Home now and thinking...............

Just thinking about the world in general..............

Hopefully we can all make some small difference each day/week/month/year that will, in the overall long-run, make a large difference to the earth's important areas...............


<a href="http://www.protectourcoralsea.org.au/"><img src="http://www.protectourcoralsea.org.au/img/badge.jpg" alt="" /></a>

Hope you can help too :-)

HOME NOW!!!!! Darn it......

WARREN, NSW and HOME

We left White Cliffs, having had a pretty unusual evening, sleeping in the earth (wow - turning Carpathian or Vampiric?????) very different *lol*


We stopped for a night at Warren on our way (one night stand only) and I decided that I'd have a shower before going to bed for the night (nice hot, relaxing shower - just what these aches need after a long day sitting in the car!).

Yeah, nice and hot I must say, but a little difficult in the dark when you have shampoo all over your head and the lights GO OFF!  -  YES, OFF into sheer black darkness (not even a glimmer of outside lights creeping through a window aloft, nothing, ziltch, just like in White Cliffs' caves).  And, being the shy little girl I am, I was definitely not going to wrap a towel around myself and sneak carefully on wet, shiny tiles trying to find the light switch (which was on when I got in the shower).

                                     

So, I rinsed the shampoo with eyes closed and low and behold, when I opened them I could see in the dark (starting to wonder about vampiric tendencies now big time!)

Well, Greg thought that was kinda funny - Because,  he was in the toilets himself  earlier and thought that the old guy coughing & spluttering left and the light went off on him too.  (Greg thought the cranky old guy must have turned it off on him, *lol*)

In the morning, I had a bit of better look here and lookey what I found - permanents, with dogs too who didn't fight or bite)

This one didn't really look level at all, but maybe it was jacked up inside????


This one even mowed his own grass (see the lawnmower there!!)  but don't know if he drove the ute anywhere.



There was a vehicle here last night, and someone was cooking on a spirit oven (like in the Himalya's) too, but don't know where they are now!

We were going to stop again at Moree for the hot springs, but as it was only 3pm when we got there we decided to make it home in this day.

Good idea - next day and today (the 2nd one home) and I'm still unpacking/cleaning/washing and so is Greg.  

Well, I had to sort through all these (we collected from each beach we visited so I could put them into my marine tanks when they get re-set up - should have lots of happy hermit crabs and snails then!)

  And these I picked this morning from my little oval garden - some bulbs I put in just before we went away - What a pretting sight to come back to -

Now, at the end of the Road Trip, I can leave you with this prayer (just in case you decide to hook up and do the same)...........

CARAVANNER'S PRAYER

When we pack up in the morning, may the annex be quite dry,

May the pegs be easily removed and no leaves stuck to the fly.

Let the stabilisers wind up, without that horrid squeak,

And loose items give no trouble when them to stow we seek.

May I back up with the ball lined up precisely with its mate,

and remember to remove the jockey wheel before it's too late.

May I drive away real smoothly, the days journey to begin,

And not have to turn back, with the key I should hand in.

Let the road be sealed and free of works of the detour kind,

May the rain refrain from falling and the wind blow from behind.

Don't let flies come in their millions, when we make our morning stop,

And let the thermos not be empty 'cause I didn't crew down the top.

May the road signs not confuse us as we go upon our way,

And let no sheep or kangaroo, onto the roadway stray.

Let us reach the caravan park, well before the night,

And dear God please let there be a suitable powered site.

May the site be large and roomy, preferably a big drive through,

Or please let there be someone there, to tell me what to do.

Don't let me try for hours and hours, to back that wretched van into the place,

Watched by other campers with a smile upon their face.

Oh! if you want to punish me for some forgotten sin,

Don't let it be by leaving me, with my wife to guide me in.

And there's another thing I do of you beseech,

When finally the van's in place, please let the power cord & water be well within the reach.

They say you ara a God of love, and if that indeed is true,

Please ensure I get a site, not too far from the loo.

If I have to go at night, desperate I will be,

Don't let me get to the loo and find that I forgot the key.

I pray that all the campers, round about our site,

Are friendly and considerate, especially at night.

And when at last I go to bed, and gently close the door,

Oh! dear Lord, let me be the only one to snore.

CHEERS EVERYONE,

I hope you all enjoyed the blog of our trip, as much as I enjoyed writing it (and taking all the photos - Man oh! Man, though I am still waiting on the repairers in Perth for my Nikon D300s -

sure is taking some time to replace one tiny little piece!!!!!!)

                                   TAKE CARE ALL and best wishes for forever............xoxo

                                                                  DEB & GREG McNEIL

PS:  McNeily there and me :  we didn't quite get all there so stay tuned:  Will let you know when we are about to head off for the Top End and/or The Big Southern Land!!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Sunday, 5th August 2012
White Cliffs, NSW

Well, first things first.
It's is Mum's birthday and we wish her a very happy birthday.  Am sure she will have had a super day, especially since her son, Tony, has come over from New Zealand to spend a few days with her too.

No doubt, there will have been some really nice lunches and dinners and some great reminiscing going on also!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM - Love you heaps xoxo

And back to White Cliffs......

We watched this cloud for about 150 kms on our way from Broken Hill to White Cliffs, wondering if we were going to be in for some rain,




 and when we stopped for lunch at this spot we were

 sure we would get rain.

 The wind was absolutely howling, so since we didn't have any firewood to light a fire and get warm with, we ate our un-toasted sandwich in the caravan and didn't have to worry about putting out our fire!~!!!!



                                                          On the outskirts of Wilcannia ......????!!!!!!  but we turned right and continued onto White Cliffs *lol* 





Driving into White Cliffs, we called up to the White Cliffs Underground Motel and booked in.



The motel kindly allowed us to hook power up to our caravan at their laundry block so our fridge could stay on overnight.

 We went underground for tonight by booking into the White Cliffs Underground Motel instead of caravanning it, and this is what it looks like ............

Our bedroom .............

Our window.....

Our air vent (inside our window).....

                                          The Dining Room where we ate our 3 course dinner

This was our hallway from our bedroom to our bathroom ..................

 In the centre there was a little store room.....

And when we turned off our light, this is what it looked like ..................

 ..............................................................................                 Yep, you betcha it was!!!!




   There is a building code that all dug-outs must abide by, and am not too sure how many actually do
but they must have council inspections I suppose!

Before dinner we decided to find the roof-top and have a drink while we watched the sun set over White Cliffs, so we went to the bar and got our drinks, then we went down a corridor, and another corridor,

 

and found a lounge room...................

 and a ping pong table.........

                                   ..................... in a games room

but then finally (hoping the sun hadn't set and that we could find our way back again), we found this ......

Which led to this ........................
 

When we opened the door, (making sure we had our keys as the sign stipulated), we found this stunning view, which the sun had not yet set upon.....



This is the little piece above ground (the rest of the motel us underneath).

    The small square bunker-like buildings are the roof-top vents to the rooms and bathrooms underground.

Filling in time while waiting for the sun!



  Eventually, after spending a little time enjoying the quietness and the vastness, the sun did it's thing as only it can do...............

Spectacular 360 degree views from on top.

So glad we went up that staircase to see this, and then bidding the sky farewell, we made our way back down the stairs and actually found our way to the dining room without getting lost (again!)





During the afternoon, we went for a drive and a look around the township.  White Cliffs is built on 3 hills, forming a sort of triangle of the town.

The three hills have both residential dug-outs as well as the owners retail outlets, but one hill (Potch Hill) has the leases on which both working mines and a fossicking reserve is centred.  When fossicking, it is etiquette (and law) not to fossick upon another persons lease!!!!!  (each lease is approx. 50 mtrs x 50 mtrs and pegged by way of a star post at each corner...... make sure you don't fossick inside one of these squares!!)

Shafts are about every 1 - 1.5 metres apart.

On the fossicking side of things too, perhaps Collette and Jean you may be interested to know that White Cliffs Rock Swap and Gem Fest is due to be held on 25th and 26th August (this  month)

The reference above to dinosaurs is due to the fact that an excavation here found the skeleton of one of earth's earliest water-dwelling dinosaurs, the ancestor of todays whales.

In one of the showrooms (the Cathedral), we found Brett Brown and his wife Jenny.  Brett and Jenny are formally of Glen Innes and have been in White Cliffs now for around 4 years.



Smith's Hill




View of where our motel's hill from the bottom of Smith's Hill.

Hooking up this morning was somewhat hilarious (well, I thought anyway).   While I was being considerably careful watching the tow ball getting closer and closer to the treg hitch, I finally started signalling to Greg in the new camera to stop ....stop.....stop but no, he just would not take any notice so  the tow bar hit the hitch and Greg comes back to see what's going on. Then he went back, got in the car again and reversed again and once again took absolutely no notice of my hand signals.

Finally, he cames back again and says "I may as well just do this on my own" and I said "Well, if you would just take notice of my hand signals, look.... this is what I was doing - it means stop!"  and he said, "yeah it would if I could see it, but the camera's not hooked up -  I was watching you from the back window and wondered where you were 'coz I couldn't see you"   *lol* after 3 months too!!!!!!

Coming across this creek, we decided after a little look that we would take the new bridge and not try the old one .....................

But down on the edge of the bank, the water was stunningly still and the reflections were beautiful.

And finally, on our way towards Warren, (THIS ONE IS FOR YOU SUE,  Yes, it really, really, really was there - even Greg saw it!!!! so we reckon they blend in with the landscape just as good as the lions do in Africa *lol*) we saw our first LIVE Kangaroo of the trip, not just roadkill.

We can pretty well say from this trip to date, Australia has a huge concentration of Crows, Sparrows, Magpies, Galahs, Ants, Foxes, Feral Cats and way too many Emu,  along with the very occasional kangaroo, lizard, echidna, wombat and definitely no dingoes or koalas.  (But that's probably because we spent so much time in Western Australia hey!!!! - the state all of it's very own *lol*)

Almost home, so sleep safe and sweet dreams all..... catch you all soon again, probably from Inverell, but you just never know, maybe somewhere else first ................xoxo