Today, Monday, we had a somewhat sad start to the day because we learnt of the passing of my cycling friend, Irene. She had battled cancer since 2004 and was well enough to ride in the NSW Big Bike Ride in 2007 with a group of us. Just recently, Prue completed a painting for her which she had chosen. Our thoughts are with her family.

We continued on the short distance into Broken Hill, noticing the changes in landscape. At one stage it was completely void of vegetation and flat for as far as the eye could see, then in the distance a glimpse of a broken horizon with a few hills. It didn’t take long to reach Broken Hill as we had to only travel about 100 odd kms. We had to dispose of the remaining lemons about 10 kms out because of the quarantine restrictions.

Our friends Kelvin and Vennetia greeted us and we joined them for morning tea before setting up the Karavan in their back yard. After lunch they look us around to their artist friend Howard William Steer, who lives not far from them. His art is humorous and colourful with a wide range of Flying Doctor artwork - suggest you look at his web site www.howardsteerart.com.au Prue watched him at work and he gave her some tips, he works very quickly using acrylics.

After having a coffee in the centre of town we drove up to Line of Lode Miners Memorial which overlooks the city. From there we were taken for a tour around the city before ending up at Jack Absalom’s Art Gallery. We got to meet him briefly before he closed up for the day. His web is www.jackabsalom.com.au

The day ended with a nice family dinner, a good chat and lots of laughs then watched a promotional DVD “Big Red”. It outlined items to visit around the Broken Hill area. So then off to bed at a reasonable hour.