From Cobar to Broken Hill

There had been a fair bit of rain overnight at Cobar but it had cleared by the time we packed the vehicle and trailer again. Our night in the motel had worked wonders for Colin, he had not slept the night before and was able to catch up – he was asleep from the time we unpacked in the afternoon until seven in the morning with a few moments awake to have a meal!

It was a glorious run through the most incredible scenery I have ever seen – I had left home determined to see the desert in bloom and here it was; even better than I had hoped.
I will not bore you with too many flower photos – but I could! I had a wonderful time and the Nikon was dug out of hiding and the Samsung relegated to quick snaps! The first blue photo is of the Paterson's Curse – a rather toxic weed that is not good for sheep and cattle – but it creates a most dramatic and eye catching display. This area of desert country had rains – very heavy rains – early in the year and as a result it no longer looks like a desert. There has been so much follow-up rain that the grass and wildflowers have continued to grow.

I didn't manage to get any photos of them but the area is alive with feral goats. We saw plenty of them and they all look very healthy. They were in all goat colours – from one colour to multi-colour. No wonder there was an advert on the place-mat in the Bowls Club where we had our evening meal for a goat buyer!

It was a huge distance between Cobar and Broken Hill and even though we used the sub-tank on the Nissan four wheel drive we still needed to use one of the jerrycans of diesel to make the distance. Since I was out of the vehicle I couldn't resist recording the event!

We arrived at Broken Hill just after three in the afternoon and booked ourselves into one of the caravan parks – in a cabin – for two nights. Heavy rain was forecast for Friday. We went down to the Information Centre and asked about the Living Desert Park and a very helpful lady urged us to take a key and go straight away because rain was expected later in the afternoon and we might be able to get an hour in before it started. The key could be kept until midday tomorrow so if it was fine in the morning we could go out there again.

Oh, am I glad we went out there! The scenery on the way is stunning and once in the park it is even more beautiful. The rock and hill formations are so glorious and the flowers. Swoon! There are two gates to unlock and pass through and after the first we were brought to a long standstill by the sight of a most amazing display of Sturt Desert Peas.

Rather than give you a close up shot of the flowers I am sharing a shot that shows the way the plant grows and spreads across the ground. The sky was very overcast all the time we were in the park so the shine does not really show on the bulbous black part of the flower – they are so glossy that the sunlight gives them a real sparkle.

I could have spent hours taking photographs along the track that led up to a sculpture park – a rather long story that I will not share here. Instead just one photograph I took. Again I would have loved to have spent a long time here but the heavens opened and I had to make a hasty retreat with the camera shielded as best as I could!

The rain is still falling. We are hoping that we will be able to explore more of Broken Hill tomorrow – but if the rain is as heavy as expected then we shall be exploring indoors! We have a broken trailer to get parts for! The brakes jammed on and we had to remove them.
AJ