Not Before Time

We stayed in Whyalla again for a couple of nights after we left Port Gibbon. This gave us a chance to catch up with laundry and David got to do a few bits and pieces on the van. We actually had some grass to park on – that was a novelty. Don’t think we’ve had a grass site since we were in Casino Village a couple of years ago.

We’re now in Broken Hill. We’ve been here before, but probably 25 years or so ago and neither of us remember much about the town. We were surprised at how big the place is – it’s very spread out. On the way in, one thing that caught my eye was the size of the cemetery – it’s massive! I’ve always thought Melbourne cemetery was huge, but this one just seemed to go on for ever. The other thing about BH is the colours – it reminds me of Alice Springs in that the air is so clear all the colours are more vivid. No wonder so many artists have lived/are living here.

We went out and wandered the town – there are some beautiful Victorian and Federation style buildings here and it appears that there is a strong effort in preserving them.

There are also some great miner’s cottages, but I haven’t taken any photos of them yet. Hopefully I’ll get some in the next couple of days.
There’s a good view of the town from the Broken Earth Café Restaurant, located on the highest point of the Line of Lode mullock dumps which cross the city. This is also where you can access the Miner’s Memorial, which records the deaths of over 816 miners in Broken Hill mines.

Well, since we only came here for 2 days and it’s now been 3 weeks, we’ve reluctantly decided it’s time to move on. It’s starting to get quite cool now so we’re going to head north, over to Broken Hill, then up into outback Queensland. We’ll also see if we can pick up some work somewhere along the way. Not sure how much work is out there right now, things are changing everywhere with the financial situation being what it is. Eventually we’ll head over to the Gympie area, David wants to get some work done on the van suspension. Not sure after that, but we will head back to the Eyre Peninsula and hopefully spend about 6 months in the area.

Well, it’s 5 days down and we’re still at Port Gibbon. There’s a beer garden here and at 5pm every day whoever wants to join in can go along for drinks/nibbles. It’s a great chance to chat to the other campers. Sometimes the nibbles have been so good you eat too much and then dinner isn’t necessary . We had a big cook out the other night, with a couple of kangaroo roasts, pork, chicken and heaps of veggies. There must have been 25 or so of us doing this. It was good fun (and the food was great). So, with all the fun we’ve been having, the magnificent view’s and the friendly people, is it any wonder we’re still here?

We’ve done some tourist stuff, visiting some of the inland towns as well as the coastal ones – it’s a beautiful area. We went to Point Gibbon where there is supposed to be a seal colony, but we only saw one, and he wasn’t coming out of the water for a photo shoot!

We’ve spent a fair bit of time beach fishing, and we have managed to catch a few whiting, so we’ve had a couple of feeds. (I must admit, it’s very different catching fish here compared to Darwin . The good thing is there’s no crocs! ). We’ve also been getting stuck into the local oysters which are absolutely delicious. A new bunch of people have come in and because it’s been so cold, rather than go to the beer garden, we’ve had a fire outside our van and they’ve come over to join us.

There is an area here called The Igloos and it cracked me up. The sign explains it all.

When we left Whyalla, the plan was to spend a couple of nights somewhere – probably at Cowell, before heading on to Port Lincoln. However, some friends mentioned to us that they stayed at a place south of Cowell and they really enjoyed it – so we decided to go there instead. Port Gibbon is a donation camp ground 23km south of Cowell and we liked the spot so we’ve stayed here for a couple of nights. The camp ground has water and toilets, and it’s looked after by a local fellow and has a constant flow of people coming and going. There isn’t any power, but we’ve got our generator, and it’s right on the beach which is lovely, and apparently the fishing is excellent. I say apparently because so far we haven’t managed to catch anything other than lots of seaweed! Still, we’ll keep trying.