One day to home

For a while it seemed like we would be away forever. But here we are, one day from home tonight. We spent the majority of the day driving today. We passed through Hay and Narrandera and settled for the night in Jugiong just north of Gundagai.  The Hay Plains were very dry and went on forever. The countryside gradually changed, becoming lush and green as we approached Gundagai. It is great to see Autumn colours after our 9 months of summer.

The trees look so big after the arid countryside

A donation only camping ground by the Murrumbidgee for our last night away. 

 

Back into NSW

Awoke to a beautiful sunrise. This is the most glorious camping site! 

A lot of driving today. Drove through Mildura and some other smaller towns before reaching our goal, Balranald. 

 

Renmark

Had a slow start today after a relaxed day yesterday. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Yum.  Forgot to post the Landies Geoff saw yesterday. 

We found a great gem today- Burra. Beautiful old mining town with apparently the best preserved Victorian houses in the state Had a wander around. 

One old house had an enclosure of kangaroos

Burra station beautifully restored  

Copper mine

 

A little about Burra from Wikipedia.

 

Burra is a pastoral centre and historic tourist town in the mid-north of South Australia. It lies east of the Clare Valley in the Bald Hills range, part of the northern Mount Lofty Ranges, and on Burra Creek. The town began as a single company mining township that, by 1851, was a set of townships (company, private and government-owned) collectively known as "The Burra". The Burra mines supplied 89% of South Australia's and 5% of the world's copper for 15 years, and the settlement has been credited (along with the mines at Kapunda) with saving the economy of the struggling new colony of South Australia. The Burra Burra Copper Mine was established in 1848 mining the copper deposit discovered in 1845. Miners and townspeople migrated to Burra primarily from Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Germany. The mine first closed in 1877, briefly opened again early in the 20th century and for a last time from 1970 to 1981. When the mine was exhausted and closed the population shrank dramatically and the townships, for the next 100 years, supported pastoral and agricultural activities. Today the town continues as a centre for its surrounding farming communities and, being one of the best-preserved towns of the Victorian era in Australia, as a historic tourist centre.

Tonight we camp by the Murray river. Totally by ourselves and just beautiful as the sun set. 

View from the van

First sign to Sydney

First stop today was the Arid Botanical Gardens just outside of Port Augusta. It was quite lovely.  We treated ourself to lunch there but spent most of the time trying to work out if Geoff's lunch was the fish he ordered or chicken. Then we complained to ourselves that this wouldn't happen in the UK! 

Views to the Flinders Range

Views back to Iron Knob

We headed off again. Then we saw it. Our first sign to Sydney. Emily and Mickey were so excited. 

 Then it was time to climb over the Ranges through Horricks Pass again. It looked quite different from when we crossed over 10 weeks ago.

At Wilmington Geoff had a look in the Landrover Museum that hadn't been open on our way last time. We stayed overnight at Jamestown. 

Nullabor

The rain had stopped this morning and it was possible to get some pictures of the Bunda Cliffs

We stopped a bit further along the road at the place we camped on the way over.

The highlight of the day was our visit to the Head of the Bight. It was just spectacular and we saw whales! 

The Head of the Bight

Whales

Double rainbow Spent overnight in Ceduna