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Health & Fitness

New South Wales, Australian Outback

The Outback in New South Wales is seldom visited by tourists. Remote, hard to get to, wonderful, hard working miners, happy with their part of the world. Magnificent opals.

 

I was in Australia for a month recently and went on an Outback adventure before I attended the Aussie Specialists Conference.   

I hadn’t been to the area of New South Wales adjoining South Australia and Queensland which they call Corner Country, and when my husband heard I was going to do 1,000 miles on dirt roads across the bush, he groaned and asked, “Why?”  I wanted to know, should I be selling it as an alternative to the Northern Territory, i.e. Alice Springs and Ayers Rock?

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It was the only part of Australia I hadn't been to. I went to Broken Hill, Menindee, Milparinka, Silverton, Tibooburra, White Cliffs, Wilcannie and more then took the Indian Pacific train from Broken Hill to Adelaide, in South Australia. 

Broken Hill was an interesting little town where in 1880 a chap found what turned out to be the largest and richest mine of its kind in the world, a silver, lead and zinc lode yielding minerals worth more than $100 billion, and it is still being worked today.  

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While patrolling the station fences, the rider found the rich deposits. He and six workers from the Mount Gipps station pegged out a claim which made them all rich men.

Be prepared for lovely architecture, wide streets, good restaurants, several nice hotels, and again, great people.

We stayed in the Royal Exchange Hotel which had excellent food, and very comfortable rooms.

I went with Tri State Safaris who I would recommend highly. I was with another Signature Travel Network agent from Wisconsin, Demy Anfang, and we laughed our way across the Outback.  

I have never been so dirty, dusty, windswept and cold on a trip. It was the week before those dreadful dust storms, and I hiked miles looking at Aborginal rock art.   

I loved an old mining town, Silverton, and Tibooburra, which was the last out post but it had smashing Shandies—half beer and half lemonade. The underground hotel at White Cliffs was an experience—a lively opal mining town. The only bathrooms were shared by both men and women, and we were afraid, because of the darkness, if we went to the toilet during the night we would never find our way back to the cave we were in.

One toilet we used in remote homestead had 12 little green frogs looking at us in the tank. 

The people were so friendly, welcomed us with big smiles and so anxious to share their knowledge of the area.

Stopping in the middle of nowhere for morning coffee and cake, learning about the local plants, aborginal history,  animals and birds from Joanne and Michael McCulkin, the owners of Tri State Safaris, who each drove a vehicle, couldn’t have been more fun. We stopped in the shade of a dry creek bed lined with majestic red gums and watched the kangaroos pass by with a symphony of bird song from above us. 

Every place we stayed was basic, but clean, with good food. Some of these little towns had fewer than 100 people in then, with homes built of corrugated tin walls and roofs.

I was amazed to see well-kept gardens in many places. I kidded a young policeman in one little town that he needed to get busy on his garden, in between finding lost travelers.

I asked him when did he wore a uniform? He said rarely—he said he liked his t-shirt and jeans. He was surprised to find us walking at 6.a.m. down the one street of town.

I took a photo of one tin homestead, and I was going to send it to the Signature Travel Network hotel king, Ignacio Mazo, to say – "This is definitely 5-star, it must be included in the next Signature Hotel Directory of posh places!"

This would be an ideal way for a traveler short on time to do a quick one-to-three-day trip to see the Outback. We saw hundreds of emu and Red Kangaroos, which are 7-feet tall, and very little traffic.   

I told the driver that I was going to send an email to God, that he should please pave these roads, I was “bumped” out. The reply was, "We don’t want civilization to find out – the road keeps them away."

This trip is not for everyone. For someone who wants to see the path-less-traveled, and see the Outback without the commercial tone that you get in the Northern Territory, this would be the place to go. We saw several spectacular places with Mungo National Park and its amazing sand dunes, which they call the "Walls of China" lunette being the best.  

Several times I saw palm trees, and a lake in the misty distance and as I bounced along, I thought to myself, "thank God, we will stop there for a cup of tea," but we never arrived.  I was seeing a mirage. I have only seen this before when I was in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed.

An enjoyable adventure. I lost weight on my bum...

- Maureen Jones, Premier Aussie Specialist

Maureen Jones is president of All Horizons Travel at 160 Main Street. Members of her staff are experts in business travel, cruises, and all types of leisure.

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