Farewell to a stowaway, our Jucy home and Australia

Broken Hill is in New South Wales but operates on South Australia time.  All these time zones have been confusing - Victoria is different to South Australia (half an hour ahead) which was different to Northern Territory at the start. 3 weeks into our campervan journey daylight saving ended (northern territory don't have daylight saving) so we came on to the same zone as South Australia.  If you're confused, so were we.  We are sure that we're now operating on the correct time!
Broken Hill came about due to silver being discovered, so we did a tour down an old silver mine which had been operating until 1983.  We had to go down complete with hard hats, battery packs and lights.  It was all very interesting - very dark when we all had to turn our lights out!

We also went to Silverton just outside Broken Hill which is famous for various movies, mainly Mad Max.  It was a bit like a Wild West ghost town!
We went to a Desert Park with various stone sculptures but to be honest we found it very contrived and would far rather see natural rock formations while out walking.
The other memorable thing about Broken Hill was the birds on the campsite.  At dusk each evening hundreds of cockatoos came to roost in the trees at the site.  Some were seen to be doing somersaults around the power lines - very amusing!  The problem was, because of the lights on the site the birds didn't really quieten down all night - thank goodness for earplugs!
From Broken Hill we headed back to Melbourne via the Murray River (evidence of a lot of flooding) - via Mildura, Swan Hill and Seymour.  Nothing sensational on the way except that the weather turned and we got wet and cold!  We called in to Lake Boga on the way which has a Catalina flying boat museum.  It was the repair depot for the flying boats during the war.
Other than that nothing exciting except on the penultimate night a mouse found its way in to our van and kept us 'company' for the final 2 nights - we were only aware of it in the quiet of the night when it was scratching around and apparently doing somersaults.  At one stage it ran over Jon's arm!
We handed our Jucy home back to the Melbourne depot on 12 April, complete with stowaway!  (We were good enough to tell them about it to save the next hiree from getting a surprise!)
And so back to the same hostel in Melbourne we'd stayed in at the beginning.  Still just as scungy but at least we had our own room.  It also gives free breakfasts (cereal and toast), is very close to the campervan depot and gives seriously discounted evening meals and drinks for 'inmates'.
Yesterday, 13 April, we took ourselves in to see the sights of Melbourne.  Went in on the tram and then toured around on a free tourist bus and a free tourist tram.  We went up the Eureka Sky Tower which has the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere.  It also has 'the Edge' - a glass box that extends out over nothing, 88 floors up.  We didn't pay for that privilege of having our 'collies' seriously 'wobbled'!  The view was OK but would have been far better without the belts of rain that kept moving in.  However we had good views of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Rod Laver Arena (and the rest of the venue for the Australian tennis open) and Lake Albert (home of the Melbourne Grand Prix)
However, we have now checked out and once this update is completed we will be heading in to Melbourne on the tram to get the airport shuttle bus.  Our flight to Singapore is at 3.45pm this afternoon.  We are staying with Carol's friend, Lizzie Phillips (from the University of Southampton) and looking forward to the next (and final) major leg of our Big Adventure.
So, from Australia, farewell.  We'll update from Asia as and when we get the opportunity.