The forecast for today was early morning showers, however, we awoke to a clear sunny day. “She” made good use of the clear weather and did a load of washing.
A communal breakfast was planned for today and was held under a clear and warm sky. We had bacon and eggs that “He” cooked to perfection.
Then, from out of nowhere, there was a clasp of thunder that was followed by a short rain shower. The rain was only enough to settle the dust.
After breakfast and with the washing drying on our airer, we grabbed our friends
We saw a 31-year-old movie about Broken Hill mining that stated that the ore source would probably be fully exploited by the year 2000. The movie was interesting as it did shed light on the history of Broken Hill and the early days of BHP. After the conclusion of the movie, we were shown more information about mining including the current methods to make the mines safe.
Next stop was at the Broken Hill airport and the Royal Flying Doctor Service base. Again we were shown a movie and that was followed by a short tour of the public area of the base. All active aircraft were tasked away from the base and a single aircraft was undergoing maintenance. Whilst we were visiting the RFDS, we had a very heavy rain that lasted only for a few minutes. We hoped that the rain had washed our very dirty car.
On the way back to our campsite, we drove through flooded streets and on several occasions, deep water. On the southern side of “The Line of Lode”, it appeared that there are no drains and any rainfall travels to the lowest point. Much to our surprise, the main centre of Broken Hill was totally dry. The same applied to our campsite, there had been no recent rain.
Whilst we were preparing our lunch, we experienced a severe storm which dumped a lot of water and was accompanied by small hail. Minutes after the storm finished, another storm passed us and that was followed a short time afterwards by a third storm. Our campsite at the Racecourse was flooded.
It took less than 30 minutes for the water to disappear and less than an hour after the storm hit, there was very little evidence of any of the storms occurring.
Late in the afternoon we paid a visit to the gallery of Jack Absalom, a famous Australian “Bushie” and artist. We purchased several books and a nice pair of place mats.
We returned to our campsite and participated in a long happy hour. We enjoyed steak and salad for tea and then spent most of the evening sorting through photographs taken so far on the trip.
There was no further rainfall and once again, we were blessed with a clear night sky.