3^rd October: Broken Hill

Well, here we are in Broken Hill, packed in like sardines in a tin! I can only find this one park and there are hundreds of vans and camper trailers in here. We are on a row which is two vans/trailers deep and our annex is touching the camper trailer next door. We had to back around a tree which bends over our site by a metre on the other side and there is no room to walk down the side of vans if they have an annex. Squeezy! A large group of rally drivers came in as we did. Fundraising, I think!

I didn't mention that once again the caravan parks are surrounded by tall fences with gates that lock at night and dire warnings about thieves.  Thjis place is no exception. The world has become a sad place! I googled Iron Knob and discovered that the mine is owned by BHP and is still working! Lots of ore trains in Port Augusta and on the wat here we passed a train loaded with heavy, low containers.   I am curious about them too!

The journey here was uneventful through mostly saltbush country. We came via back roads to Peterborough, a trail that many caravanners seem to take. The little towns of Wilmington and Orroroo are very old with lovely stone buildings. They were probably opened up when the pass through the mountains was discovered by Horrocks in 1841. A windy, narrow pass, it is lined with huge old gum trees and is rather attractive in an austere way.

We stopped for coffee at Yunta which is where my next door neighbour grew up in a spot called Panaramitee, 12 kms to the south. Glen texted her a photo and I tried to find something with the name Yunta on it. They used to have stickers at the BP station but since being taken over by an Indian Company,there is nothing like that! But I bough a postcard although it doesn't really show much of the countryside! It is rather arid barren country but as there are a couple of sheep holding and loading yards along the road, I suppose they graze sheep here. I didn't see any! Just dead kangaroos, a few goats on the side of the road and three emus!

We stopped at the border for lunch at Cockburn which boasts a caravan park with full amenties! Well, I don't think anyone has stayed there for a very long time! But in the weedy “park”, in the dried mud, stood two patches of flowering purple croceus plants! Rather out of place! But I didn't take a photo of that and I should have. It was so odd! As was the Hills Hoist complete with washing on a hill beside a dry creek in the middle of nowhere! I have to learn to take the time to stop and photograph these oddities!!

We are spending our last rest day here as the trip home has some big stretches of driving. Gail wants to see a number of things but I am resisting running around too much as the rest day is for her as much as anything! We will come back to Broken Hill when we come to SA next year!