Burra Gorge to Broken Hill

Dear Family and Friends

We have had a very relaxing and enjoyable 10 days in and around Pt Hughes and The Yorke Peninsula. It is a very pretty part of the amazing South Australian landscape. Unfortunately on the day we left I didn't feel at all well. It must have been a bug of some kind as it came on me very quickly. I was holding the bed up for Ken while he put stuff away and all of a sudden my Tummy turned over. Regardless we headed off as planned making our way towards Broken Hill.

While we were at Freeburgh we were told that Burra Gorge was a nice place to visit so we decided we would make this our first spot to stay. What a lovely spot it turned out to be. It was a very large free camp area with sites alongside the Gorge. Clearly it is a very popular site judging by the number of camp fire spots we saw. No showers but drop toilets were set up around the overall camp site. Clean fresh running water ran through the gorge. People who walked further down the gorge said there was a lovely swimming spot with a water fall but it was a bit of a climb to get there but worth the effort. We didn't attempt it because of Ken's hip never the less we were very happy to stay where we were. Bruce and Rosemary were camped near us and Bruce had a new pump he was trying out. He had the pump in the water with a lengthy hose on it pumping water up to his van which was elevated well above the river. He said they had lovely long showers the first night they had it in and were very pleased with the pump. Bruce also demonstrated their new diesel heater that they were trying for the first time. Very impressive. The weather was very cold most of our stay so I was green with envy seeing most of our heating is from our little gas cylinder heater. oh well, some of us have to do it tough.

We also met another couple, Arnie and Vicki who were on their maiden voyage. We may well catch up with them again as we are sort off heading to the same locations.

You may recall that we have brought our pushbikes with us on this leg of the journey. We are using them. I did some riding around the caravan park at Pt Hughes and I also rode around a new subdivision opening up. It seemed to be a very wealthy area as the houses all seemed to be large single story or huge long double storey homes. Either way if they are retirement homes or family homes being built there is a lot of development happening in Pt Hughes. At Burra Gorge, just 25klm from Burra we did some riding also. On one occasion I rode about 2klms toward the main road turnoff and was very pleased with myself thinking this is good I should do this every day while we are here. Then I turned around to ride back and realised I was riding into a head wind and a very strong one at that. It was a hard slog all the way home. By the time I got back I had changed my tune and ended up saying I'm not doing that again unless there is no wind at all.

What we did see were a number of old homesteads that were around. One near the gorge would have been a beutiful home in its day. There were cellars, outhouses, barns and shearing sheds, and stock yards left as a reminder of what was once a much loved home and sheep farm.

The trees at the gorge were quite amazing. Mostly gums. There trunks were huge and many were split down the middle and out of one tree two singular trees grew. At first I thought perhaps they had been struck by lightening But there were too many like it for that to have been the cause. We also thought it may have been due to white ants as there was clearly white ant activity in one or two of then so we were a bit baffled as to what the cause was. Then Ken was told it is a build up of sap in the middle and the tree thinks it's an invaidor and kills that part of the tree and then grows into two separate trees.


Because Burra Gorge was so nice we ended up staying there for six nights. We had no phone or internet connection. We had to drive out to the main road for a few klms just to get a signal so we could say happy birthday to Dallas. We used the satelite dish and managed to get all the channels. Otherwise we enjoyed talking to the many people who came and went during our six night stay.

Friends, Nev and Jenny, from Toongabbie have just started their long holiday around Aus and we were both in the same area and we were luckier enough to cross paths with them. They were leaving Broken Hill heading toward Peterborough and then onto Pt Augusta and we were leaving Burra and heading toward Broken Hill. So we met at Oodla Wirra and had a coffee and a chat before we went our own way. It was good to see them again.

We had intended to stay at the the Family Parks spot for $25 / night in Broken Hill as the Tourist Park was $10 / night dearer at $35 per night. Nev and Jenny, had stayed at the Racecourse for just $15 / night so we changed our destination to St Patricks Racecourse. We have a Camps 5 which doesn't have this site marked and Nev and Jenny have Camps 6 which does. It is a lovely spot and we are parked under shade sails There is green grass (which is noticeably absent in and around town) and we overlook the race track. It is also quiet as it is a new addition to the camps book although even as I say that, there were four of us here last night.

This is our first stay in Broken Hill so there is plenty for us to see and do. I'm keen to see Pro Hart's and Jack Absalomn's galleries. We arrived late (Late means after dark) on Wed night and so we set up as quick as we could as it was freezing and yesterday I caught up with washing and cleaning and then we headed off into town to find the information centre and have a quick drive around town to get a lay of the land (which is why I know there isn't much green grass except for a lovely park we saw as we drove around.)

Talk to you again after we have done some sightseeing.

Love to one and all.

Ken and Lyn