White Cliffs (Christmas Day)

We arrived at around 12pm as the woman we spoke to prior to arriving, agreed to let us check in early (12.30pm) as we'd booked Christmas Day lunch at the local pub. We sat and waited and waited in the 38°C heat. Thank goodness there was an undercover area outside reception. I was excited to see a pool as I hadn't had a swim since being out here in the unbearable heat but it was not to be...nothing but dirt in the bottom 😢. Two other patrons arrived (ladies from Broken Hill) and were devastated about the pool as they'd made the booking on the premise there was a usable pool - as per the website. They stayed outside huffing and puffing while I found an open door, so I let myself in to have a wander around (see video). It was awesome...quite dated and not entirely clean but awesome. I thought it was an old mine that had been repurposed but it was actually purpose built by a family then extended...sold and extended again until it became a 33 room underground hotel. The lady ended up turning up an hour later (with her two kids in tow) profusely apologising. All good, it was Christmas Day. She had only been working there for 3 days and the Manager had left her to run the place on her own till he returned on the 27th. Poor thing. We quickly threw our bags in our dugout (room) and headed down to the pub for lunch. Kim, from Broken Hill was driving so we bummed a lift. The pub was lovely...alot nicer than I expected. Recently renovated I suspect. Again, the Manager- Peter had only been there 3 weeks (he was from Newcastle also). The other attendees were a mix of locals and tourists...about 18 in total including us. The 3 course lunch was good and we went home with food babies in our bellies. Time for a nanna nap! Didn't do much for the rest of the night...had a few more drinks, face-timed the girls & Mum then watched a movie - Don't Look Up...new Leonardo movie on Netflix, a satire...a little funny in places...not great though. 5/10. Big day.
Breaky and a coffee before heading out to Mutawindji NP for the next 3 days. Bummed there were no opal shops open before we left as I wanted to buy some opals.Read more