Broken Hill

G'day Mates,

It's time to move on, this is what I wrote the 5th of February....

Every time you pack up your things to go to the next stop it is very exciting. As soon as I'm doing my daily exercise and my hubby is preparing lunch for later so we don't have to struggle in the heat, I'm getting a knot in my stomach;

Where will we be tonight, how will it be, will we have a smooth trip, will there be exciting things on our way, when we are going to a free camp, will there be other people etc etc.

We now packed up from Mildura and are heading to Broken Hill. It's promising to be approx. 35 degrees today and our air condition isn't working . Aah well, we will see, just open the windows.

Its Movie time;

Already approx an hour out of Mildura towards North, you can notice we are going to the outback as chauffeurs of oncoming traffic start waving, means you are coming into a remote area with very little traffic .

And then, approx. 100 km from Broken Hill we noticed that our navigator suddenly had a different time then we and then we figured out that we went a half hour back in time. Can you imagine even how vast this country is? Further to the West we will be confronted with more time difference!

Arriving in Broken Hill we straight went to the racecourse where you could camp;

At night we had a beautiful Moon....

And during day some nice wildlife....

You could think, "how on earth can they create a town like Broken Hill in the middle of nowhere, closest civilisation is approx. 280 km away" , well the name says it all, it is a broken hill with much different, very valuable, minerals in it like silver, that's why it's also called Silver City. The Broken Hill ore body if born 1700 million years ago when thermal springs deposit silver, lead and zinc sulphides formed in mud from hot springs in the ocean floor.

We have been here 3 nights, staying at the race course which was terrific! You could stay there for $ 15.00 but then you have no power so we decided to take the power for $ 25.00 and that was a good choice as it was bloody hot and you can't do without air conditioning.

Broken hill is like a lot of little towns and especially country towns, on its way back. Local shops are closed and the buildings are empty often also neglected. But still it is an genuine, outback, Aussie Town. 

Some more impressions of the Town;

In the old days there was not much material but iron so a lot of houses were and we saw still are being made of corrugated iron and it doesn't look bad at all!

Except for a few haha;

If you are a art or museum lover then you might not have enough on one day visit. We did one day Broken Hill, even went to a museum!, and one day the surrounding which includes Silverton on which I will come back in next story.

I must admit that there also were a few things closed like the information centre on top of the Line of Lode so we couldn't spent much time there. The view was great though and so was the Miners Memorial.  It's most probably that this is not the most popular time of the year to go to Broken Hill, too hot.

Miners Memorial

And then the Palace Hotel. You will be amazed by the pictures and this is the story;

AN INDIGENOUS ARTIST FROM PT AUGUSTA BY THE NAME OF GORDON WAYE CAME INTO THE HOTEL. MARIO ASKED HIM TO PAINT A WALL IN THE FRONT BAR, WHICH GORDON PAINTED IN 8HRS. OVER A PERIOD OF YEARS GORDON PAINTED ALL THE OTHER MURALS MOSTLY IN A LANDSCAPE THEME. THE ONLY STIPULATION WAS THAT SCENES CONTAIN A WATER FEATURE, SO THAT THE HOTEL WOULD FEEL LIKE AN OASIS IN THE OUTBACK.

The Palace was made famous in the 1994 Australian movie "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". Broken Hill is a popular location for movies and many great scenes from Priscilla were filmed in and around the Silver City, including inside Mario's Palace Hotel. 

The museum we went to was worth the money. I especially wanted to see the silver tree (sorry, it was prohibited to make a picture of the tree) but besides that there were a lot of beautiful minerals to see, all found in Broken Hill.

OK guys, That's it again, it may sound a bit arrogant but I think this was a very various story, don't you agree?

Cheers!

Mildura

G'day Mates!

Between Maryborough and Mildura, we have tried our luck on some more free camps on the Gold Fields but still no luck. I put my detector away for a while and we go on with our trip to the West.

As I said this story is about Mildura and actually not so much about Mildura but more about the caravan park we were in, OK lets go;

As you can see on the picture, Mildura is located in a Pest Free Area which means, you are not allowed to take fruit and vegetables into that area, so along the road you see these signs ;

As you can see you have to throw away the fruit and vegetables you have got with you....

Fortunately we were warned in time so we ate most of our fruit and vegetables and the rest what we couldn't eat I had cooked and frozen....

The reason for these precautions is, that Mildura is a major agricultural centre notable for its grape production, supplying 80% of Victoria's grapes. Many wineries also source grapes from Mildura. 

Same story as Bendigo, we have been here before but that was before my blog-time so for now just one little glimpse of Mildura....

Mildura is host to many annual festivals such as the Mildura Country Music Festival, the International Balloon Fiesta, the Jazz Food & Wine Festival, Mildura Wentworth Arts Festival, Murray River International Music Festival, Mildura Writers Festival, Mildura Palimpsest and the Mildura Show. 

and this is our caravan park, situated on the Murray River.....

The city's situation on the Murray River makes it a hub for watersports, paddlesteamers and boat cruises. There is also the annual Mildura masters coarse fishing competition held in November which attracts a number of international and local coarse anglers and the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show

Actually the caravan park sits in New South Wales whereas Mildura is Victoria.....

Its just on the other side of the river.......

Why would I make a special on a caravan park? Well, just look and judge yourselves....

(Dump point for toilet cassettes) 

Amenities, the great thing about this one is that there was music and pretty loud, lovely for your privacy........

nice pool, they even have two pools because the park is pretty large....

Camp kitchen....

Beer garden.....

and beautiful sites....

our view.....

And entertainment whole day, enjoy this Movie!!

OK Guys, I'm hungry, see ya next time.........

Name of the caravan park;

http://www.burongacaravanpark.com.au/

I'll be back after we crossed the Nullarbor and that can take a while!

(Nullarbor will be explained later)

Cheers!

The Victorian Goldfields

G'day Mates,
Did you share my blog in order to save Bali?? I wonder........


Yes, we have started our trip to Western Australia .....

Of course I am way behind, at this moment we are in Port Lincoln and I have to catch up a lot, so lets get started;

This is what I wrote on the 9th of January......


We said family and friends goodbye and from Newborough we are now winding our way through the Baw Baw shire towards Bendigo where we will be for a few days. The weather is perfect for driving, overcast and approx. 22 degrees. We're coming through little places like Willow Grove, Powelltown etc.

Movie time;

We stopped at the Gums Camp ground at Kinglake National Park which was in my bible. Coming there a sign said we had to book and there was a phone number which I called. Luckily we were still on the road and hadn't gone in yet as the men said, when he already gave me a site number, that it costs $ 37.80!! There is no water, no shower, no electricity just toilets!! Of course we know that these facilities are not there in a national park but to pay THAT money for it!! No way! So I told the men we'd rather go to a caravan park.

Looking back into my bible I saw something else coming on our path and that was Murrindindi scenic reserve so we went there. Look at this great spot, plenty room available, nice and quiet, lot of wildlife and only $ 7.00 to put in the honesty box.

Though the sky was dark around us and we heard thunder in the distance,  we just had a bit drizzle. Next day we packed and went towards Bendigo.

Arriving in Bendigo we went to a little caravan park which was flooded the day before when we were at that scenic reserve where we only had drizzle.
Because the forecast was bad for a few days we decided to stay at the caravan park before going into the bush to do our "bush walking with benefits". (Wonder what that means hey!)

When we just were emigrated to Australia and we thought our house would sell in the near future, we have been cruising around in Victoria to sort out where we wanted to live and one of these places was Bendigo. Because we then have seen Bendigo from properly, we didn't bother this time. BUT Bendigo is worth visiting and in those days I also made a weblog, the only thing is, its in Dutch. So if you are interested in Bendigo, just go to;

 http://tamfredinkangarooland.blogspot.com.au/2009/04/cultuur-ja-of-nee.html

also Bendigo has a lot of old style houses still; to see them just go to;

http://tamfredinkangarooland.blogspot.com.au/2009/04/misverstand.html



Now we have arrived in the greater Bendigo National Park on a free camp and as usual the camp spot is great, long drop toilets are available.
Today's it Wednesday the 14th of January and we had our first bush walking, but no benefits. (Still don't now??) Ah well one day we will have luck! More important is not to get bitten by a snake, I've got bitten by an ant and my god THAT HURTS!! Danny, our son knows, you remember Dan, Yamba!

There are more people here running around with a detector, maybe I should ask them if they found gold already and where haha, they won't tell!

Actually we are also very curious to know how long our new equipment, you know the second battery, will last and how long we can stay now with our own power? I'll let you know.

So, now in the meantime we are on that free camp 3 1/2 days, I've got back pain, actually pain over my whole body and blisters in my hands and look what I've gathered!

 Everyone here on the camp ground has found gold (Ah, does a bell ring?), some small and some quite nice ones! Of course I know I'm not experienced enough but still, my God someone found a nugget behind the toilet of all places !! Fred had put a bottle of bubbles in the fridge to celebrate my first found piece, not iron but proper gold! We had to take it out today and put it back under the bed, the bottle is too big for that little caravan fridge, so annoying.

But it's not all bad, we met a nice couple and because Fred doesn't like to come detecting (Yes, that's it) and he doesn't also like me going on me own, I was very glad they asked me if I would like to come with them and so I did. I also learnt a lot from him, his name is Hans, and I'm very thankful for that!  Ah well, maybe I've got more luck next time. AND, look at this, that's all on our front yard, what else do you want!

After the Bush adventure we were desperate for a shower and so we went to a caravan park in Maryborough and ooooohhh that shower was lovely!! I booked for a week because I also wanted to recover a bit from all the digging and I also wanted to work on my blog so we needed Internet too.

The blogs I was working on were the Bali ones.

A very nice caravan park in Maryborough, the one on the end of the Town, near the lake...

Even the Daltons were there to greet us....

Family of us wanted to see how prospecting (Gold digging) works so they came over for a day to come with us into the bush because Maryborough too is in the middle of the Victorian Goldfields.......

We had a very lovely day, nice lunch in the bush and dinner together, but no luck again.

Besides prospecting we also did a bike ride and we passed a few nice things in Maryborough;

The railway station

Very busy!! Haha, there are two trains leaving in the early morning....

A school....

The first part of the tour was very nice, through the bus and along paddocks 

We even passed an old goal......

Picture this, it's Wednesday the 21 rst of January, we went out to do some diggings again.  Suddenly my detectors produced a noise of which I found exciting and so Fred, he wanted to come with me this time, started digging. We swapped with digging and we dug deeper and deeper......

  Then the sound became weaker and we started to investigate the dirt what came out of the hole. The dirt in Fred's hand was beeping and it kept beeping even when he didn't had any dirt in his hands anymore.

I knew my hubby has golden hands but that the detector would ever prove it!!!!

I can tell ya, we were exhausted!!

Our neighbours at the caravan park, on the one side a couple, and on our other side a man on his own who also is in the prospecting business, were always curious if we would bring some shining yellow stuff home and waited every day for us with curiosity, unfortunately!

On the day we left, our male neighbour, John is his name, felt so sorry for me he made me this as a goodbye present;

OK Mates, that was it for now!

By the way, in the mean time we found out that we at least can camp free for 6 days, as long as the sun keeps shining and its not too hot. I think we could even do more!

Cheers!