Escape From Broken Hill

There are three caravan parks in Broken Hill.

1. Lake View caravan Park – This had terrible reviews. We drove in, drove around and promptly drove back out again. You’d have to be desperate to stay there.
2. Broken Hill Tourist Park – This one was right in the middle of town. It had great reviews, though all were about the amenities block. We drove in, had a look around and thought hmm, not bad, but we’ll check out the last one.
3. Broken Hill Outback Resort – 16 kms out of town but with great reviews, grassy sites, a wide view, and a pub. We had a winner.

It has to be said that Broken Hill Outback Resort is a bit of a misnomer. They probably should stick to Broken Hill Caravan Park. A Row of Cabins, three rows for caravans, a section for camper trailers, tents, and a pub, doth not a Resort make.

Saying that, it is by far the most pleasant park in Broken Hill and the staff were super friendly.

Another thing we have learned the hard way is that just because a park states that there is Wi-fi, and phone reception, and offers free connection, don’t expect to be able to use it. Not unless you go over to the far end of the park, stand on the top right corner of the dump point, wave you phone in a south-easterly direction while holding your left leg up and out in a northerly direction.

This lack of usable internet at the BHOR was the reason that we eventually moved into town to stay at the tourist park. There we got good internet, TV (I’m ashamed to say it, but I’ve become addicted to Diagnosis Murder) and they had a shiny new amenities block. I can see why it got so many good reviews.

To date, I have tried to avoid any mention of Covid-19. We know it’s there. We know it’s causing untold problems, but we are trying to live life as normal as possible, so for the most part, we simply ignore it. But that all ended here at Broken Hill.

We couldn’t get booked in for our vaccination before we left home, and it was always our plan to do this at Broken Hill, just because it’s the biggest town we expected to pass through after leaving home on May 1^st.

So, we arrived at the Tourist Park on a Thursday. Peter went for his Astra Zeneca vaccine on the Friday, all good, but when we got back to the park it was like a scene from a movie. People were literally running around packing up, the park was already half empty and our neighbour, Bill, came over, looking very worried. He quickly brought us up to date.

He leaned in close and said,

“The wife said I had to come and tell you what’s going on. You see, we were talking to the girl in the office here and she said she saw a group of official looking people marking out the footy field this morning. They didn’t look like footballers, so she called her son who’s in the local team. He was having a beer with his mate Tom who works at the local sewerage plant. Apparently, Tom’s boss had called him to say that they had found Covid at the plant.”

Bill paused and took a deep breath, then continued. “Anyway, Tom called his girlfriend, Jenny I think, who works for the Royal Flying Doctors and she said they were marking out the footy field to set up for Covid testing.” Bill paused again and looked conspiratorially over his shoulder. “Jenny called her dad ‘cause he’s a doctor in the hospital here and he said they had a positive test result.” Another look over his shoulder before he said, “They’re going to lock down Broken Hill.”

From the van next door Bill’s wife called out,

“Hurry up Bill, we don’t have time to chatter we have to leave now!”

Bill turned to us decisively and said, “I haven’t got time to chatter, we’re leaving…now!”

And they did. Within minutes they were driving out!

We decided not to rely on Bill’s detailed report, but rather we’d wait for the official story, and then make our decision. I had to be in town on Monday for my Pfizer vaccination but other than that, there was nothing to keep us here.

It was three pm on Saturday when we heard the announcement that there was to be a State-wide lock down beginning at five pm that day. Bugger, Bill was right.

We had no desire to be locked down in a caravan park in Broken Hill and we immediately went into escape mode. First stop supplies. OMG! It was crazy.  Every checkout was open, and every checkout had a queue from the checkout to the very back of the store, and this wasn’t a small store. I’m pleased to report that even through this craziness, everyone was in good spirits. There was no shoving and no aggression. In fact, most people seemed to find it amusing.

Anyway, after we got what we needed we joined an epic queue, it was three-forty. Fifteen minutes later, it was clear we were going to be here for a very long time. We decided that I would stay in the queue while Peter went to the caravan park to get us ready to leave.

By the time I got through the checkout, Peter had driven home, packed and prepped the van, hooked up and driven back to Coles. I had only been waiting for him for about three minutes. We threw the groceries into the car, found a servo, fuelled up, and made our way out of Dodge. It was four fifty-two pm. Eight minutes before the lockdown.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!