Day 3

Not much to say today. Can sum up with a few words – red dust, water, pelicans and really expensive fuel – $1.89/litre for diesel.
I was going to say these things are everywhere, but thinking about it, I haven’t actually seen that many yet.

These things definitely aren’t everywhere, but there’s been quite a bit of rain recently. Quite a few roads were out, and I had to make a couple of (shallow) water crossings, even some pelicans have made the trip out to hang out in the waterholes.

I’ve been surprised how green the landscape is. Certainly not what I was expecting. Plenty of flowers along the side of the road as well.

Lots more lizards again today. Not sure what this one is, but it was quite happy to pose on this clump of dirt by the roadside.

Another bearded dragon, a little more willing to pose than yesterday’s.

Today’s destination was White Cliffs. A small opal mining town. Many of the ‘houses’ here are actually dug into the side of two hills on either side of town. I often talk of either New York City, or the North Shore of Oahu as being my favourite places in the world. In just one short afternoon, White Cliffs has put itself in the running to be the least favourite. If I had arrived earlier in the afternoon, I probably would have done a lap of the ‘Heritage Trail’ and kept going. This was White Cliffs Fuel Supply. Now closed.

The opal fields are on the northern side of the town. Each one of these mounds surrounds an open, unfenced, pit around 10m deep into the earth. Apparently around 50,000 of these pits have been dug in the main field. Not surprisingly, they advise you to keep your kids well under control, and encourage you not to go up here at night.

Tomorrow – Broken Hill, possibly spending the night in Silverton.