Our night spot was quieter than we thought it would be, might be the main rd into Broken Hill but it’s a quiet road.
The first 100km into BH is so flat and only little bushes for vegetation. We saw a Wedge Tail eagle twice, both times very close to the road eating road kill. One flew off only a meter above the ground. Also saw some more emus. Now the full on driving is done the cameras will come out and be handy to grab. The last 20km into BH was hillier. As you come into town you pass Junction Mine. Also old miner’s cottages line the street as you enter the main area very tiny and all very close together.
The town itself it build right next to a mine, as you drive down the main street and look up side streets you look up them to see these great mounds of dirt quite strange. The rest of the shops are in the other direction.
We called into the info centre which was very busy and didn’t have a lot. Found out what we wanted to know and left. We got gas, not too badly priced here 68.9 cents. We then found the local Woolworths and got our fruit and veggies as you are not allowed to bring them into the area as it is a fruit fly zone. BH and areas are on South Australia’s time 30min behind us.
After filling the fridge we headed out to Silverton home of Mad Max 2 and a number of other movies and TV adds. We are staying at Penrose Park the only place you can stay, it’s on 65 acres of mostly dust and trees bit like a decent size road side stop. There are 4 toilet blocks and 1 shower block, you can spread out and choose where you want to camp. We are too far away from the amenities so will use our own at $9 each it’s a bit steep for what you get but we have little choice, we are booked in for 2 nights. It was established in 1937 as a recreation area for the region miners and their families.
We have had a drive around Silverton, very strange town, things are very spread apart. The buildings are mostly made of stone with a lot of history; several of them have been turned into art galleries. We called into the Peter Brown Gallery, the one with the V Dub beetle cars, all painted up with emus. His limited prints were very unique but expensive at $195 framed. We didn’t realise at first they charge you a gold coin to enter, we had a quick look and left while she was serving someone, else. The next gallery we went to go in had a big milk urn at the front door saying the same thing. We thought this was a bit much, shops don’t charge you to enter so they can sell you something. So we didn’t go in and didn’t bother with any more art galleries.
We stopped at the Silverton Hotel with a replica of the Mad Max 2 car out the front, as Chris said it’s an old bomb. The hotel was interesting with lots of photos of cast of movie crews and actors also of any actor that has ever visited the place. Of course lots of pics of Mad Max 2 and Mel Gibson.
About 5.30pm our time we went back into Silverton, the clouds were looking good for a great sunset. First we dropped in at a coin carver place where the guy carved out the back of coins only leaving the emblems, takes about 3 to 4 hours work really nice but very expensive at $175. We then took some pics of the Methodist church that was originally a Presbyterian church but the Methodist had a greater following and when the Methodist church blew down in a storm the Presbyterian Church sold them theirs. It was a really nice building. We then went back to the beetle gallery place and took some shots there, all this before the sun set, when the sun did set the sky was pretty good. The lighting on the buildings was great giving much better light than earlier in the day.
