Still sharing some armchair travels of our 2017 Outback adventure trip with Photography friends, we had such amazing weather, witnessed amazing scenery and had loads of fun with many friends…
Broken Hill – Silverton – Mundi Mundi Plains, 24 kms
We allowed ourselves the luxury of a sleep in this morning, as we had a free morning to ourselves, we did however miss a fabulous sunrise. We went to Bells Cafe for morning tea, it’s a retro 1960s cafe filled to the brim with retro goodies and decor. I got a lactose free Cherry Ripe Milkshake……yummo!
We then headed back out to the Line of the Load memorial for some more photos.
Next was the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a vital medical service which covers a majority of outback Australia, for which without, there would be no clinics or emergency services. We did a tour of the facilities and had everything explained from changes in the last few decades due to technology and how operations work. We even saw the hangar where they house the air-planes.
We then wandered around Town for a bit, looking at some of the historic buildings, had some lunch at Thyme Cafe (delicious) and then met the others to head off to Day Dream Mine. Some ventured on the underground mine tour, I had read it was quite rigorous so I stayed above ground. There is the remains of the old township and smelter, but it is quite dangerous and had to stay on the dirt road….the ground still has many open mine shafts which you could fall into, as well as some of the slag heaps still contain cyanide, arsenic and lead and disturbing them is ill-advised! The ones who did the mine tour all complained how stiff & sore they were from the cramped and difficult conditions they endured down there, for days! So glad I stayed up top. On and no I did not try the fresh scones 🙂
After carefully exploring the area we headed off again to Silverton. This area was used to shoot several Mad Max films, although they had to shoot the last one in Mongolia or something as the area broke out in a sudden case of Spring after some rains and wild flowers dotted the landscape………so very un Mad Max lol.
We wandered around this now ghost town, but as we arrived quite late we could not visit the many galleries dotted around the small town, nor the Mad Max Museum. We did photograph many of the abandoned houses and buildings, we met donkeys and horses, goats and some kangaroos. We then drove out to Mundi Mundi Plains for the most stunning sunset overlooking what could have been the edge of the world. So flat and barren and untamed, not a soul in sight except for ourselves.
We drove back (carefully dodging kangaroos, horses and donkeys) back to Silverton Pub for a lovely dinner, with loads of stories and laughs.
After dinner we went back out to one of the abandoned houses for some light painting in the ruins. No flaming steel wool tonight, too dangerous. True there is not alot left to burn down, but I am sure any damage would not be appreciated.
Some of us were so tired and still had the drive back to Broken Hill in the dark, so we didn’t play all night, even if I wanted to, I had some new ideas I had wanted to try. Oh well, can’t be greedy! Eventually made it back to the hotel safe and sound and that is where I will leave day 5…
~ Julz
Julie Powell - Photographer & Graphic Artist 