March 2nd - Tumut to Broken Hill (New South Wales)

If traveling along sealed roads in New South Wales and counting the number of bugs hitting your face shield is the high light of your travel for the day..... things are getting bad

Tumut to Darlington Point
Right now I am drawing a blank as to what really Tumut was or did. It must be another senior moment that no one likes to comment on! Any way got pointed in the right direction and the first port of call was Wagga Wagga and the Sturt Highway. We continue on through Narrandera and being that the ride is really getting boring I pull into Darlington Point for the night. A camp site right along the rivers edge and just minutes away from the bottle shop. After running around buying all of the proper food sources that are at the top of the food pyramid, we settle in for the night. The next tent over at about 0200hrs had an awaking with her boom box and this lasted about an hour. Certain songs would go another 50 decibels which of course entertained the township 3km's away....

Darlington Point to Mildura
Finding a dirt road that parallel the Sturt Highway to Hay was a break in the routine and actually crossing an old functional cantilever bridge. Had a wooden deck that would cause grief to anyone pushing a bicycle though due to the gaps in the planking. From Hay through Balranald and finally into Mildura for the night.

Mildura to Broken Hill
Leaving Mildura and through Wentworth we are now on the Silver City Highway to Broken Hill. The road is straight and open which lends itself to paying attention to the scenery. A big change from concentrating going through the snowy mountains where watching the road was a full time event. Wild life were as follows; Emu adult with 6 chicks, wild goats by the handful, Roo's and the ever present Aussie eagle.

Broken Hill was founded on large deposits of silver, lead and zinc. Will be spending 2 nights here and have reacquainted myself with the local fly population. Broken Hill has a lot going for it; a great book store, library, boutique shops and everything shuts down on Sunday. Except for Woolworths which is packed....

Broken Hill
It was a day trip out to Menindee (SE of Broken Hill). Has a national park and lakes for entertainment. Stopped at the local take away and noticed the aboriginal art on the wall. Got pointed to one of the local artist but not being home I was back to the take away. come to find out what I was looking at was reprints for $90.00. If the prints were going for that much I could just imagine how much an original would cost. So being the prudent investor that I am, I quietly slipped out of town for Broken Hill. On the way back came across another group of Emu's along side of the road. Stopped the bike and just sat there as they slowly came back to me. When they were just across the road and it looked if they had intentions of crossing I decided that it just might be time to move on before I really got myself into a bit of a problem. Back to the caravan site and another great night.

What does a litre of apple/pear juice, a slab of cheese and a bag of chips do for you...? How about 5 trips to the loo for a start!

The Grey Nomad