We spent two nights in Broken Hill. We ended up going to dinner at the Palace
Hotel, this is the one that featured in the movie ‘Priscilla Queen of the
Desert’. The hotel is being renovated now, and all the murals which were painted
by Mario the original owner, are still all intact. So the inside of the hotel is
just fantastic with all the walls and ceilings painted in mural style.
We meet two guys who work for the SA Railways there and had a few laughs with
them. They worked on the Level Crossings all over SA. They were staying at the
Palace Hotel and they took us on a tour upstairs which is for house guests only.
The paintings go all over the 3 levels of the hotel and are substantial.
We stopped for a night between Broken Hill and Port Augusta at Hancock’s
Lookout, and from where our van was parked we had 180º views all over the
Spencer Gulf from Port Augusta, to Whyalla, Iron Knob and down to Port Pirie. So
at night after an amazing sunset we had quite a light show to look at. During
the night it blew like anything and we left for Port Augusta around 11am.
When we arrived in Port Augusta it was 45º and no wind. So we sweated like crazy
setting up the van, which doesn’t take long thankfully and then jumped into the
swimming pool. I couldn’t believe it, Jayne complained the pool was too cold!
45º and I think the water was about 28º and it’s too cold! I certainly didn’t
have a problem with that. So I gave the waterproof cast a real workout. The
extra for a waterproof cast was definitely worth it.
It didn’t get below 29º all night, even when we woke up it was 29º. We went
through that night with just a fan on. We thought we would be smart and leave
all the packing up until the cool in the morning, but it didn’t cool down! Best
laid plans!
I think we’ve found out what it’s like to live in a furnace. It’s just never
ending heat. The wind has a temperature well over 45º and I think it’s blowing
right out of the devils quarters.
We arrived into Streaky Bay, just east of Ceduna and the Nullarbor and it was a
43ºC when we pulled into the Caravan Park. We just put our van on our site and
jumped into the bay, waiting for it to cool down before we setup everything
outside.
Well guess what, it didn’t cool down. Even at 9pm it was 33ºC and we were
finding it quite tough. The ground is so hard here, the caravan park supplies a
drill with a tungsten tip drill bit so you can drill the holes for your tent
pegs! This picture is me drilling holes into dirt that’s like steel, with one
hand and sweat just dripping all over me!
So it was air-conditioning and ear plugs for me! If I'm going to put up with the
noise of a fan all night, we might as well be cool at the same time.
Eventually it did cool down, a southerly change came through at 5am, and we had
to get up to take the awning down, and all the shade cloth we had put up. It
wasn’t secure enough for a big gale, which is what we were experiencing. But at
least that means we could turn off the air-conditioning and get some rest
without ear plugs. Jayne can sleep without earplugs and aircon, I can't. I need
total silence to sleep, any slightest noise and I can get to sleep. Clicking
clocks etc. aren’t for me and sleeping.
Jayne has done her rain dance today, hung out the washing and then it bucketed
down. This place only gets 340mm rain per year, we have just had that all
because of Jayne's washing!