Day 6 Kimba to Broken Hill

We started the day with some sunshine and a cold dewy morning. The old girl took a little to start but after a warm up holding the choke, I managed to find something thick enough to hold it on just the right amount. We loaded up and headed off.

Before leaving Kimba we had to find the big Gallah for a quick picture. They also have a half way across Australia sign. I think this is based on road distance, because on our reckoning we were now over half way. (Click the photos for a bigger version)

We headed off to Port Augusta for morning tea. The mountains of the Flinders rose on the horizon as we came in. This is an interesting place with plains, the sea and mountains, but still so dry. We had morning tea at a very…interesting coffee shop. I think we were in the wrong age bracket for this one.

We had previously been to the Flinders in 2011. At the time we tried to find some art to take home but couldn’t find anything we liked (that we could afford anyway), so we decided to check out a couple of galleries. We finally found some aboriginal art at the information and cultural centre.

We headed for Peterborough via a small pass thought me mountain range just south of the town. On the other side we came across the town of Wilmington and in the main street was a row of four land rovers lined up outside a toy museum. We couldn’t pass without a photo so backed the Landy in next them for a photo.

The yellow one is a county the same as ours. A talk with the owner revealed a treasure trove of other land rovers and jeeps in the back yard. Also the toy museum was the largest collection of model land rovers in Australia.

Down the track we stopped at Peterborough for some lunch, fuel and a top up of oil before the haul into Broken Hill. As we were cruising along we saw the remnants of the rail history with water tanks all along the track used to fill the old steam trains. As we slowed to take a photo of one and all of a sudden the Indian Pacific trundled past. My wife said, ” I thought I could hear a noise, but wasn’t sure what it was”, thinking it was the truck making the noise.

We tried to keep up with the train for a short time, but they were just a little too fast for us, so we settled back to our 90km cruise speed. As the sun fell we arrived in Broken Hill after a stop and the border. Entering the third state on our trip. Three days across WA and two across SA.