Bacon & eggs on the BBQ was a great start to a cool morning with dew over the hills, caravan & car as the sun was rising over Flinders Ranges & the Heysen Walking Trail.  We had just finished breakfast & cleaned up the breakfast gear when a couple of fully loaded cyclists pulled up in the rest area.  They were from Bendigo & were riding around a lot of Australia.  They had started at Easter & planned to be home for Xmas.  They had caught the train from Perth to Port Augusta & arrived at 3am this morning where they waited until it was light enough before setting out.  We had quite a good chat with them, along with another couple passing through on their way back to Perth (in their car) so we didn’t get away until around 9am.

The road down the pass was very windy & scenic, with lots of yellow wattle in full flower.  Again there were vivid green wheat fields stretching as far as the eye could see.  We stopped on the outskirts of Orroroo to look at the GIANT red gum tree.  It was huge, it’s not so much the height, but the girth of this tree is massive, measuring at a 10.89 metre circumference.  The tree was absolutely full of red-rumped grass parrots & nesting hollows everywhere, befitting a tree estimated as being more than 500 years old.  As we entered the small town of Orroroo a family of kangaroo sculptures greeted us at the town sign & in the main street, a couple of sculpture horses were pulling a stump-jump plough.  They were absolutely magnificent, made from corrugated iron with glass balls for eyes, even the heads moved in the wind (Chief Minister, why didn’t you come to Orroroo & commission their artist before you spent all that money on those very ordinary art pieces that adorn Canberra). The person that made them is very talented.  The town is full of old bluestone buildings & houses, it is full of charm & character, we both really liked Orroroo.  We stopped for a coffee & there was even a kangaroo outside the coffee shop.  This is definitely a town we will be coming back to & spending more time at.

Peterborough was the next major town we went through & there were a few nice old buildings as well, but Peterborough was a lot bigger & busier, we didn’t like it as much.  Again, we will have to come back & spend some more time in this area.

The wheat fields gradually gave way to desert & bare mountain ranges.  We had a quick stop at Mannahill where the abandoned stone railway station caught our eye, complete with resident hawk on one of the roof spires.  We stopped at Olary Creek, just past the “township” of Olary (a few buildings), for lunch.  The creek recently had a small flood & the river sand was still very damp with some large pools under the road & rail bridges.  It was a lovely spot under the shade of some trees, with parrots calling everywhere. Unbelievable, yesterday we were freezing, today it is shorts & t-shirt weather & we were seeking shady trees to sit under.   We would have stayed there the night, but we haven’t the time anymore.

More flat sandy desert with an increasing number of wildflowers appearing at the side of the roads before crossing the South Australia/New South Wales border at Cockburn. We stopped for the obligatory photo shot next to the signs near the Border Gate Store.  The road to Broken Hill was more of the same desert country with wildflowers on the roadside, then, LO & BEHOLD, Sturts Desert Pea.  Multitudes of them right next to the road.  We had only seen Sturts Desert Pea previously at Alice Springs, plus a couple of plants between Parabardoo & Nanutarra in the Pilbara.  We had only just mentioned to each other how disappointed we were that we didn’t see any when we crossed the Nullarbor Plain.  Fortunately we spotted a nearby roadside bay where we stopped & walked back through the prickly scrub to see such a magnificent sight, these flowers are really stunning.  When complemented with all the other wildflowers it really is a magical sight.  Mother Nature certainly didn’t forget New South Wales & blessed it with a wonderful array of colourful native flowers.

The drive into Broken Hill is dominated by the massive tailing dumps, they really are huge.  You also get an idea of the size of the town by the size of the cemetery, it is also huge.  There are a lot of old corrugated iron miner’s cottages in Broken Hill, with a smattering of bluestone houses.  We booked into Lakeview Caravan Park (if you stand on your left leg, on top of a hill next to the caravan park & lean sideways you can see a pool of water in the distance). After setting up & the obligatory cheese & bikkies, up we went for a walk to view the lake from the top of the hill (it wasn’t better than from the caravan park).  There is a great view of some more tailing dumps with a couple of associated mine buildings.  Plus, unbelievably, there are more Sturts Desert Peas just growing at the side of the hill.

Tereza made a very tasty spaghetti Bolognaise that I washed down with a Wolf Blass Eaglehawk Shiraz.  Does life get any better than this?