Into the outback to Broken Hill

Sunday 13th January

We had the most fabulous drive straight to Broken Hill today, a longish drive, so we set off at 8.30am.

Our first stop, for coffee, was in a tiny place called Robynsvale and of course forgot it was Sunday, but managed to find a small café open. We got talking to the waitress who happened to come from Redcar,  not far from Stokesley, where Rod’s family.  She had travelled the world to exotic places and ended up marrying a local and living in Robynsvale/Mildura..... the world's amazing

The journey was fabulous, as soon as we left Swan Hill the scenery started to change to  red, and then white, then red again, from trees to scrubby desert.  It was just beautiful, barren, but beautiful.  Saw some wildlife, goats, and emus, lots of hawks and flocks of galahs flashing pink in the light.  Occasionally we would cross the Murray River, which explained how the place could be irrigated.

Interspersed with the desert were oasis of vineyards, orange groves, apple orchards and fruit fields,  not the odd one, but on an industrial scale.  At one point we drove for about five klms with vines on one side and apple trees on the other – it didn’t seem quite right in a desert.

We would then hit desert again.  Completely bowled over with the scenery and the desert -beautiful layers of colour, which cchanged all the time - wonderful.

At one point an Emu launched itself across in front of the car to try and kill itself and, give me a heart attack.  Luckily Rod saw it and I had enough time to brake hard...,  the brakes work well…

We arrived at the Willyama Motor Inn late afternoon- quite posh compared to the other places we have been staying in.  But it was Sunday, so everything was shut. Luckily we had lots of food with us and we had a room picnic and some wine from the bottle shop.

We were pretty tired after the drive, but the drive was about the scenery.   Everyone had seemed surprised that we were going ‘all the way up to Broken Hill’.  We knew it was a long drive, but just great and Broken Hill was fascinating.  But then we’ve been to the Kimberley’s so we know what remote really is.

A brilliant day,  and Broken Hill is amazing.

COMMENT: I have to say that we are impressed with your public toilets over here.  Whether it be in a town or a roadhouse in the desert, they are always immaculate - thanks Australia.