Next stop – White Cliffs … a small Opal Mining Town – just East of no-where. Watched Carlton win again (becoming a habit!!), then wandered into the metropolis of White Cliffs … it’s a dry tough town – home to Bill O’Rielly (Cricketer) … the cricket ground doesn’t have a blade of grass …. Nor the golf course for that matter, which we tackled the following morning. Quick beer in the pub, but couldn’t stay as we were the only folk in there who had forgotten to wear their Cowboy Hats!!!!
Next day, did a fantastic opal mine tour with a very funny (and rich?) guy called Graeme, where he famously finds ‘pineapple Opals’ which sell for $100k to rich Americans. Fascinating tour.
Then headed to Tilpa via the sad dying town of Wilcannia.
Tilpa is basically a Pub on the Darling River (or Darling Dribble as it is now known) …. Nothing else at all … but a ripper pub nonetheless. Few beers and a nice dinner – where we had the entire Pub to ourselves. Good spot.
Next – Trilby Station for a few nights …. also on the Darling Dribble – Trilby is a big Sheep Farm with a fantastic camping – we chose to camp alongside the Billabong which actually had quite a bot of water. Slight disaster heading to Trilby as we lost 2 water-tanks in 2 days due to rocks smashing the Van taps. Bit of Gaffer Tape to get us through until we reach civilisation!! Chilled out a bit at Trilby – fire on the first night had Donna a little socially excited – and she paid for it the next day.
Celebrated my first year of retirement,
and went on a couple of drives through the farm – one to a collection of old rusted farm machinery (good for photos inc night shots), and then a long drive through the farm to the fascinating old homestead, which was left as it had been in the 1950’s.
