The past glory of Wilcannia

"Do not stay in Wilcannia!" they said....
but we didn't listen or we were just plain disobedient.

There are a few things to recommend Wilcannia.
We had a lovely morning walking around and as you know I love old buildings....

At one time Wilcannia was the third largest port in NSW.
The wide streets and grand buildings are witness to the town's past glory.

A few years ago the were problems with the crime and the local indigenous population, and this has tainted opinions of the town. Sure there are vertiges of this with the barred doors and windows of the local supermarket and other places, but the locals reckon there is nothing to fear. And from what we saw we can only agree with them.

There are a couple of ace coffee shops making this a worthwhile stopover on the way to Broken Hill and all points west.
Plus you can check out some of the great old houses.

Hills, Valleys and Underground

T: do you want to stay more than one night in Broken Hill?
G: nah, we've been there before.
(26 years ago!)
T: yep, and I think I've been 3 times
(more than 26 years ago)

Then we remembered the long weekend in October and realised that we didn't want to be near the coast or any popular long weekend spots at that time.
So we opted for a soujourn in Broken Hill.

During which time we went down 't mine.

We viewed the Sculptures in the desert at sunset (along with a couple of hundred other people)

And we popped off for an overnight trip to Mutawinji National Park, a couple of hours drive North-East, leaving our van in the very capable custody of Broken Hill racecourse.

There had been a bit of rain the week before and the road had just reopened.
Also we were incredibly lucky to see the creeks with so much water in.
Enough for a dip!

Unfortunately there are lots of weeds, a legacy of it's grazing past.
This Patersons curse looks spectacular, but - it's a weed.
There are also many feral goats.....pity they don't eat up all the weeds!

 

We also visited the charming art gallery in Broken Hill and highly recommended is a visit to Pro Harts studio, but we didn't do that this time.
When I'd been before Pro was still alive and would be wandering around, or throwing some paint around.
It's the sort of town you can certainly dally for a while.

Dates: 28/9 to 1/10

We cross another border.

We continued on our way down the Stuart Highway.
It really is a mammoth road, no wonder there is a book about it!

We did stop briefly at Woomera.
It has a manufactured-town-stepford-wives feel to it.
It was built in the 1940's to service the rocket testing range nearby (it covers a huge area). People still live and work there as the testing range is still used for military and other tests.
There are a couple of museums and a park with old rockets in if you are interested in that sort of thing.

We didn't hang about as we were hot-footing it to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden for lunch and a mosey around.
And very nice it was too!
There was a sculpture in the gardens exhibition happening.

As we entered Port Augusta we left the Stuart Highway behind and saw the first sign to Sydney - still over 1500 kms away!

Camp that night was at Spear Creek camping area tucked under the foothills of the Flinders Ranges. A pretty spot with enormous 500 year old river red gums, grass and some old rockers enjoying themselves too loudly.

Then we wound around the country roads to the Barrier Highway.....and through pitstops like Olary and on and on across the border back into New South Wales and to Broken Hill.

But we still had many many miles to go!

Dates: 26/9 to 28/9

Salt lake essay

The ethereal beauty of the salt lakes captured us and we took a bazillion photos.

This is Lake Hart.
We camped next to it before the turn off to Woomera on the Stuart Highway.

It was mined for salt and apparently it was beautiful salt, but the last shipment sits forlornly next to the railway line, waiting in vain for the last 80 years to be picked up and delivered.

The remnants of the salt pans can be seen.

They look like old fence stumps being encrusted with the ever-present salt.

There is a rest area but we drove off onto the many bush tracks between the road and the railway line.
A great free camp.

Katherine and Edith

We're not really caravan park sorts of people. Have I mentioned that before?
But we needed to restock supplies in Katherine and do some washing and Katherine was the logical place to do this.
But after reading all the reviews of all the caravan parks in Katherine and noting the prices and really, really wanting to stay out at Edith Falls....this is what we did.
After unsuccessfully trying to ring the campground at Leliyn (Edith Falls) and after finding out from the tourist information place in Katherine that it is first-in-best-dressed at Edith Falls.
And also knowing that caravan sited are limited we drove out to there about 60 odd kms, got a spot, got set up, had lunch and then drove back into Katherine to do laundry and go shopping. Mad, eh?
But when we got back, the sign near the highway at the turn off said "caravan sites full"! So we were glad that we had done that crazy thing.
And when we got back we had time for a refreshing dip in the refreshingly fresh water pool. Delicious!

Originally I had just sketched in a one night stop here, but it is worth 2 nights.
There is a kiosk and the ladies that run it also take the fees for the campground. They are lovely and made a mean barra burger too!