Thick fog was this morning's greeting and while it had lifted by about 9.00am it didn't lift very high and made for a very cold damp morning indeed. All three of us reluctant to venture out because frankly we're over cold and wet! We can get enough of that stuff at home.
After some coaxing I managed to get the other two residents out of the van for a drive. We set off to find a few of the local landmarks courtesy of the information centre. The weather wasn't kind to us in terms of sunshine for photos, but we had a fantastic day exploring the area.
When I said I had a thing for old dead trees I should have added old buildings as well, more particularly old abandoned buildings. The stories these places could tell. They have such character and I'm drawn to them for their texture and their sheer will to survive the elements. I found myself in old building heaven today and while I was thrilled to be able to photograph them, I was also quite sad that there were so many. One or two have been selected to be maintained or restored owing to the historical significance of their owners, but many more are gradually deteriorating and will no doubt soon join a large number of other piles of stone that were too once someone's home.
Music fans (in particular Midnight Oil enthusiasts) may remember this one which was featured on their Diesel and Dust album cover and is now locally referred to as the Midnight Oil House.
And there were more, far more than we had the time or light to photograph.
One of the restored properties included the birthplace of explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins. It was quite a drive to get to and we almost lost our way a couple of times, which started the conversation about the isolation of living in this area at the time of his birth (1888) and the harsh life had by those who inhabited these homes.
We then had a rather odd experience, certainly in all my years of driving throughout Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales particularly in small country towns - I can honestly say I've never experienced this ever before. As we pulled into the main street of Terowie, I realised that despite it being almost 2.00pm on a Wednesday, there wasn't one single car in the street. In fact the only person we saw in the entire town was a man who was doing repairs to the roof of the local cafe. Every other storefront looked deserted and for the entire time we were in the town just one other vehicle drove through (a 4wd towing a camper trailer).
The town has a pretty depressing history as we read when we visited the old Railway Station. Even the station which had had a great deal of money spent on it to restore it had once again fallen into disrepair and the grounds overgrown and untidy. It makes you wonder who chooses to live here and what the heck they do to make a living.
With the light fading even further and well into the afternoon we headed back to Burra to check out the local sights including the open cut mine, the Burra Railway Station and the Redruth Gaol which in itself has a fascinating history but was closed by the time we visited.
And finally "home" for Chicken Sausages, Salad, and Home Made Lemon Meringue Pie for dessert.....
167km
Total - 1,079km
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