Camp VIII – Broken Hill
We dined out at the Prairie Hotel last night at Parachilna, famous for serving up all manner of “road kill”. We opted to share a feral platter to start with – a combination of kangaroo smoked salami, kangaroo pastrami, emu pâté with a selection of (relatively) local olives, bush tomatoes, wonderful fresh bread and char-grilled veggies, washed down with a bottle of their local beer and a soda, lime & bitters between us. For mains we selected the feral goat red curry and the mixed feral grill (although they were out of emu filet mignon so an extra serve of camel sausage was thrown in for good measure, to go with the kangaroo eye fillet). All this was followed by a quondong crumble pie with almond ice cream and decent coffees (the first in a long time). This was a great meal in what was a very busy restaurant in an out-of-the-way location. We drove the 15 minutes minutes back to our campsite in the Parachilna Gorge, spotting only 5 kangaroos, the last standing guard over the Tvan as we arrived back, well in the dark.
Yet another beautiful dawn greeted us and we were soon up and about having breakfast and packing up in preparation for the drive to Broken Hill. We started out, winding through the gorge, crossing the river numerous times as the track twisted and turned its way gradually eastwards. We left the gorge and arrived at Blinman (we had visited here just over 12 months ago when the annual camp oven cook-off was in full swing). Blinman was much, much quieter today with only the local Ambulance service and Flying Doctor display in the Main Street. We grabbed a quick coffee before navigating our way through the north Flinders Ranges, then followed a series of back tracks that weave their way through very marginal and very dusty, saltbush sheep country. Eventually we found our way back to the Barrier Highway at Yunta and turned east towards Broken Hill.
A roadside rest area drew us in at lunch time and we were soon setup under the shade of a few trees (a luxury in these parts) enjoying a bite to eat when a snake decided to cross the parking area in front of the Prado. We finished lunch sitting inside the Prado! According to the car thermometer the temperature was up around 33C but very low humidity made it feel much less. We let the adrenaline rush subside before heading east to Broken Hill.
The roadside signage soon announced that we were entering NSW and Broken Hill was less than 50kms away. The quality of the road picked up as we crossed the border and soon lost track of the number of road trains we passed that were heading west, either to Adelaide or possibly even Perth across the Nullabor. We crested a hill and Broken Hill (well the overburden heaps that defines the town) were clearly visible. Our plan of attack was to find a caravan park, check the road conditions for our trip to Mildura tomorrow, visit the small shopping mall for some cash and a few groceries and fill up with fuel before setting up camp for the night.
Our plan tomorrow is to make for Mildura via Menindee and Pooncarie, following the Darling River for much of the way. Our previous attempt at following this path was thwarted when we got to Menindee only to find the road south to Mildura closed. That resulted in an unnecessary 220km detour. Anyway, the helpful people at the tourist information centre advised that the road is open all the way to Mildura and our appointment at Stephano’s Restaurant tomorrow night. Tomorrow we will follow in the footsteps of explorers such as Mitchell, Sturt, Stuart, Eyre and Burke and Wills.