Welcome to White Cliffs

White Cliffs is famous for opal mining, but that was not why I wanted to visit this small town in the middle of nowhere. I was keen to see how some of the locals live. Incredibly, to escape the intense heat of the outback, some folk there have built their homes underground.

The General Store

There is an underground motel, which would have been sooo cool to stay in; however, unfortunately, it was not open when we visited in March.  The only chance for us to see one of these amazing underground creations was to join one of the daily dugout tours.

A Dugout – a shelter dug into a hillside or in the ground.

A local artist kindly showed us around her underground dwelling. She explained it started life as an old opal mine and after a lot of jack-hammering it was converted into her earth home. There are no windows, so to make it as bright as possible, all the walls were white-washed and there were several skylights, some made from the original mine shafts. Something surprising about dugouts, there are no doors, and there are holes between rooms, this is to keep the air circulating. Understandably, due to the tour being around her home, we weren’t allowed to take any photos, so I can’t show you how amazing it was. 

Info: The White House Dugout tours run daily at 11am and 2pm.  Cost $10 per person. There is more info and a few piccies here.

Emu Way

It was so cool seeing the dugout, but what made the detour even more special were all the emus we spotted driving to White Cliffs and back. Yesterday, I named the road, Feral Goats Way, today I named the road Emu Way. I have only seen one emu in the wild before, so I was like a little kid and kept asking Ian to stop.  It was so funny watching them run away anytime Suzie got close enough for us to take a piccie.

Ian was even more thrilled, after talking to one of the locals, as we discovered we could shave 30km off our trip to Broken Hill by taking Dry Lake Road, an unsealed road. It was an hour of off-roading on red bulldust. Luckily, there weren’t too many other 4WD, as other cars can cause quite a dust storm, which is not too fun with the windows open.

Off-roading

After the gear stick incident, Suzie and Ian finally forgave me, and today I was allowed to drive again.   So, when we reached the tarmac, I gave Ian a break and drove the final leg to Broken Hill.

Driving Miss Daisy

The day just got better and better. Early evening we finally reached Broken Hill, the inspiration of this road trip to the Australian outback.  Today’s home for the night is the Starview Campsite at the Living Desert State Park. 

A Dream come True

But, before we set up Suzie for the night, we visited the Sunset Sculptures.  The setting was absolutely stunning, huge man-made stone monoliths set with a 360 degrees backdrop of the desert.

What a view!

After soaking in the absolutely stunning scenery, we set up camp for the night.  The Starview Campsite was my favourite campsite on the whole trip and my only regret is we didn’t stay there longer.  One night was certainly not enough.  It was such a tranquil place, deep in the desert and being slightly off-season there were only a few other fellow campers. 

The best campsite!

As evening fell we simply sat outside watching the sun disappear for the night.  Being so remote there was no light pollution, so we were rewarded with an amazing night sky.  A perfect end to a perfect day.

The Southern Cross – not bad since taken from my phone

Info: Day 4 – Wilcannia to the Living State Desert Park near Broken Hill via White Cliffs, distance 354km. Stayed at Starview Campsite. All unpowered sites, $10 per person and $6 per person for entry into the park.  This was my favourite campsite of the outback trip.  The facilities were very basic, but clean flushable toilets, a lovely hot shower and surprisingly, no insects in the bathroom.  Someone suggested maybe the lizards ate them!

Early morning shower