Day 9 – 16th April

Gee nature is not doing her part, the sunrise was terrible, there was heavy cloud right on the horizon. It was getting later and later and we were wondering where the sun was when it finally appeared above the clouds but there was no colour as it was too far up.

We arrived in at the Hill just before lunch; we went for a walk down the main street of BH. It is said in the tourist info that BH is like a living museum. You can see why with so many old buildings, there is a lot of history in the place. As you walk around there are the signs that show pictures and some historic information about that particular spot.

We called into the Silver City Mint and Art Centre; it was much bigger inside that in looked at the front. The reason Chris was drawn to the place was it had a sigh out the front about a chocolate factory, which was only a very small part of the place. It had lots of art work from the local artist; some were good some were not. There was also a display of floral work from apparently the best floral painter in Australia. There was also animals, like possums, emus, kangaroos, lizards, frogs etc all made out of a sheet of tin that looked like they have been cut out with an oxy welder or small gas cutter, there was also one that had a farm house, emu and windmill in it, I like this one the best. This place is also the home of “The Big Picture” the world’s largest acrylic painting on canvas, 12m x 100m. You had to pay to get in to see that so we didn’t see it. There was more than enough other art to satisfy the arty people. It is well worth dropping in for a look.

All the streets in BH hill are mining type of names. The gutters are very big; it seems when it rains it really rains.

Sculpture Symposium

We called into the info centre to get a key for the Sculptures, we got the last one, we think they hand out 15. We checked with them that there was room to turn the van around at the top, which there was but they were wondering about parking, so we have come up here early to make sure we get a park, of which there is plenty of. We have seen cars come and go so we aren’t really sure how many will be here for the sunset, they also do bus tours up here for sunset. It’s all very interesting but a bit too in depth with the meanings they are trying to display for me. I like some better than others.

Horse head The-Bride Through the Eye Under the Jaguar Sun

Boy every tourist in BH was up at the sculptures for the sunset, they had heard it was a good place to have a picnic and watch the sun set. Not only the people that drove but there were also many who had walked up. There were people everywhere and it was impossible to get shots without people in them. And forget trying to get the sun behind a sculpture everyone was on the other side of the watching the sun go down. But it was still an amazing experience and one that was a pleasure to share with other travellers. We had lovely chats with many of them.
Sunset at Sculptures

Where are we camped? Umm don’t know, well I sort of do, somewhere between the sculpture turn off and BH more towards the sculptures. It’s not a designated camp area; it’s just well off the road in the desert somewhere. We did spy a spot on our way this arvo and we tried to find it in the pitch black. I was holding the big spot light out the window as we were driving along trying to find it. We ended up stopping nearly opposite the sculpture turn off in an area the bike riders use but we will be gone well before anyone else turns up. It is quite cold outside and as mentioned pitch black.