We arrived in Broken Hill just after lunch. The drive from Mildura to Broken Hill was straight and flat and would have been great of the girls hadn't been annoying. It wasn't a very long trip but it felt like we were in the car all day due to the girls fighting one another and carrying on. Will have to retrain them for the travel l think!!
Anyway, driving into Broken Hill was amazing. There are these huge mines on the side of the road as you drive in and it makes you feel so small. Next thing you know your in the main drag of town and looking around it is totally surrounded with all these huge mines. Unbelievable. Boo had asked where we were and we said "Broken Hill". She then looked around for five mins or do then replied "but nothings broken?". Total crack up!!!
We headed to our caravan park, Silverland Caravan Park, which is nothing special but is the cheapest at $25/night. We set up and then headed into town for a further look around. First stop was the tourist info joint which was helpful. We headed up to the a look out called 'Line of Lode' which gives a spectacular view of the town from above. It also houses a memorial museum for lost miners in the area. It was amazing to see how many men (mostly) that had lost their lives for a job, most being from rock falls, even to this day. After this, we headed back and chilled out. There was a storm blowing in by early evening, with some thunder and lightening around. The rain began around 9pm........
Next morning we woke to the rain, it hadn't stopped all night. The radar forecast didn't seen to indicate that it would be stopping either. So there would be little sight seeing today. Instead we were cooped up in the van so thought we would be productive and knock some school hours off. By after lunch we were all going stir crazy and the rain was starting to ease off a bit. Our campsite was, on the other hand, getting to look like a lake. So Marty decided it would be a good idea toile the van to a concrete slab site. To he honest l couldn't be bothered but l held my tongue and in an hour we had transported the van over. The effort was worth it immediately, no mud!! After this, it was time to get out of the van. So we made our way to the Royal Flying Doctors Service centre. We spent an hour or so here, it was well worth the $18.50 entry! It had an awesome museum that was very informative and the girls loved the reenactment of a woman calling the RFDS over the UHF. Learnt some new things such as every outback station is supplied with a medicine chest which has dressings, medicines (even S8s) and anything you'd need in an emergency situation. This chest is maintained by the RFDS with an inventory kept and logged of used products, meds, etc. The RFDS also have a body chart that has been put into a grid and marked with numbers that everyone has up at the place of their UHF which is used as a reference. It's pretty spectacular what they do and the distances they do to give help. A lot of their work is providing outback clinics with only 10% of their work being emergency callouts. We sat through a short movie then were taken out to the control room and the hanger where the airplanes are kept. Overall, pretty great place to visit and was great for the girls, especially boo, to see how things work out in the outback. After this we headed back to camp for the evening, finally the rain had stopped and we could see some blue sky. Thank god, hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and we can see the rest of the sights. The biggest day for Broken Hill was meant to be on tomorrow, the St Patricks Day Races, but the talk of town in that it will be cancelled....... Was looking forward to it, but oh well.
Bell Xxx