Griffith

The primary reason for our visit to Griffith was to catch up with a Young Farmers Exchangee who had stayed with Brandt's family in the 1970s. On previous occasions he was away on business when we phoned to organise meeting up. This time, however, he was home long enough for us to spend an evening together.
As we drove into Griffith, we saw that the Main Street was festooned with sculptures made up of oranges. We found a camp site next to a lagoon. Note the heads of children swimming there despite the sign.





Then we walked back to the Main Street. We had arrived in the middle of the citrus festival.















Next day we drove to the lookout.














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Narromine revisited

When we visited Jack and Christine in 2013, we were shown around the cotton processes. This visit there was no cotton, but instead grain....



green canola seeds.......


ripe canola seeds ......



chick peas ....


barley ....


and wheat.

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White Cliffs

White Cliffs is an opal mining town. The road from Tibooburra to White Cliffs is mainly dirt road. We were almost there when Brandt said, "I suppose we should have covered our vents". Sure enough, there was a layer of red dust over EVERYTHING!




Like Coober Pedy, there are mounds everywhere. This is the discard from the mining process.
At 3 pm we lined up with others, paid our money and enjoyed a tour of an underground working mine. Before departing headquarters we were told a little history of opal mining in White Cliffs plus were given tips on how to detect opal in a rock.


Then we were taken underground. We were encouraged to look for opal but anything found underground was the property of our guide. Anything found above ground we were entitled to keep. (We didn't find anything for him)


The next photos show how he is digging with a mini excavator.





Next day we went out to fossick around on the discards. We do have some raw opal, but if I want any opal jewellery I will have to buy it.





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Corner Country

Once at Tibooburra we booked in to the Granite Caravan Park. Tibooburra is nestled amongst granite boulders.








Then we walked along to where, upside down on a pole, is a replica of the boat Sturt toted with him looking for the inland sea, which he never found. The boat was abandoned nearby.

Next day we took a trip to Cameron Corner just to say that we had been at the point where three States meet. We took the 4wd route having been told that it was both more scenic and in better condition than the main road. They were right in that it was very scenic.








I think we averaged a speed of about 60 kph. (No speed cameras out there)


To get to the "corner" marker we had to go through the dingo fence and into SA, then to get to the "Corner Store" we went into Queensland.



The only way I could see to be in three States at once was to climb on the marker and sit on it. Brandt supports my right foot while I dragged myself to the top ..... and there I sat!







There was another drive that we did. It passed a pastoral museum,






a couple of lookouts, one of which entailed a 4km hike




And, yes, the flies were bad. They were thick on Brandt's sleeve, but disbursed once I took my camera out. However some did return to "drink" moisture on his fingers, but believe me they were thicker than this.



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