25th - 31st May

Monday 25th

It is a bit miserable today but we didn't let that stop us. I worked in the morning while the others played with their bows and arrows - don't worry about me guys - I would only snap the bow again anyway!

We were supposed to leave this morning but we are having such a great time here we decided to stay another day - it gets $1 cheaper per night every night you stay here.

We had a great day, wandering around setting fishing lines all over the place - there are certainly plenty of fish to be caught here. We went canoeing again and found another great waterhole where we reckon there will be plenty of fish so we set 8 set lines overnight and will see what we have in the morning!

Tuseday 26th

Well, so disappointed with our new fishing hole - there were only 7 fish on our 8 lines - hehe. One obviously got away!! There were 3 carp and 4 yellowbellies - cool bananas!

We said goodbye to our new friends, Barb and Bill at Bindara Station with a promise that we would return and do some work for them in exchange for board and lodging after we finish our current project, which involves going back to Brisbane for several months to do some property developing with Ross' mate John. John contacted us a couple of weeks back and asked if we were interested and we made the decision to go ahead and go up there and go partners with him - hope we are doing the right thing! Ross has to go back to work full time to get a job and I will do extra work with my work - not really looking forward to going to live in he city again but hopefully we wil make a tidy profit and can earn some extra cash so we can hit the road again.

We took the back road to Menindee which was a fabulous drive, really interesting country, lots of wildlife and just a generally good fun drive (we almost got lost a couple of times too which made it more interesting!). WE stopped and looked at the Kinchega Woolshed which is a big old woolshed from the 1800s. It isn't used any more but you can just imagine the huge numbers of sheep that used to go through it - it's pretty big! After the woolshed we moved along to have a look at the ruins of the paddlesteamer Providence, which is not much to look at because there isn't much left, but it has an interesting story.

We got to Menindee and looked for somewhere to camp and ended up at Pamamaroo Lake, near Menindee Lake, where the only water is still in the area, all the other lakes are dry - pretty depressing driving past dry lakes - guess they could do with some of that rain down here that they have been having up Brisbane/Lismore, etc.

We camped near the weir and played cards but it was FREEZING so we didn't last long!

Wednesday 27th

The only things we managed to catch overnight were four yabbies - hardly worth the effort! Nevertheless, we cooked them up for a snack and left the bucket on the ground with the cooked yabbies in it - much to Boris' delight - luckily he didn't get far before he was accosted!!

We moved on to Broken Hill and Ross and I headed to the laundromat to do some washing. The others were a little bit behind us as they had stopped to help Carol and Des change the fuel filter in their bus along the way. WE all ended up at the information centre and then decided to have some lunch at the The Demo Club which was a bit of a mistake as it wasn't all that crash hot!

We then all went our own way for awhile before we ended up at Norma's place - dad's sister. We had been sending some parcels to her place so we could collect them when we got there and she was telling us all about the troubles she had collecting them, especially since she didn't know how Ross Thomas was as she had never met Ross! She finally worked it out and got all the parcels under control but there are still a couple that haven't arrived yet - hopefully they will arrive soon! We had scones and jam and cream for afternoon tea and watched "Thank God You're Here" and then headed to bed as it was freezing again - apparently it's only going to get worse from here on in - brrrr!!

Thursday 28th

Everyone chuffed off and did their own thing this morning while I worked - I am having tomorrow off so we can go out to Silverton - can't wait for a day off!!

We went and did some sightseeing, including going to the art gallery and seeing Norma's painting she has on display, as well as some other family member who I have never met had a painting on display as well - never knew I had such a talented family!!

After that we went to dad's old neighbourhood and had a look at his old house where he had grown up. I had always wanted to go back there with him to hear all of his memories of the place. Unfortunately the house is an abandoned wreck, but he still had lots of stories to tell, I really enjoyed that. We also went to look at Norma and Bruce's first house that they built, from the ground up, they even made every brick in the place. We also looked at dad's first house he bought. After that we went to "Bell's Cafe" which was there when dad was a kid and he reckons it hasn't changed much, we went in and all had drinks for nostalgia's sake. Ross and I then went up to the lookout and sat on the big chair that overlooks Broken Hill.

Friday 29th

We set out early (for us) and headed to Silverton - what a great little town with a fabulous history. Silverton was the original settlement in the area but when better mining was found at Broken Hill, everyone packed up (literally - they picked up their houses and moved them) to Broken Hill and left nothing much left at Silverton except a few old buildings and the famous Silverton Hotel. That's a great place to visit, they have made heaps of movies in Silverton and all of the memorabilia is on the walls in there. They have made movies like Mad Max II, A Town Like Alice, Razorback, etc, etc. They also have one of the Mad Max cars (replica) out the front. There are donkeys wandering all around the place and we went to the coin place where the guys cuts out old coins which was a pretty fascinating place, and he is a bit of a have a chat!! He is also looking after a baby joey at the moment - apparently he does it all the time and he said this is number 110 and his name is Smoky - very cute!!

WE also went out to the Mundy plains lookout for a look - pretty awesome!!

We also went to the park at Silverton, once on the way in and once on the way out for lunch. They have camping there and they also have a bunch of animals including Sarah the pony and Jack the little Corella who is a toatal maniac and kept us entertained for ages with his singing and dancing.

After Silverton we decided that we might go to the Painted Desert and look at the scupltures. Being the cheapskates we are we were wondering whether it would cost us to get in and while we were discussing it on the radio, a local guy cut in and said that you don't have to pay if you walk in, so we drove there and arrived at the sculptures ready to walk up, only to be accosted by the Ranger telling us that it is $10 per head no matter what!! Grr - we all decided it wasnt worth the money so we headed back and went and looked at an old mine instead that was free to look at!!

Saturday 30th

Dad has an old friend in town called Mickey and he was really excited when he heard dad was in town and as they share birthdays (a couple of days apart), he invited us all around for a BBQ lunch at his place today. Unfortunately, Mickey has Alzheimer's and when we got there he wasn't there - he had obviously forgotten that he had invited us around!! Not letting that deter us we set out to find a park to have our lunch at seeing as we had all the stuff with us. We ended up at Twin Lakes park which is just beautiful and we had a lovely picnic and stroll around the lakes afterwards.

Mickey rang later nearly in tears because he had forgotten all about us so mum and dad went around to see him but didn't stay long because he had to go out for the night. We rounded off the day by playing cards in Norma's back sunroom with the heater going flat out - it's freezing here!!

Sunday 31st

Dad's birthday. We all ended up going out for lunch at ?? can't remember name of club as the weather has turned nasty so we couldn't really have a BBQ or anything. After lunch most of us trooped back to finish our "projects", which is a challenge Brian set for us all to give us something to do and you had to pick up stuff off the ground and make it into something and Norma will be the judge to see whose is the best. Brian is always doing that sort of stuff so we reckoned he would be pretty hard to beat but we gave it a good try. Over the last few days I had been picking up all sorts of different stones and bits of broken glass and even a big piece of bark to make a "stone garden" scene. At the last minute we also bought some pipecleaners to make some people in the garden. When it was eventually finished it, Ross had ended up making a Broken Hill mine as well as a 4wd and a boat on top towing a caravan and I put in two people and a dog and "Twin Lakes" and it ended up being a scene of Broken Hill - we were pretty pleased with our effort.

Brian had made a woman out of bits and pieces, she was pretty hilarious with the ends of shotgun pellets for boobs and a cut up tin can for hair and a broken pair of sunnies, etc. Colleen had made a "Lime Man" out of two limes picked from Norma's garden and some hair curlers for arms and she even knitted him a little beanie - pretty cute! Mum made a weird concotion with a cardboard box and bandaids - supposed to be abstract art??!! Dad had cheated and bought a model plane from the Reject Shop for $3 and Des and Carol put in a miserly effort and came up with nothing!

After long deliberation, Norma awarded first prize to us!! Yay!! WE all had a ball doing it - onya Brian - can always rely on Brian to make things interesting!