Sometimes, one decides that "enough is enough" and one needs to escape.
The year 2020 is just one of those periods, with COVID-19 disrupting everyone's travel and holiday plans, many people are getting stir crazy.
In September, I decided that "enough was enough", had a brain snap, and Stephanie and I headed for the NSW outback. Now, since all state borders were closed, we could only explore our own state - fortunately, there is a lot to see and do.....
Stephanie, has never really experienced the outback, so I suggested a trip to Broken Hill and Tibooburra. It was agreed, and since Stephanie's sister had not really experienced the outback either, we invited her along too!
The route was roughly planned starting from Sydney and going through Temora, Griffith, Hillston, Menindee Lakes, Broken Hill, Tibooburra, Bourke, Byrock, Nyngan and back to Sydney via a lunch stop in Dubbo.
We left Sydney and headed south west down the Hume highway and stopped for morning tea at the Rollonin Cafe at Bowning. If you are near Yass, then get off the highway and head into the village of Bowning. The Rollonin Cafe has the best and biggest date scones I've ever had the pleasure of tasting!
Our lunch stop was in Young. This time of year is cherry blossom time wich leads into the cherry festival season in December. Sadly though, the festival has been cancelled for 2020 due to COVID. Young is a pretty little town, known for its cherries. Definitely worth a visit - especially during the cherry festival where you can sample all the delicious (seriously) home-made cherry pies your heart desires!
A quick visit to Temora air museum is a definite must do! Even the girls got into it and were fascinated by the planes and their history. The importance of towns like Temora and their role in flight training for pilots during the world wars was stuff that we were completely ignorant about until our visit.
We ended up in Griffith for the evening, and if you are a lover of wines, good Italian food and fresh produce, then put Griffith down as a place to visit. We had dinner at
La Scala Restaurnt - which serves great meals at very reasonable prices and is located on the main street of Griffith. We then strolled back to our hotel for the night.
Day 2 saw us at De Bortoli Wines where we enjoyed one of the best wine tastings ever. It was a sit down affair and for $25 per head, we tried 11 different wines and fortifieds (their muscats are awesome) and we each got an antipasto platter - which was big enough to do us for lunch! We spent about 90 very enjoyable minutes there and bought some wines to take with us for the rest of the trip. There are several good wineries to try while in Griffith, and a number of excellent restaurants, just be sure to book in as they do get busy.
In the afternoon, we drove to Hillston for the night. Hillston is a quaint little town, with an RSL that serves drinks and dinner. There is a caravan park and a couple of motels.
Day 3 started with us departing Hillston and setting off for Menindee Lakes and on to Broken Hill. This run had us on dirt roads for most of the day, but the roads were wide, smooth and an easy drive.
There were some picturesque spots to free camp if you have a caravan, camper or tent, especially along the Lachlan River. This pic was taken from the Mossgiel Road bridge that crosses the river just out of Hillston. There were people freecamping on the northern side next to the river.
The bitumen quickly disappeared to then become an 8-car wide dirt road that was easy to drive on that went all the way to the Cobb Highway. We turned right and were on bitumen through to Ivanhoe. We turned left after Invanhoe onto the Ivanhoe-Menindee Road and were back on dirt again until we hit Menindee.
Menindee is a town about 1.5 hours south of Broken Hill and is adjacent to a group of lakes called (unsurprisingly) Menindee Lakes. Stopping at the Menindee Hotel for lunch, we spoke to the publican who have us a map of the district and told us where to go and what to see. Local knowledge is very valuable and makes the visit so much better.
The meal at the pub was fantastic and brilliant value. The beer was cold and the people very friendly. The publican advised that (currently) not all lakes had water but he directed us as to the best places to visit.
Menindee has had some big floods in the past, and as such, a serious weir was built many years ago to control the water flows. There are hstoric photos at the pub showing the levels of the water and the extent of the flooding. It's truly amazing to see, considering how Australia is the driest continent in the world! Driving around the lakes, you will see families of emus roaming around - a fantastic sight to see these birds in the wild.
There were many people free camping along the Menindee Lake shores and we can understand why as the sunsets are spectacular over the lake and the flooded trees give the place a surreal feeling. If you have time, stay a night on the shores of Menindee Lakes. There is plenty of shoreline and you do not have to be close to anyone else if you don't want to be. That night, we arrived at Broken Hill and checked into our motel.
Days 4 & 5 saw us up and about early in the morning ready to do some sightseeing. We decided to walk rather than use the car and we had a list of places we wanted to see. However, due to COVID, some places were closed to tourists, so we made the most of it anyway. Our list of sights that were open to us were as follows: Pro Hart Gallery, Jack Absalom Gallery, Line of Load lookout, The Living Desert Sculptures, Silver City Mint and Art Centre, Silverton and Mundi Lookout. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service or the School of the Air.
We started our walk and headed from Argyle Street to the Pro Hart Gallery. It's a bit of an uphill walk and about 3.5km from where we started. It's a pleasant walk and gets you to the high point of town. The photo above shows where we ended up and looking back toward the town and Line of Lode (the mound of material at the back right of the photo).
Upon reaching the top of the hill, the view to the outback is a scene typically painted by Pro Hart which shows the colours and typical landscape. The photo above is typical of such scenes. The Pro Hart gallery was of definite interest to us and when you get there, you will see his painted Rolls Royce in typical Pro style.
Visiting the viewing platform at Line of Lode, you get a great perspective of Broken Hill and surrounds. The photo to the left shows this view and the photo below shows the remaining mines. Broken Hill is lees of a mining town today as most of the mines are depleted. The memorial at Line of Lode is worth visiting and is an eye opener as to how young people were
that worked in the mines at the start of last century.
We visited the Jack Absalom Gallery, and as a young guy I remember watching Jack's TV programs that showed him painting Outback scenes while travelling all around Outback Australia. Some of his paintings can be viewed at the gallery and are typical of the Aussie Outback.
A short drive from Broken Hill is the township of Silverton. The pub is a huge tourist attraction and an iconic Aussie Pub. Silverton is the place one of the Mad max films were shot and there is a Mad Max museum there for all you fans!
The Silverton Hotel has a great bar and a great undercover outdoor restaurant. The food is good and the drinks are cold - what else do you need?!
Just a short 5km drive from Silverton is
Mundi Mundi Lookout. The view from here looks west and the sunsets are quite spectacular. Lots of people in the know will grab a cold drink and rock up with friends and sit to watch the sunset while sipping on their favourite drink.
Mundi Mundi Lookout's location is the perfect stargazing place too! If you're lucky enough to have a clear moonless night, go to Mundi Lookout and gaze at the Milky Way and the amazingly vast number of stars in the sky. The sky is so clear, and because there is no background light, surprisingly,
you can take a photo of the stars even with a phone camera. The photo to the left was taken on my Samsung S20 phone. In fact, all the photos on this page were taken on the same phone camera!
About 10km from Broken Hill lies The Living Desert Sculptures. The area that the sculptures are in is typical outback landscape and it is certainly worth the drive to have a look. The photo below shows some of the sculptures against the setting sun. If you go out there, take the fly repellant with you!!!
Another place in Broken Hill that is a "must see" is the Silver City Mint and Art Centre. It is a great place, with excellent
exhibits, art, jewelery and an outback scene that is a definite MUST see.
If you feel like a drive, then Mutawintji National Park is a nice way to spend the day and you get a chance to be truly in the middle of nowhere! We did the drive and took plenty of water and a packed lunch.
We stopped for a "nature break" and when we turned to walk back to the car, we took the above photo. It shows how much "nothing" is out there in the outback. We also took a few tracks off the main road and stopped at a few spots along the way. Below are a couple of photos taken at a dry creek bed.
One cannot help but love the colours of the outback - especially on a clear day.
The road to Mutawintji is very dusty. Once you arrive, you will find there are a number of places you can camp or have a picnic lunch. You can go for a walk and maybe spot a Sturt Desert Pea (we didn't manage to find one). Be sure to take fly repellent - especially if you plan to eat there.
Dinner on day 5 was at the Astra Hotel. The food is very good and everyone's meal was fantastic. It is a more up market eatery in Broken Hill and was once a pub but now is a restaurant.
Day 6 we departed Broken Hill and headed north to Tibooburra on the Silver City Highway - which is, as of mid 2020, bitumen all the way to Tibooburra. To continue the outback experience theme, we stopped at the Packsaddle Roadhouse. This is another "must do" in the area and it's certainly worthwhile having lunch at the Packsaddle as the meals and atmosphere are great.
The PackSaddle has accommodation as well as an area to park a caravan or camper trailer. In fact, Several Grey Nomad Caravans pulled up as we were having lunch and I struck up a conversation with them to pick their brains regarding caravans (I am in the market looking to purchase one currently).
One of the guys, "Wazza", took myself and Stephanie over to his van and showed us through. He explained a few things and gave us some tips - which was quite nice of him.
After lunch and our chat with the nomads, we continued north and arrived at Milparinka.
There's not much left of Milparinka, but the Albert Hotel built in 1852 is surprisingly nice. It has accommodation, nice bar and served meals in a very pleasant environment. There are some historic buildings to see as well as caravan and camping facilities behind the pub.
I took the photo below while standing on the corner of (believe it or not) Thompson and Loftus Streets in the heart of Milparinka, the old courthouse appears in the background.
After a drink at the hotel, we continued anoher 25 mins north and arrived at Tibooburra. We checked into the Family Hotel, unpacked and then went for a walk through the town.
Tibooburra is a small town that is the base for exploring the Corner Country. People often head from here to Cameron's Corner and further on to Innamincka and Birdsville. Unfortunately for us, due to COVID border restrictions, visiting Cameron's Corner just isn't on the cards for this trip.
It's a short walk through the town, there is a roadhouse, grocery store, good camping ground, two hotels, a ranger's office where you can get the latest road conditions and a few places for a good meal. The Family Hotel is an icon and has fantatic meals, cold drinks and a brilliantly big verandah where you can sit and enjoy both!
Funnily enough, while walking through Tibooburra, we stumbled across a number of Sturt Desert Peas that had just popped up along the dirt footpaths in Tibooburra (and to think the day before we walked around a national park looking for them and didn't see a single one - funny eh?!)
The Family Hotel is famous for it's wall murals painted by artists such as Clifton Pugh & Russell Drysdale.
If you are visiting Corner Country, then Tibooburra works well as both a stop and a base for exploring the region.
Day 7 we headed east along The Cut Line to Wanaaring via the old Mt Wood Sheep Station and shearers quarters. We stopped for a look at the property.
There is a campground here as well as a residence and shearers quarters. An old wooden suspension bridge goes over a dry creek bed - which no doubt floods when it rains.
The Cut Line is a dirt road that connects Tibooburra to Wanaaring. It is a wide, smooth road that is easy driving, and, as the photo shows, even here in the middle of nowhere, you can still get mobile phone reception!!!
We had decided to head east from Tibooburra as big rains were forecast for the following day. As it was, we managed to stay ahead of the rains by one day, which was fortunate, as many of the roads such as the Silver City Highway and The Cut Line were flooded and impassable the following day!
While heading east along The Cut Line, we passed a dry salt lake. The girls had not seen a salt lake before, so we stopped and walked out onto it. The salt was glarey in the sun. We tasted the salt and yes.... it is salty, very salty.
Continuing east, we stopped at Wanaaring for a quick lunch - toasted sandwich at the small roadhouse, and continued through to Bourke and then down to Byrock where we spent the night. The only thing at Byrock is the Mulga Creek Pub, which as a great bar, excellent food, atmosphere, accommodation and caravan & camping facilities around the back.
Yes, there are parking meters out the front and are there to accept donations for the Royal Flying Doctor Service - this is one time I think everybody is happy to "pay for parking"!
If you're driving between Nyngan and Bourke, stop at the Mulga Creek Hotel, I promise you won't regret it.
Stay the night, and hopefully you will be greeted by a sunrise with colours like no other I have seen - we were fortunate enough to view this scene as shown in the photo below.....
Day 8 - In the morning, we headed off back home to Sydney but had one more touristy stop to do, and that was to visit the Big Bogan at Nyngan......
Visiting the Big Bogan was not really a "must do" for us, but we were going to drive through Nyngan and stop there for breakfast anyway, so why not pay the Big Bogan a visit? After all, it's not like you can miss him right???
We continued home stopping at Dubbo and Mudgee before arriving back in Sydney in the early on Saturday evening.
Epilogue:
I know there are those who will tell us that we did the trip too quickly and that we should have taken our time and seen all there was to see. However, it was a spur-of-the-moment whirlwind trip of the outback. We did it because we wanted to have a quick getaway. COVID has affected tourism greatly and as such we cannot see or experience many of the things we would like to. Festivals have been cancelled, tourist destinations and attractions closed, limited availability of facilities etc..... but we did the trip despite of all of these - and we had a ball of an adventure!
After having done the trip, I was convinced more than ever that I want to see the rest of Australia, so the descision to purchase a caravan was made the day after we arrived back home. I had been looking at vans for a few months, and knew what we wanted. The van was purchased two days later. The adventures will now continue - though somewhat differently since we will be towing our accommodation along with us!
Click here if you want to know more about the caravan and how we came to choose it.
Andrew & Stephanie
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