Back o' Bourke Edition

Here we are sitting in a pub somewhere in Broken Hill. It's Saturday afternoon, so the only places that are open here are the pubs. Small town Australia reminds me of Sydney when I first moved here 20 years ago. The whole place shuts up at 1pm on Saturday, not to reopen until Monday morning.

Broken Hill is surprisingly cold (unseasonally so I think) and it's the first mining town I've ever been to that is quite so dominated by the mine. There's almost nowhere you can stand here that you can't see the slag heaps that were once (or are still) active mines. We are staying in Silverton - which was an earlier mining town, subsequently abandoned once the "line of lode" was discovered in Broken Hill. It's desolate, bad-lands country. To give you an idea, this is where much of Mad Max 2 was filmed - and I don't imagine they'd have had to change much. (Max's car is still parked out the front of the Pub)

Prior to arriving here we have spent about 10 days travelling in outback NSW - otherwise refered to as the "back 'o bourke". It's been a real highlight of the trip so far! I don't know what it is about the red earth and tortured country that is outback Australia but it is beautiful and moving in an unexpected way.

The absolute highlight was our 4 night stay on Comeroo Camel Station about 150k north of Bourke (near the Queensland border). There we were the guests of Bruce and Chris Sharp, camping on part of their 100,000 acre property. I would like to think that we have found two new friends in Bruce and Chris. Their warmth and hospitality were amazing! We spent every evening sitting with them by their huge fireplace (yup, it was cold there too, most nights) learning about their lives on the land. We were also often joined by 4 guys from Bendigo who were staying in the shearers cottages and spending their days shooting wild pigs.

We went cycling, canoing, walking, watched the Grand Final and had a wonderful bath in the hot artesian bore on their property. But the best part was when Bruce would drop by our tent for a yarn and a cuppa tea on the way back from his morning walk, and when we sat around the fire listening to Ralph (world's best loved dog) sing, and when we were invited for a camp-oven dinner. It really was incredible sharing their lives and feeling so welcome to be part of it all.

By the way, must share with you a great joke from Bruce........what does a blonde have in common with cow shit??? Answer: the older they get the easier they are to pick up.

I should mention that prior to heading to Comeroo we had a day in Lighting Ridge. Remarkably interesting place (although very dusty, particularly post the dust storm). What I didn't realise is that the mines are all individually owned - not run by some big place like BHP. So it's got a real frontier feel and even today is full of old prospectors still waiting to get rich.

After Comeroo (these past weeks seem to divide into before and after Comeroo) we continued on to Bourke and from there down the Darling River on some pretty crappy roads. We had great weather for this part of the trip - sunny and getting warmer every day. We stayed on a couple of other stations, Trilby and Old Buckanbee - which we also enjoyed tremendously. Colin, the owner of Old Buckanbee has decided to sell (after much soul searching) and at 64 is moving to Dubbo. It was funny to hear that he was excited about this "city-change" in much the same way that us city folk would feel about a sea-change.

The highlight at Trilby was our success in yabbying! We had 4 nets in the damn on their property and came up trumps with a huge load of about 50 yabbies. (For Canadians reading this as yabby is a local shell fish that's a bit like a cross between a prawn and a lobster). We cooked up a "yabby paella" which was a masterpiece (if I do say so myself). But the most fun was pulling up the nets and finding all those little suckers in the trap - yippee!

That about brings you up to date, although Dennis will follow now with the golf report, and no doubt will rave further about Comeroo.

Now for the Dennis version. NOMANGOES!

This was the sign on the ladies at Comeroo, Steph took a while to get it and we had a laugh about it. The Gents was MANGOES and Steph had a real problem with the frogs in the bowl. Having left Lightning Ridge we headed off for Comeroo Station 150 k's NW of Bourke across country on unmade roads, the issue for me was calculating the fuel so we filled everything that we had including Jerry cans as there was no refuel until Bourke, we got thru with 1/4 of a tank. Chris at Comeroo is a great Aussie Lady and boy can she cook, the Corned Beef was Magnificient and the fresh eggs we are still eating. We were invited to lunch with a group of 25 Poets, we have a Poetry Book "West" about this part of the World and I enjoy reading it aloud each night, we both get a feel for the real country and the people.

One of the Poems is called "The Trap Collector" its about Bruce and his 600 traps of all sorts including a Man Trap, he also collects Tractor Seats Cow Bells and other Farm Memorabillia, seems like its a good investment. Stephanie got a real kick out of the Yabbies and it was a real thrill to see the excitement on her face.

The Darling River has a small amount of Water and it is not flowing, I guess that I did not understand how bad things are here, last year the Darling had no water for 9 months, I asked the owner of Old Buckanbe Station what the Federal Government's $10 Billion meant to him, short answer - nothing.

Played Golf today at Broken Hill, quite a surprise really as it is a bit of an oasis with the use of recycled water, the course is really good and the animals on course are very courteous.

Final note from Stephanie to the Bagwana: Dennis is doing a good job sabotaging his handicap, playing at a wide variety of courses and is getting fit with the assistance of his personal trainer.....could 2010 finally be his year??? Suggest a bit of money on this would be a good investment!