#roadtrip – Page 2 – Over 50 Aussie female solo traveller USA road trip and beyond

Easter Road Trip Mildura

25 April 2019

It is ANZAC Day today, giving thanks to Australian and New Zealand men and women who fought to keep our country safe and free.

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Today is also my late father’s birthday and he would have been 85 today. Happy birthday Dad.

Leaving Broken Hill, I heard about the Bra Tree and was not really sure what I would find. It is a colourful memorial in honour of Maree Kester, a teacher and motorcycle enthusiast from Broken Hill who died from breast cancer in 2010. It was her wish for people to leave colourful bras on the tree. Typical of an Aussie to use humour in memory of all women lost to cancer.

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The 3 hour drive south east of Broken Hill, through the red earth, the landscape changed colour.

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What a refreshing surprise when I arrived at Wentworth and the Murrumbidgee River.

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And then I arrived at Mildura. I knew the name and that it was near the border of NSW and Victoria but had no idea of the beauty of this place.

I booked a room through Airbnb on the Coonawarra Paddleboat. The rooms are small but the location is breathtaking.

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This place feels so good I am getting emotional. Watching pelicans take off and land on the water. Birds skimming the top of the water. I am trying to see fish jump out of the water but always looking in the wrong spot, and only see the ripple left behind, the ducks paddling and swans gliding up and down the river, listening to the kookaburras, waving to the people going by on their tinnie or houseboat. I’ve enjoyed many moments on my road trip but sitting on a paddleboat on the Murray River I feel I could stay here forever.

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Why didn’t I know about Mildura!! I almost didn’t drive down this way! What a pretty oasis. It is known as the Mediterranean in the Outback. One minute I am in red earth remote, historical Broken Hill on the border of NSW and South Australia, then 3 hours down the road on the border of NSW and Victoria is this gem. This place is my Wow spot for this road trip. I had to drag myself away from the paddleboat on the Murray River to go and get some dinner. It is a short walk to the lively restaurants and bars but then the river is so peaceful you feel you cross into another world. It is a 10 hour drive to Sydney and I would stay here for a week but have a job commitment. I highly recommend this place. Put it on your must visit list.

Easter Road Trip Broken Hill Day 2

24 April 2019

Silverton, population 50, 1172km (728miles) west of Sydney, an old mining town but referred to as a ghost town.

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The setting for the movie Mad Max II and the location of a museum of artefacts from that movie

A couple of quirky local artists.

Another scary part of my journey, was driving to the Daydream Mine. 20km of, what I felt was, rough off road track. My poor Corolla Hatch copped a pounding. But you cannot go to the Outback without getting red dirt all over your car. I was reassured by locals that my car will make the trek, and it did. I want only sealed roads for the rest of my trip.

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The Daydream mine have a tour which takes you 30 metres (100 feet) down an old silver mine shaft. What a tough profession, mining was, still is, but in those days, doing everything by hand, in heat topping 51C (124F), only crazy Aussies. The guide, Jason, is a wonderful character providing information, of the hard work of a miner in the 1800s, like only an Aussie can entertain.

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Easter Road Trip Day 5 White Cliffs

22 April 2019

White Cliffs is an opal mining community with underground dugouts for accommodation because of the extreme temperatures in this region. Again, I encountered some floodwater and places of mud where the water receded. The colours out here are spectacular contrasts. Red earth and green trees.

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White Cliffs people say “where blue sky meets red earth”. The storm rolling in added other dimensions of colours.

White Cliffs has a population of 150.

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The golf course gives a very different meaning to “green”.

20190422_141101 — White Cliffs golf course Hole 1

While waiting for my hotel room, I went to the local pub with Olivia as the friendly local barmaid keeping everyone watered. Met the local school teacher with 11 students, 4 of which are her children. Met a local who came in to tell the mates he got off with a $1500 fine and didn’t lose his gun licence. It transpired he had gone shopping in town, took his gun out of the boot, placed it on the ground while he packed his groceries in the boot and forgot to put his rifle back in the boot. You try this in the city and you would probably get a $10,000 fine and a stint in jail. Being around city people I realise I only have their perspective on guns in Australia but have not experienced the rural perspective till this trip. In Cobar I noticed there are gun, hunting and “shooters” magazines.

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After Port Arthur, I had forgotten we had a gun culture before but did not realise we still have one and it is not just the Americans who have guns. In the early 1980s I used to make my own ammunition for target shooting and my ex husband’s pig and kangaroo hunting (I only shot targets). When I lived in Brazil we had access to all types of guns. Guns are accepted in rural areas, just city people do not seem to have an understanding of the need for guns in rural areas.

Anyhow, I found the locals very interesting friendly people who have intriguing tales of how they come to be in this remote, small community.

The Underground Hotel was as interesting as I expected. What I did not expect was how sleeping in a “cave” is damp, musty and my allergies flared up. I was glad I was only there one night though, but also glad I had the experience.

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20190422_175844 — roof of the underground hotel

At this hotel I met people whose children had my son as their teacher, people whom I met in Cobar, and 25 Jehovas Witnesses who were travelling around remote areas “spreading their teaching”.

One of the local artists uses rail spikes for his art.

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Finally for White Cliffs, this sign in the local toilet.

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Translation ” Warning. If you keep the toilet lid down there will be less chance of there being a snake in the toilet bowl. Thank you”

Easter Road Trip Day 5 to Wilcannia

22 April 2019

What a fabulous sound rain is on a tin roof!! Cobar had the first significant rain for 2 years. I got ready in the morning to drive to White Cliffs, 3.5 hours of driving. There was a lot of water on the road and I asked the driver of this road train what the condition of the road was to White Cliffs and he suggested I contact Wilcannia Police for an update on road flooding as there were some road closures.

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The Wilcannia Police reassured me the roads were open. However, when I went through my fisrt lot of .2 metre floodwater across the Barrier Highway I was so scared that I turned around to go back to Cobar. Then I watched another car go through the water and decided I would follow him if I could see the water was not too deep. After the third lot of floodwater I encountered a police officer and asked him what level floodwater would be ok with my Corolla hatch. He said “just follow another car. If they get through so will you but perhaps .3 metres will be enough”. That was reassuring. The problem was the care in front of me took off and I didn’t see him go through the floodwater but I decided he did get through so I should be ok. I remember being told to drive through floodwater slowly, do not speed up and do not stop. It was nerve wrecking because I didn’t know how many spots were flooded. Thankfully the rain receded and all I had to worry about then was goats, kanagaroos and emus. There were lots on the side of the road today but none jumped out in front of me.

158km (98miles) later I stopped at a small roadhouse in Emmdale. What would you tink about stopping at a place with bullet holes peppering the sign?

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I was told that the original owner of the roadhouse had a reputation for shooting and that the story goes he shot up the sign.

I am getting into more and more remote Australia. Next stop Wilcannia is a township which looks more abandoned than lived in.

The local police station and post office are a reminder of what the town was like.

Wilcannia Police Station

Wilcannia Post Office

The old bridge is what is left of a time when this town was prosperous with paddlesteamers on the river. But the river has long since dried up.

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One more hour to go to my next stop, White Cliffs.

Easter Road Trip Day 4

21 April 2019

The day commenced with a visit to quirky Aladdin’s Cave Bottlehouse. What a magical fairyland Jan and Brian Gilmore have produced in a very dry part of Australia.

The bottles have fascinating messages and treasures as well as their children’s time capsules.

20190421_100202 — Aladdin’s Cave Bottlehouse Duneedoo Road Dubbo

20190421_100231 — Inside Aladdin’s Cave Bottlehouse

20190421_100511 — one of the treasures in Aladdin’s Cave Bottlehouse

The cost to enter this fairyland is $6 for adults $3 for children under 16. Put this on your list for Dubbo.

Easter Road Trip Day 1

18 April 2019

My plans for this road trip came about when I was looking at flights to Bali, Thailand, Japan, Cook Island for 10 days, but because I left it so late and it is school and Easter holidays, the prices were so expensive I decided on this roadtrip to Broken Hill. Broken Hill is almost 13 hours from Sydney and close to the NSW and South Australian borders.

First stop, Leura, normally takes 1.5 hours from Sydney but with the holiday traffic it took 2.5 hours. Leura is in the Blue Mountains and I am fortunate I have a few friends in that area who share their beautiful paradise with me.

This is a very gorgeous sight to wake up to.

Murray River Wodonga

31December 2018 and 1 January 2019

Over the past 2 weeks I have pushed myself too much. In the last 4 days alone I have driven 2000 km and need a rest.

I stopped at Wodonga as it is a town on the Murray River which borders my state of New South Wales and Victoria. I watched my beautiful Sydney NYE fireworks on TV and for the first time ever spent NYE alone but not lonely.

In the morning I got these lovely photos of the Murray River.

This evening I went out to Hume Weir to capture the sunset.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Castlemaine

The inspiration for this road trip from Adelaide was that I wanted to see the town of Castlemaine. This is where the Netflix program The Glitch is filmed and it reminded me of the country towns I should explore in my own country.

The cemetery

The Empyre Hotel

The old police station

Castlemaine Station

The Midland

Just outside of Castlemaine at Moonlight Flats is the Pennyweight Cemetery, the resting place for 200 children who died during the gold rush period of 1852-1857.