Saturday 1 March 2014 - Broken Hill, NSW

Saturday 1 March 2014 - Broken Hill, NSW

We crossed another border! Funny, we spent over seven months in WA (nine I think?) and didn’t even manage seven days in SA. After overnighting in Port Augusta (where it felt like the Spencer Gulf was funnelling wind straight into our campground – gusts up to 60km according to Willy Weather), we hit the road fairly early today. The landscape just out of the town was pretty awesome, passing through the mountain range and then the road passed by some beautiful country areas and towns. I could spend some time there at a later date. As we got closer and closer to the border, the land became drier, uglier and harsher. We stopped at the Border Cafe, where we met about a hundred flies (yay, back to flies... not!).

Broken Hill would also be worth a return visit. I didn’t realise how big it is (and was, back in its mining heyday). After we set up, I took the girls out to a playground in town so they could burn off some steam and Glenn could have some Glenn-time. The wind was gusting here as well, yay, but it did deter a few of the flies. They’re sticky though. And I think they bite. The girls are scratching anyway. After playing, we walked to the nearby grocery store and got a few last-minute items to help us survive the last 1500km. Then I looked up the nearest BP (Glenn prefers to get diesel from there) and drove over the other side of town to fuel up. Of course, it’s late Saturday afternoon and even though it’s a large town (or small city?), the BP servo is shut. Over the road we go to the Caltex (where Glenn’s Red Bulls were on special, so it was still a win). Even though I’ve spent over a year driving only our big car, I still find it awkward to manoeuver and am looking forward to getting back into zippy little cars again!

Back at the caravan park (where we decided to fork out an extra $10 for a powered site, not because it was powered but because the unpowered area was a cesspit), it was time for showers and dinner. Yasmin had some more quality screen time because the kitchen has a TV in it (she’s also watched two movies in the car today). Fortunately there is a (fairly dodgy) playground right beside the kitchen and our camp is nearby too, so the kids are expending a little more energy on it now. We ate a delicious scratch tea of savoury turkey mince and salad (for me) and microwaved sweet potato, potato and bread (for Glenn). The sun has set (I think it’s after 8pm here now) and the sky is a beautiful soft pink and purple, blending into pale yellow and blue. The breeze has settled down and the only thing that’s bothering us now are the flies, our exhaustion and the screams of the nearby children. All that aside, it hasn’t been too bad and considering this is probably our last night in the camper (we’re planning to motel/cabin it tomorrow night), the day has gone fairly smoothly.