It is raining and very cold and enough is enough! (End rant) We are now looking for the sunshine and warmth that our home at Palm Cove will give us so no more dilly dallying, we are heading home. Having said that, home is still 3,558 kilometres away and we average around 200km a day so with stops we estimate it will take us around 3-4 weeks. Home in time for Christmas.......maybe.
We drove the 27km to Silverton today along the "39 Dips Road". I kid you not, there are 39 dip signs along this road so it is a bit like riding a roller coaster. We did a bit of a recon around Silverton to get our bearings and decided that we would park the car outside the pub and take a walk around the historic old buildings. But first we drove to the Mundi Mundi Lookout and on to the Umberumberka Reservoir that supplied Broken Hill with some of its water.
The first thing you see on this drive is the Wind Turbines. You know that you are in a windy area when you see these great monsters and believe me, we have seen hundreds of these in the past couple of months. Today, with the big winds, they are really churning out the kilowatts.
Looking the other direction over the Mundi Flats is awesome. It is so very green and really quite lovely. No problem mustering stock here!
Umberuberka Reservoir is a further 4km from the Mundi Mindi Lookout. There is a lot of surface water along this road, a testament to the rain that this area has received in the last week. I would say that rain at this time of the year is a rare occurrence and, as I said in a post a couple of days ago, we have been blessed to see the country so green and lush.
We drove the short distance back into Silverton and once we had parked the car we started our walk around this "almost" ghost town. A lot of the buildings are for show only but the Old Goal is open for a small admission fee and houses the towns local museum. We didn't go inside today as we both agree we have pretty much seen it all at this stage of our journey. I loved walking around the old buildings though, and it is a credit to the community that they have kept this town going. The town has cashed in on the popularity of the Mad Max 11 movie that was filmed in the area, and outside just about every building is a piece of memorabilia from the movie.
When we had finished our walk we headed into the Silverton Pub for some "pub grub". It is a very quirky pub and hanging from the entire ceiling in the bar area are pieces of paper with some really good quotes. you could spend a good half hour reading them all while you were waiting for your meal.
Philip ordered the steak sandwich that he said was excellent and the steak melted in his mouth so it made it easy eating. It is not always easy eating one of these.....
I couldn't go past the Pie, Chips and Gravy that I inherited a love of from my Dad. So this ones for you Dad.....
After lunch and the roller coaster drive back into Broken Hill, we headed straight to the Silver City Mint and Art Centre so that we could have a look at the "Big Picture". This Art Centre is unlike any other and you wind you way through tunnels and archways each depicting a point of interest from the area. One area for the silver mining, another with the aboriginal heritage of the area, and then you reach the silversmithing area where the silversmith churns out some really lovely pieces of jewellery. There is a movie theatre off to one side, but we decide against this and head straight to the round room that houses "The Big Picture".
I am gobsmacked not only by the size but the ability that the artist has of bringing you right into the canvas with his highly realistic style of painting. It is truly remarkable the way he has created this wonderful depth of field that is very hard to achieve. The canvas is held in place by hydraulics pulleys and counter weights. The artist, Peter Andrew Anderson ("Ando") is the brother of the owner of the Art Centre. Between the artwork and the raised viewing rotunda is 300 tonne of red earth, 10 tonne of rock and trees and scrub native to the area. It truly is something that should never be missed if you are in Broken Hill. I had to take eight photos to get the length so you will have to imagine these seven photos side by side. The area that the artist has chosen to paint are The Sculptures, The Pinnacles, Flinders Ranges, Mundi Mundi Plains, Barrier Ranges, White Cliffs, Mutawintji, Menindee Lakes and Broken Hill with the Line of Lode.
Tomorrow we will head to Wilcannia. From all accounts Wilcannia township has a few social problems but the caravan park we are staying at is outside the town. Everyone on WikiCamps raves about the Happy Hour with cheese platters provided by the owners and the meals (Dinner and Breakfast) that you can order and have delivered to your caravan door! No bookings required for this park as it is spread out on a grassy patch over quite a few hectares. I will take photos....
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