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