so we will blog as we can. Please read along and feel free to leave comments, but remember, this is a family blog, and it will be accessed by children.