For part of my recent holiday, I decided to go the non-traditional route here and avoid the beaches in hopes of getting a little taste of the Australian Outback.
So, I went on a road trip with Patrick all the way out to the farthest Western reaches of New South Wales in order to visit an oasis in the middle of nowhere – Broken Hill. The drive was long – about 15 hours each way – so we made sure to break it up with overnight stopovers in places we hadn’t been before. All in all, it was a journey of about 3000km, 28 kangaroo roadkills and plenty of sunshine.
The journey took us from Sydney to Cobar, Broken Hill, Silverton, Menindee, White Cliffs, Dubbo and back to Sydney. It definitely was not the original route planned, but that’s what happens when you fail to notice that many of the outback roads are not paved and therefore unsuitable for normal cars traveling long distances. Woops!
All in all, it was a week of hits and misses, but still adventure nonetheless. It was a perspective of big and small, a realization of droughts and floods and just a great time to get out of Sydney!
Of course there are a few aspects of the trip I’d like to elaborate on in further posts, but until then I thought I’d give you all a better picture through some photos.
Desolate:
This is a rest stop on the side of the road about 13 hours away from Sydney and truly in the middle of nowhere.
We had to stop and eat the fruit we had brought from home because we were about to enter the fruit fly exclusion zone.
Nothing else in sight here – just the road and the sky.
Interesting:
Outside of Broken Hill is a sculpture site where art was made by sculptors from around the world. The site is up on a hill and provides an amazing view of Broken Hill and the desolate lands that surround it.
In order to drive to the top, you have to pick up a key to the park from the information center in town – and then proceed to unlock various gates along the road.
For the view reason alone, it is worth a visit. However, we feel that the sculptures were far from art and that the creators were simply a big group of stoners.
Funny:
This sign was near some grapevines on a hotel, considered as one of the top Broken Hill accommodation. It was nice of them to warn people that the grapes weren’t ripe yet, yeah?
I thought so, too!
Anyway, that’s a start to explaining my latest adventure, but stay tuned as there will be plenty more to come!
You’ve got to love the Aussie humour in that sign!
I missed that sculpture site because only at entrance find out I need pick up key in the town and it was late to go back
when are we going to see your travel memoirs book? lol. I seriously hope you write a travel book someday, I think it would be a great read!
yeah i have a tendency of making too many plans. book = ages