Mildura to Broken Hill

Kathy – Today we did some shopping for essentials in Mildura – including a jacket for Rhys so he doesn’t keep trying to steal mine! We saw my dad’s art exhibition at Gallery 25. It was great to see his works all displayed in one spot in such a great setting. Very impressive Dad! We made a detour to see Big Lizzie, a huge steam engine, in Red Cliffs. I remember seeing it as a child.

We then went to Mungo National Park. We got there on dusk. It was not particularly warm but we were able to get a fire going which staved off the cold.

In the morning we went on the driving tour of Mungo National Park and walking on the cliffs of the ancient salt lake known as the Walls of China. We were able to see sea shells and fossils of plants as they had dried in what would then have been mud.

We then made the long and dusty drive from Mungo to Broken Hill. We went on what we now realize was the back road! There have been heavy rains up here and you can see how impassible they would have been even only a few days ago. We are now staying a couple of days in Broken Hill.

Rhys – from Merbein we traveled to Mungo National park where we stayed the night. Very cold wind blew all night. Had a fire and Kathy cooked a nice chicken & cous cous dish. Went for a night walk with Pippa and saw many spiders that had “glow in the dark” eyes. Went around Mungo Lake and climbed a big sand dune which we ran down. Also threw paddie melons at each other. Mungo was well worth a look.

After Mungo we traveled to Pooncarrie, Menndee to Broken Hill. Met some people in the club that had children living in Mooroolbark! 300km of gravel road, with some good ruts, it is very slippery after a bit of rain! Average speed was 89km/h consuming 14.5 l/km.

Pippa – I loved the sand dunes but there was no water around anywhere. At the visitors centre there was a sheering shed that has not been used for 30 years and you can still smell sheep. We saw Big Lizze an old steam engine. We went to My Grandpa’s art exhibition.

Lachlan – The sand dunes at Mungo were very tall and fun to run down. We saw a dead cat and some rabbits. Every time you tried to get up the sand dunes the sand would just make you slide back down. I threw paddie melons up the hill and it would roll back down most the time anyway. We saw many fossils their and tracks in the sand. Dad was a whuss he didn’t run down the hill without any encouragement. The paddie melons were huge. To day we are going to go maybe into a mine. Dad has to work today. Animal tracks we saw were dingo, goat, kangaroo, pig, rat, bird, lizard and wallabies.
Campbell – When we went to the sand dunes I had lots of fun. It was very hard to climb the sand dunes but it was still fun. I went up and down.