We made the most of Australia Day falling on a Thursday, and booked the Friday off to have a long weekend and embark on a road trip to Broken Hill. 2000 KM, lots of wildlife encounters and a very dirty Ute later, we arrived back in Forbes exhausted but thankful to be experiencing this amazing country for ourselves!
We set off on the Wednesday evening after work to get a head start on what we knew would be a massive trip. We were staying overnight in Nyngan, and had a bit of a race against time to try and get there before dark on what was actually the shortest leg of our trip. Wildlife always seems to be the most active at dusk and we encountered some sheep, kangaroos, a family of pigs and plenty of insects and colourful birds!
We arrived at our accommodation, the Alamo Motor Inn pretty late, and then attempted to find some dinner. We managed to find a BP truck stop open. The kitchen was closed but they had a few hot chickens left, so we had hot chicken and crisps in our motel room! The room was OK but dated, with some interesting features such as an old radio built into the bedside table, and a double plug socket in the headboard! The bed was comfy enough to get a decent night sleep though.
We knew we had a long journey ahead of us on Thursday, so had a reasonably early start and went off in search of some breakfast. Most cafes were closed due to it being Australia Day, but we grabbed a coffee and a sweet treat at the Bogan Coffee Shop, by the Big Bogan.
Australia is a fan of big things, and we managed to tick a few more big things off the list on this trip!
The next leg of the trip was Nyngan to Broken Hill, with a planned stop at Cobar. We stopped at Fort Bourke Hill Lookout to see the Gold Mine, saw the impressive town sign aswell as the Big Beer Can on the entrance to the Grand Hotel and then stopped to pick up some sandwiches.
We set off again, but spotted a sign for Mount Grenfell Historic Site so took a detour. We encountered our first emu on the road up to the car park, and saw plenty of goats just wandering freely. It was a short walk from the car park to see the Aboriginal Art and well worth it, but it was HOT! We were very happy to get back to the car to crank up the air conditioning.
Once back on track, we continued along the Barrier Highway towards Broken Hill. We got to Wilcannia and drove round the streets to see the pretty buildings there but nothing much was open aside from the petrol station, so we carried on our way, and there wasn’t much else between there and Broken Hill! However, we did take advantage of a rest stop to stretch our legs.
Our accommodation was on the highway into Broken Hill, so we stopped to check in at the Broken Hill Outback Resort. We booked dinner at the restaurant on site for later in the evening before heading into Broken Hill for some supplies. The restaurant food was good and our cabin was lovely. After dinner we enjoyed a well-deserved glass of wine on the deck watching the sun go down, and then star-gazing. Our photos just cannot do it justice!
On Friday, we had a BBQ breakfast on the balcony to set us up for the day, before driving to Cockburn which is on the border with South Australia. We obviously had to take a picture of the dividing line, one of us both on the dividing line, having a foot in either state etc! I had also thought that we had a foot in two different time zones BUT we then learned that Broken Hill is in the same time zone as South Australia, and half an hour behind the rest of NSW!
There wasn’t much else to see in Cockburn however, so we then we headed to Silverton and up to Mundi Mundi lookout where we could see for miles! It was a bit warm in the sunshine though, so we drove back to the Silverton Hotel for a drink, queuing for the bar alongside the donkeys!
We took a quick tour of the town – lots of art galleries – but the Mad Max Museum was closed (they filmed Mad Max 2 in the area) so we headed to the Historic Daydream Mine but it was also closed! Instead we drove to see the Living Desert Sculptures. While it was great to see the sculptures, they were also on a hill providing an amazing viewpoint.
Next we set off to find Bell’s Milk Bar and Museum, with it’s original 1950’s decor and menu! Our milkshakes were delicious but they also serve soda spiders and continue to make small batches of cordials.
We drove up to the Line of Lode Miner’s Memorial, perched on the hill overlooking the city. It is striking in itself, and again provides a different viewpoint. There was also the Big Bench up on the hill, but I didn’t manage to get a good picture due to the construction taking place there.
Next stop was the Palace Hotel, the interior of which was used in filming ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert!’ due to the pretty murals on both the walls and ceiling.
We had booked to go to the Sky Show at Outback Astronomy in Broken Hill that evening which included food, so we headed back to the hotel for a rest. We then read that the Living Desert Sculptures were particularly beautiful at Sunset, and calculated that we had enough time to get there, watch the sun set and make it back for the start of the Astronomy experience.
The sunset and the sculptures were indeed beautiful, but we could see the cloud starting to come in, and the team at Outback Astronomy messaged us to advise that the forecast was changing, and we could choose to get a refund if we wished, but they wouldn’t refund if we showed up and weren’t able to see anything. We made the call (which turned out to be the correct decision) to cancel and opt for the refund. The positive was that it gave us longer at the sculptures and if we do return to Broken Hill I would definitely be keen to book with them again!
The downside was that most places serving food were now closed, with only a handful of fast food options available. Luckily, Hocko’s chicken shop was one of those options, so we got some burgers and fries, and enjoyed them on the deck back at our cabin with a cold beer.
On Saturday morning we packed up and headed into the town centre to find some breakfast. We chose The Silly Goat, and had a window seat which is always good for people watching. The service was slow but the coffee and the food were good.
We then went to see the Big Picture – the world’s largest acrylic painting by a single artist – BUT it was closed. We did manage to find and see the Big Ant before heading to the supermarket to stock up on drinks and snacks ready for the next leg of our trip, a 4 hour 20 minute drive to Mungo Lodge, in Mungo National Park.
The road was so remote and empty that when we did see pass a car we waved at each other. It was also the first 40 degree that we have seen in Australia!
We stopped in Wentworth for some lunch on route and had a nice Souvlaki from Tiggy’s Diner. I think they tried to cover every cuisine in one place as they also offered Chinese food, pizza, kebab and cakes!
We fueled up, and then started the drive to Mungo Lodge – 86k of unsealed road! It was a bit bumpy and the dust cloud we created was satisfying. Because it’s so remote we had to pre-order our dinner or we wouldn’t have got any!
We checked into our cabin and hid in the air-conditioning for a while. We had an early dinner – I had kangaroo! – and then set off on an organised Sunset Tour of the Walls of China. It was a short drive to the Lookout Point and then a walk through the rolling sand dunes, where we learned about the 40,000-plus years of Aboriginal cultural history of Lake Mungo and the Traditional Owners. We were walking on the original lake bed, saw a 12000 year old calcified tree stump, and heard all about Mungo Man and Mungo Lady
Unfortunately we didn’t get the sunset part of the tour as once again it was cloudy, but the scenery was still absolutely amazing.
We finished our evening with a beer on the deck before turning in for the night.
Sunday was our most adventurous day, although we didn’t quite know that yet! We enjoyed some tea and biscuits on the deck before packing up and heading into the National Park, meeting the resident animals on the way out.
We were headed for Ivanhoe, and at reception they told us that all the roads were open so we just set off on the quickest route. We stopped at the Lookout and then the Visitor Centre but it was starting to rain, and we knew we had at least an hour of driving on unsealed roads to do, so didn’t linger long.
We saw plenty of kangaroos, had our first close up with a family of emus and saw a couple of wedge tailed eagles. We were driving on dried up lake beds which meant we could see for miles!
BUT the roads were getting slippery. We lost traction a few times, ended up getting stuck in a puddle and even slid off the road. The road we wanted to take was closed so we ended up driving almost three hours out of our way. Mark’s brilliant driving skills saved the day, but it was more than a bit stressful given we were in the outback with no phone signal and hadn’t seen a car in hours!!
We got to Balranald and gratefully found a truck stop open where we could get fuel, food and have a toilet stop. The car was caked in mud, and we enjoyed phone signal and stretching our legs before getting back on track with getting home – we had started the day with a 6 hour drive ahead of us and still had 6 hours to go!
We finally made it back to Forbes just as it got dark. It was an amazing trip, but we were certainly happy to be home!
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