Leaving the salt lakes area of Port Augusta we had decided it was best to go North as the South could be a bit tricky with all the flood waters downstream after the recent rains. So we headed into the hills and soon arrived at Wilmington, nothing was open, couldn’t even get a coffee, as we wandered the main street.
This toy museum looked interesting, we knocked on the door, no answer, the goat at the rear of the building ,in a jeep, was the only one interested in seeing us.
Hoping the town would come to life soon, we filled in time taking photos and looking at all the old cars. They all still go, even this little digger, tthat has had an oil change, on the foot path. !!
We had a cuppa in the van then walked back and rang the door bell of the puppet museum, we were in luck and welcomed in by the owner, a puppeteer. Wow what an amazing time we had in there. A guided tour and history of his amazing puppet collection, from all over the world.
This Chinese puppet is over 200 years old .
A very talented man, he did a number of puppet shows for us as well. He and his wife also hand made a lot of puppets for his shows, as well as for sale. His specialty is making Pinocchio, so Chris bought a Pinocchio and I got some other hand made things, no made in China here!
If you scroll in, no doubt you will see some of the much loved characters from your childhood.
As we were leaving he told us to ring the bell again at the toy place, as the owner would be there and had a great collection of toys. He and his wife also gave me a couple of small hand made gifts, I think they appreciated how much we enjoyed the place.
Off we went rang the bell and then found ourselves in the most complete collection of toys. Again from all over the world. And from every era, brought back so many memories of toys we had in the 30s -50s.
As well as collecting old cars, especially jeeps, this owner has rebuilt and remodeled lots of the cars on display.
Oh and these boats actually worked on the water. And the model ships made out of paper, my brother had quite a few of these precious toys. It didn’t matter what toy I asked about, and yes, he had one, and more than likely, a whole set.
Well that took up most of the day, so we drove on to Peterborough, had a look around town, then stopped at the oval for the night.
Chris was able to master the art of puppetry, well sort of!! I was happy to try and get some photos of the hares running around nearby. They were huge !!
The next morning we drove through a couple of old towns, that are all but deserted, but used to be thriving years ago. They were built along the railway line between Broken Hill NSW and Peterborough SA.
That night we stayed in Coburn caravan park, in Cockburn, just us and a lovely sunset, the last of South Australia behind us.
Next morning we crossed the border into New South Wales. And arrived in Broken Hill. We got some information on Menindee Lakes, and weather the flood water was as bad as the media were saying.
Told it was ok, but some roads would be shut. So we rang ahead to a caravan park and booked in, unhooked the van and went for a look, see, whats going on. Lots of SES vehicles running around. We went out to the weir, where the water flows are being controlled, and doing a good job of keeping the heights in Menindee below the 1976 flood level. It is now being reduced by 10cms per day.
Millions of carp (fish) trying to get back through the gates to head back upstream.
However the Darling River, is still creeping into the outskirts of town, and driving around is a sight to see just how much water there is being channeled through the area.
The lakes around Menindee are full to capacity, hard to believe that they can almost dry out in drought.
Where we are staying is on one of the smaller lakes, between two larger ones, that flow into it. Its popular for boating, and great for me to cool off, on a 44° day like yesterday.
Today we went for another drive into town, a few more road closures and peoples yards swamped. Very few houses have water in them from what we can see. However I think the water will be laying around for some time to come.
I spent most of today in the water, keeping cool, but now there is a storm brewing, so I’ll just relax here while Chris has a snack. Hopefully it won’t be a bad one.!
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