The highlights of the day trip to Menindee were:
- the green countryside
- the expanse of lakes now nearly full yet were empty just 18 months ago
- the starkness of the dead river gums standing in the lakes was quite eerie
- a boat trip on the swollen Darling River (parts were off limits because even a 2cm wake would inundate low lying Menindee homes)
- ubiquitous emus
- the red river gums of Stephens Creek
- realising Menindee seedless grapes are called that because they come from Menindee
- being dropped off in the main street of Broken Hill at the end of the tour so that we could enjoy a stroll past all the wonderful old buildings
Today we took in the sights of Silverton, the Mundi Mundi plains and the living desert sculptures and Bells Milk Bar (50's style milk bar) before continuing onto Peterborough in South Australia.
Silverton was an ecclectic mix of old stone buildings and ruins, devonshire tea, Mad Max memorabilia, red dirt streets and green countryside. The Mundi Mundi plains lookout is just 5 kilometres west of Silverton and we can only describe it as 180 degrees of green, flat - pancake flat - landscape.
A quick trip to the view the large stone carvings, the living desert sculptures, had the added bonus of great views back to Broken Hill. It would have been better if these were seen at sunset but unfortunately we didn't have the time to stick around.
The journey to Peterborough meant another crossing of an exclusion zone at Yunta. This one was far more serious than the one before Broken Hill. It was a manned inspection point and all fruit, vegetable and plant matter was prohibited from entering further into South Australia and he even checked the fridge.
HeeHee! Glad to see you slipped in 'ubiquitous'! How many points is that worth?
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