It was time to start making our way home so our next stop was to go east to White Cliffs. We were back on the Silver City Highway for the first 100 or kms which is tar and then we had 135 kms on dirt.
The road was through private property so we passed a few sheep and cattle stations on the way.
I love how the colours of the road change along the dirt roads.
The last 30km of the road was probably the roughest we hit on our trip, corrugated and full of pot holes filled with bull dust.
White Cliffs is another opal mining town but much smaller and not as touristy as Coober Pedy. Just like Coober Pedy many of the houses were built into the side of a hill and some were underground because of the high temperatures in summer. The name White Cliffs comes from the white colour of the hills. Coincidentally, White Cliffs is famous for its white opals.
We arrived in White Cliffs at lunchtime so went to the pub for lunch.
After lunch we went for a drive around town. It had some interesting sights.
White Cliffs is famous not only for opals but having Australia’s first Solar Power Station installed 1981. It was chosen because it is the most isolated town in NSW. The solar technology used is very different to the panels of today, it uses thousands of mirrors to focus the sun onto a central point that boils water to power a steam engine. Very cool.
There were a couple of tours you could do but they weren’t running which was fine because we just had the one night.
We left early the next morning and headed back out to the Barrier Highway to continue east. We drove out along The Opal Miners Way and we had to keep a good eye out because of the number of animals along the road. A kangaroo on the side of the road decided to jump across in front of us and there were also sheep on the road that eventually moved on.
We weren’t sure where we were going to stop. We pulled into Wilcania for coffee but there was not much there. I thought it was a bigger town.
We ended up going onto Cobar and stopped there for the night.
Cobar has been a mining town for 100 years. When copper was discovered in 1871 it became known as ‘Copper City’. Cobar is also known for its gold mining. The new Occidental Gold mine is said to be the most productive gold mines in NSW. The town also known for its early colonial buildings that have been well preserved. The police station is very impressive.
After setting up we walked over to the bowlo for lunch and for the races. We just made lunch. It was a Chinese Restaurant and it was very good not like our last experience in Port Fairy. we stayed for a little while but decided to go back based on the wine list.
We were in a line of vans parked in drive through spots. Almost every car was a Land Cruiser.
Cobar was a nice town and a great place to stock up on supplies again ready for 3 nights in Warrumbungle National Park.