Magnetic Hill

I realised this trip that tourist info staff are knowledgeable about their local areas - but not always in tune with what might really appeal to us.

We'd been given lots of detail about Peterborough's rail history and I'd also picked up a brochure of the local area.  

As we were packing up, I glanced at the top 30 things to do list - and saw a short reference to Magnetic Hill!  Hah!  We'd had so much fun playing with the gravitational anomaly near Hanging Rock in Victoria with Elmer the Blue that we made a point of detouring after check-out to see South Australia's version.  And we laughed a lot as we tested Elmer the Gold - rolling uphill!

I've now re-discovered this list and reckon we'll need to make a trip to Mount Cotton once we're home again.

Peterborough Motel

The Peterborough Motel office was unattended, so we rang the mobile number on the gate and checked-in via telephone call with the manager. 

He invited us to pick grapes from the 95-year-old vine.  Had he been on site, we'd have been welcome to sample fruit from a backyard orchard. 

After unpacking we walked about 200 metres to a very well-stocked Foodlands store for basic groceries and then were happy to relax in our pleasant room (with small teapot).  Nick played guitar and I wrote on my journal cards.

We'd made a family-sized batch of creamy bacon and mushroom pasta the previous night in Broken Hill and ate that while playing Scrabble (and sipping bubbles).

I spotted this excellent trophy in a Dalby op-shop for the marvelous bargain price of $1.00 and decided it could be our Super Scrabble cup. The Big Loop road-trip was its first outing and I was very chuffed to pose with it in Peterborough! (Nick put down a 7-seven word on his first turn and I was behind by a significant margin throughout the game but came good in the final few minutes - to win by 8 points).

Peterborough

Peterborough is a key town in Australian rail history. It was the junction of three railway gauges - as state governments couldn't agree on a standardised guage.  

The town became an important rail link between the mines at Broken Hill and the processing plant at Port Pirie. Hard to believe now that at one time over one hundred trains a day passed through the township.

We had a quick stop at the Greg Duggan lookout before our Sunday roast lunch at one pubs in town.

The town's main tourist attraction (and info centre) is Steamtown.  We spent some time there and really enjoyed looking through the historic sleeper carriage.

On the way out we picked up some brochures for the local area and Adelaide. Although there was another free train site we could visit, we decided it was time to check into our motel and take a break.