Inland NSW...

I'm inland... very much inland. About 1200km to be exact. =)

Its been a lovely drive from Sydney, stopping over the weekend in the lovely highland town of Orange, about 1km up from Sydney. Ambled through an extinct volcano with alpine vegetation, and spectacular vineyards, orchards, and a lake.

Cherry blossoms, blooming in spring
crisp sauv blanc, and intense, long cab sauv.
ducks gamboling at lake canabolas
contemplative...

This was followed by an interesting 10 hr drive through the outback, ending finally in Broken Hill, a place prosperous through extensive mining (silver, lead, zinc, etc etc etc etc), and a few days out in the desert.

the open road
wedge-tailed eagle, raven, lunch queue
Sun beams

There is just something simply compelling about the desert that keeps me coming back, and coming back, and coming back. Something about the desert and being nomadic just seems to go hand in hand. And there is the space....

So, here I am, sitting in the dining room of the Broken Hill Youth Hostel, surrounded by two benchfuls of 50-70 year old folks (!), they seem to have made friends with each other (thats some 15 of them), and they are now playing DONKEY (!!), and some variant of heart-attack (!!!) where instead of slapping the hand, they grab spoons out of a pile in the middle. The noise they are making rivals a school yard during recess. Hilarious. I'm trying to sneak a photo of the proceedings, but trying to be discreet.

... to be continued..