White Cliffs – Part Three

To the east of White Cliffs, a little way past the cemetery, the road turns to an unsealed outback road. A 30-odd kilometre drive took us into the Paroo-Darling National Park. This is genuine outback landscape.

Paroo Darling National Park

Some of the roads were perfectly passable. Even the emus were crossing…
But then after the rains we had some were only passable in a 4×4 vehicle

There wasn’t plenty of wildlife but the emus were out in force.

A family of emus keeps their distance in the bush

The Paroo-Darling National Park is huge. Over 178,000 hectares. There is plenty of space to tour, either in your car or walking. However after the recent heavy rains some roads were not passable for our two-wheel drive vehicle.

With all this space there is always a chance you will find an old abandoned vintage car. It seems to be a thing in these parts…

 

Sheep station at the edge of the national park
The young kids raised in this harsh environment grow up to be tough farmers.

Working Mine Trip

Dani and myself had been in opal mines in Lightning Ridge but Dani’s mum had not. This mine trip in White Cliffs was a fully operational mine that took visitors only at certain times/days. We got to see the mechanical digging machine followed by a chance to chip away carefully at the new workface.

I say “we”  but it was really the kids on the trip, and Dani was one of those that got to try his hand at unearthing a fresh opal underground.

The mine owner and guide. Informative, entertaining and funny
Dani inspecting the rock with his torch
Entering the mine
Not looking like he wants to enter this abandoned area
The latest live work face
The way up to the surface for the excavated dirt
Outside the mine

There was plenty more to this trip and the mine owner was more than willing to share his expert knowledge and walk us through all parts of the mine including those that had caved-in. It was very well attended too.

Making a couple of travel mates…

It’s always good for kids to mix with other kids even if they are not exactly the same age. In White Cliffs, during the mine tour, Dani was lucky enough to meet two brothers aged 11 and 12. They were really nice, well-mannered kids (I wish I could say the same about Daniel!). They too were on an outback adventure holiday with their mum.

Dani gives the thumbs down to the ice cream. But he really enjoyed the company of these two older boys.

I think they found the extremely talkative little seven year old a bit comical but they were very tolerant of him and great company for Dani on our last night in White Cliffs.

From here is was on to Broken Hill. A return visit to one of our favourite places for Dani and myself.

2 thoughts on “White Cliffs – Part Three

  1. Reminds me of his oldest cousin when we went to Ibiza. Ben the budgie didn’t stop and a family with older kids were totally bemused LOL

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