We are travelling on the 'Silver Highway' to Wentworth on Holly's 11th birthday. From there we will go across to Renmark and have a couple of nights beside the 'Mighty Murray' again.We stopped for morning tea at what would be classed, the halfway stop between Broken Hill and Mildura. We had good mobile coverage, in fact it has been pretty good all the way down this highway, so we rang Holly and wished her Happy Birthday. This morning we hadn't gone too far down the highway before we saw the sign telling us to change our clocks back to NSW time. Funny how within a 50 kilometre radius of Broken Hill, it is South Australian time.  So while we were about to have morning tea, Holly had just had breakfast! I posted her present at Childers and it still hasn't arrived. It took 2 1/2 weeks for Ella's to get to WA, so I think Holly will probably have to wait a few more days yet!  It must be going by road transport surely, to take that long.They sure don't miss you, when sending mail to the west either.   These are some of my favourite photos of Holly. Holly is our first born granddaughter and we always seem to reflect when it is Holly's birthday.  That was the day we decided to put an offer on our Bluff Point home. Kim rang to tell us the wonderful news while we were with the Real Estate agent looking at other properties around Geraldton.  After that day, we decided we were ready to put an offer to the Willoughby's.We have a really strong head wind today and we can't really remember having such a wind in all our travels. Maybe once from Cloncurry to Longreach. It was 37 degrees yesterday in Broken Hill.  This morning it was freezing!   The guy on the radio has just said it is still only 12 degrees at 10.30am!The morning tea rest area named 'Popiltah Lake', had an abundance of very friendly birds. Pete became the 'Pied Piper' with all his little mates. They enjoyed a few almonds from the car, but then they are normally not fussy when it comes to someone giving them a 'tit bit'! The countryside is not that interesting really. Bit the same as the countryside on the 'Barrier Highway'.  This is 'Outback NSW'!  It was very flat after leaving Broken Hill and there was lots of saltbush. Made me think of all the saltbush plants that have been painted into the Broken Hill 'Big Picture'. We haven't seen too much stock though. Only goats every so often and the occasional sheep.  They are in drought here too.  There are patches of wooded country every so often, and then it changes back to dry saltbush again. We came into cropping country about 40 kms from Wentworth. In Pete's words "They're pretty ordinary! Seen plenty of crops like them during my farming days". Then as we got close to the Darling River, about 12 kms from Wentworth, there were grapes being grown.  We stopped in a park beside the Darling for lunch and then continued the last 150kms to Renmark.  We are staying at the same Big4 park and we are back in a front row, overlooking the 'Murray River' for a couple of nights.  The weather is a bit ordinary, but it is a magical place whatever the weather.  We will enjoy a couple of nights here.  We have been in three of the Australian States today. Once again we've cooked up the fruit and veges or disposed of them, so we had done the right thing when we crossed into SA.  Then when you get here, you have to go shopping again!

This blog is really for you Holly.  Happy, happy birthday.  Hope you have had a great day and I look forward to us doing some digital scapbooking together when we get home.  Hope you are sorting your photos.  We miss you all and will be home soon.  xxxx  14 photos