Following the Trail of Burke and Wills

 We loved our time camping on the banks of the Cooper Creek and following the trail of Burke and Wills as they attempted to cross Australia and claim more land for Victoria.

 We also took a day to explore Coongie Lakes which is a freshwater body of water in the middle of the desert just near Innamincka.

 More pioneers blazed a trail on the trees.

 We saw many dingoes scavenging at the local tip of Innanmincka but only managed to get one in shot on this camera.

We loved our time at Birdsville and it was one of the highlights of our trip so far. One of the highlights was that I ate a curried camel pie- it's an award winner for the local bakery there. Tasted OK but the meat was a bit stringy.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Snapshots of Broken Hill

 We really enjoyed our visit to Broken Hill in NSW. It has the largest base for the Flying Doctor Service which provides much needed health care in the outback.

 We took a tour of the Flying Doctor base and heard about the wonderful work they do for remote communities as well as for people traveling in the outback.

 Another highlight was visiting Jack Absalom's art gallery as well as meeting him in person. We have many of his DVDs on outback survival techniques and it was lovely to meet him and see his beautiful art work of the outback. He is self-taught and very talented.

 We also visited Silverton which is a nearby mining town. There aren't many people living here now but it's a popular tourist area to see some of our historic sites.

 I visited the Silverton cemetery as well and the ages on the gravestones shows what a hard life it was for our pioneers.

I love the red sand and bright blue sky of the outback and will share more very soon.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Out of Range

 I really had intended to keep blogging regularly but a lack of phone and internet reception made that impossible. We are just waiting and resting up before we head to The Cape and I finally have some time to post blogs about our trip. I think I'll shelve the travel blog for now as just trying to upload photos to one blog will be challenge enough. We met up with a small group of 4wd friends in Broken Hill and traveled with them for a week, following the Burke and Wills' trail.

 We found a lovely freshwater lake on our way to Innamincka and it is such a rarity in this area that we had to stop and inspect it.

 We also found Sturt's depot camp and early cemetery.

 The early explorers blazed their intitials and date into trees to mark their passage but not all the trees have survived.

 Many children of the pioneers died at a young age.

 We climbed for 1.5km to reach the summit of this part of the range, overlooking Sturt's bush camp, named Depot Glen.

Sturt had his men build a cairn of rocks (plenty to chose from) to prevent boredom while they waited for favourable weather conditions to allow them to continue home. The cairn is 18' by 20' and is on a mountain named Mt Poole for one one Sturt's men who died here. The expedition took place in 1845 and was part of our trip to visit all the corners where our States adjoin.
  More to come if internet connection allows. We're having a lovely time with beautiful sunny days and cool nights. The new camper is traveling well and it's been relaxing to sit around the fire and enjoy some quiet time.
Sorry I've been MIA for a while and although phone connection is lacking in a lot of areas here I hope to update more frequently.
Hugs, Jan Mac