We are back on the road after our working stint in Griffith and we are back into the swing of living on the road. This leg of the trip will see us travel through some of the remotest areas of the Australian outback. However, to start off our adventure we jumped from New South Wales to Victoria and onto South Australia in the first three days. No we are not running a race it’s just how our travels have unravelled thus far. From Griffith we headed towards Mildura and the mighty Murray. I had heard so much about Mildura and it didn’t disappoint. It had a similar feel to that of Griffith I guess due to the fruit trees and grapevines but the architecture was similar to that of Bendigo. For our first night we found a secluded little free camp on the edge of the Murray River. We followed signs out of town towards King’s Billabong & Psyche’s Bend. There were a few other campers around but the closest was about 500m away so it felt like we had the whole river to ourselves. There were no facilities other than flattened out campsites & some camp fire ditches. Sometimes it’s nice to just be amongst nature with no man made intrusions.
From Mildura in Victoria we weaved our way across some brilliant scenery towards Silverton in New South Wales just to the North West of Broken Hill. We had planned to go via the Darling River Run and Menindee Lakes but unfortunately due to flooding we were unable to get through. Oh well next time. For the night we called Penrose Park home and were very happy with the facilities and camping areas. After our camp was set up we headed into Silverton to have a look around. Silverton is only 25 kms from Broken Hill and over 39 dips in the road (think rollar coaster ride) It is quite a historic little town dotted with old stone buildings scattered throughout the outback backdrop. It’s modern claim to fame is the “Hollywood of the Outback” Many movies have been filmed in the town and surrounding areas including; Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mad Max, A Town Like Alice and many more. It is a beautiful landscape so you can see why directors and producers flock to this desolate place. We headed to the Silverton Hotel for a quick drink and a game of table tennis before heading out of town to a lookout with views across the Mundi Mundi Plains. Breathtaking. We enjoyed some wine as the sun set over plains with several other travellers it really was spectacular.
We had a quick poke around Broken Hill in the morning visiting the look out and the Miner’s Memorial. Leaving Broken Hill saw us heading towards the South Australia border towards Port Augusta. For lunchtime we pulled over in the small town of Mannahill and we had a very quick lunch stop. The wind and cold hurried us along and it was back into the warm car to churn a few hundred more kilometres. After Petersborough we headed North into the Central/Northern Flinders Ranges past Hawker. This is where we will be staying for the next several nights. It is freezing as I write this blog post I am over looking the mountain ranges as the sun sets, rugged up from head to toe still feeling the cold in my bones. We really do live in a wonderful country, one of such extremes and variances. Who wouldn’t want to explore it.
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Norris Around Australia 