So this Easter was a very happy time for these outback areas which were in desperate need of rains. White Cliffs were on stage 5 water restrictions and only had about 4 weeks of water in the town left and were looking at having water carted in from Broken Hill. Accordingly, all unsealed roads out of White Cliffs were closed so we headed on bitumen road to Wilcannia. It was strange to see the road-side wet and towards Cobar we even had several water crossings!
We even saw these poor sheep huddled under a tree - wondering what on earth this wet stuff was!
Since we’ve been in Cobar, it’s been raining gently all the time so we made the right decision to be on a powered site on a cement slab - heaven!
It was lovely to see reports of everyone enjoying Easter - and to know Easter Bunny found everyone. He even found us.
Now, back to White Cliffs - we were recommended to do the tour of the area and we are so happy we did it as we learned so much about the history, opal mining, and best of all we visited an amazing dugout house and the underground motel. The house especially was amazing - and what an unusual concept to just dig a bit more if you want another room. There’s no building rules or restrictions - everyone is a jack of all trades and no inspections - so different to our regulations! Sometimes there is a bit of strife when you dig into the neighbours bedroom!! We weren’t able to photograph the private home but did take a few photos of the motel - it was lovely and how different to be underground!
Also of interest was the solar farm which was established in 1980’s as an experimental solar steam generation plant. Sadly, it’s not in use now but they are hoping to keep the site as a museum to solar exploration.
Before the rains really set in we strolled down to the pub where Dennis kindly shouted us a drink! It was pretty busy there on Easter Sunday.
White Cliffs has a tight knit community and they are all so friendly and happy! But we didn’t even find an opal - sorry Ell!
We’ve learned more today about Cobar - we got such a surprise to see this open cut mine - last time we didn’t see anything as we just had an overnight stop and didn’t sightsee.
Now, would you believe, we’re in our vans with heaters on as it’s cold - and wet!! Things are really damp seeing we’ve had non stop light rain since we arrived - wish we could send it home!!
Tomorrow we head north through Bourke maybe to Cunnamulla? We wonder if the rain will follow us!!
We wish all the kids returning to school a very happy term - and sorry you workers have to return to work!!
Hoping you’re all well and we sign off till our next blog.
❌❌❌❌❌❌from Marg Darryl Dennis & Tops.
No comments:
Post a Comment