Port Germein and Flinders Ranges National Park

PORT GERMEIN 

On 13/4/15 we traveled to Port Germein in South Australia, a pic at the border and some pics of the landscape from Broken Hill to Port Pirie.

Road pic

Yay - the border!

We visited Port Pirie but the mail had not arrived yet so we stopped overnight at Port Germein - free camping near town. We really enjoyed Port Germein, its a small town with what used to be the longest original wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere at 1.7klm, now a little shorter at 1.6klm (3.2klm return). We decided to stay another night and moved to the caravan park for the night. We then walked the jetty at dusk. It was beautiful, lots of people fishing and crabbing. The jetty is so long and the water was only waist deep, we could easily watch the crabs walking in the water. We also saw a dolphin in the water and a lovely sunset.

Port Germein Lighthouse

Port Germein jetty

FLINDERS RANGES NATIONAL PARK 

On 15/4/15 we headed for Flinders Ranges National Park, stopped in Quorn for lunch. We found a station offering  bush camping for $15 per night very close to Wilpena Pound (about 9klms north). The property was called Upalinna Station which means “Little Water”. They had a total of 8 sites but we were all alone for the three nights we stayed – beautiful! The one ‘facility’ was a bush pit toilet, in its own shed, but I think the chances of spiders and snakes hiding in the dunny were too high for me!

Bath in the bush!

camp

all alone - peaceful

We visited Wilpena Pound the next day, Theo was loving the emus wandering around. We did see lots of wildlife in the national park, emus and kangaroos especially. Wilpena Pound is a large natural amphitheater and the centre of the Flinders Ranges National Park.

Wilpena Pound skyline

We spent the day doing some of the walks and also driving the 4wd tracks through the Bunyeroo and Brachina Gorges in the national park. It was a little bit wet during our time at the national park but not too bad. 

Theo was a little unwell and the next day we thought we might take him into Hawker to the doctor just to give him the once over as we were heading further bush for the next two weeks. We headed down the road but found it was impassable the rain had caused some creeks to flood. That was the end of the doctor trip, ah well he came good anyway.

Instead we visited Rawnsley Park Station and also Sacred Canyon to see some Aboriginal Art but unfortunately the rain was too heavy and we were unable to get far enough up the canyon to see the art work before the water coming down the creek bed was rising. We left the Flinders Ranges National Park the next day heading for Arkaroola.

Silverton and Mad Max 2 Museum

SILVERTON AND MAD MAX 2 MUSEUM

During our stay in Broken Hill we also spent a day in Silverton. It’s about 25klm outside Broken Hill and is where parts of Mad Max 2 was filmed. There is a pub, lots of art galleries and the Mad Max 2 museum. So of course we were there! Max is after all named after Mad Max, Mick’s favourite movies.

Silverton pub

main street

The Mad Max museum

- pretty cool inside, very large exhibition of memorabilia collected by a couple, who clearly love Mad Max! Vehicles used in the movie, costumes, lots of photos...

The head stuntman from the movie was also there when we were there - it was very interesting to talk to him.





















So many vehicles used in the movie, including the truck and the bus...

Silverton also had a number of art galleries with lots of art displayed in the outdoors.

Broken Hill (NSW)

BROKEN HILL

After leaving Tasmania we spent a couple of nights free camping on Lake Hume in Victoria, then we travelled to Canberra to stay with the Hennig’s (family) and recover from the cold!  We ended up staying for Easter and had a great 3 weeks in Canberra. Big thank you to the Hennig’s, we love you!

The kids working on bikes over Easter.

We left Canberra and headed for Broken Hill 7/4/15. First night we spent in Narrandera at the show grounds

Next stop was Mildura, we actually stayed at a caravan park in Buronga (NSW side), lovely park on the river

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Thursday, 9/4/15 we arrived in Broken Hill, we stayed 4 nights at the race course.

 

Road to Broken Hill

The trotters trained every morning and also sometimes race horses were training. Max made friends with the trainers and was able to sit on a trotter by the end of our few days in town.

Camping at the Broken Hill racecourse

Max having a go.

 We visited the talings pile at Broken Hill which is now a lookout over town and has a memorial to the miners who have died throughout the years.

 

 

We visited the sculptures of the Syndicate of Seven, the men who were the original owners of Broken Hill Mining Company which later became Broken Hill Proprietary Company Ltd (BHP) in 1885.

During our stay in Broken Hill we also visited the Living Desert sculptures,

While out in the desert we also caught this kangaroo… and another cool sign showing just how big Australia is.

the Royal Flying Doctors Base…

And Bell’s Milk Bar, which is family owned and been operating since the 1950s. We all had ice cream sodas and Theo had an ice cream.