Aussie Road Trip Day. Ten Wednesday 24th July 2013

From dry brown plains to lush green hills.....

We were quite sad to leave Broken Hill this morning. We really enjoyed our visit here and who knows if we'll ever be back? It is very remote.

We knew it would be a long and barren drive from Broken Hill to our next destination, the Clare Valley, so we fueled up the car before leaving and set off. It had been very cool overnight, and didn't get over nine degrees even in the middle of the day, but at least the weather was fine and the traffic light.

Our first stop was at the small town of Olary, population: three! (and a dog). We loved the quaintness of the Olary Hotel. When we arrived we found the lady publican still in her pyjamas in front of an open log fire. She welcomed us in after donning a coat for modesty. When we ordered two coffees she pointed to the kettle and coffee jar, grabbed some milk from the fridge and said "Help yourself .... you know how you like it". No fancy skinny chai lattes available here! We chatted amiably to the lady, whose colourful language would make a bullocky blush (but I'm sure she had a heart of gold really).

She said she and her husband who ran the hotel were the only inhabitants of the town but for one other bloke a few doors down. The other buildings were deserted. She didn't see the 110 km trip to Broken Hill as onerous, visiting there three time a week herself to get supplies. They were on their own generator for electricity. She said it cost them $30,000 a year to run the generator. Geez! I'll stop whinging about our rising electicity costs now.

John at the Olary Hotel

The long flat road

We drove on through seemingly endless barren landscape, spotting a few herds of emus and flocks of pink gallahs and white cockatoos, but very little else. As we approached Whyte Yarcowie the landscape started to change and give way to green rolling hills and we could see many tall white wind generators spinning majestically on the hilltops

Wind generators on the hilltops

The town of Burra was very charming. It sported some lovely old stone buildings in good repair. We'd seen many crumbling ruins of stone pioneer cottages set in fields where sheep grazed on the way into Burra, but from then on the prosperity of the area became more obvious. Properties were bigger and well tended.

Buildings at Burra

The town of Clare, set amongst vineyards in the Clare Valley is really gorgeous. We're staying at the Clare Valley Motel which is a bit more upmarket from all our previous motel accommodation along the journey so far. It even has a very nice restaurant where we'll dine tonight.

We've already been for an explore of local cellar doors (John sampling and buying some local produce) and wandered around the town.

Our accommodation in Clare

Barb in Clare main street

Visiting local cellar doors

John happy with his purchase

 

 

Loving the architecture!

Tomorrow we'll be meeting up with my childhood friend Ailsa and her husband David who live in Nairne in the Adelaide Hills. They'll be joining us for the rest of the trip back to Maleny.