Saturday, July 24th to Monday, July 26th 1999

Saturday began in a leisurely fashion with a walk and then a morning cup of coffee with my friends from Wilcannia caravan park. The day's activity consisted of a ramble along Argent Street into the town centre taking the odd photograph on the way. Then we (Tara and I) followed the Heritage Walk through the town and back down Blende Street.

A short stop for lunch, soup and toast, and a chat with some friendly children who were taken with Tara, then off again, following Blende Street back to the Caravan Park. I suppose this was about 6 or 7 kms, but taken pretty slowly so that I didn't notice really.

The Barrier Truth	The Pasminco Mine	The Broken Hill Town Hall

Sunday was to be a day of exploration. First off to Silverton. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and a cool breeze, which meant that walking around Silverton was a pleasure. Tara could even have a bit of a run.

Silverton is a ghost town according to the adverts, but in fact a few people live there and it has become a sort of artist's community. Some very interesting old buildings and a wide scrubby landscape which made it seem "typical" of the outback. No grass, just red dirt and grey scrubby stuff - I find myself longing for a patch of green, so it must have been frightful for those early settlers, miles from anywhere and suffering life in a mining community.

I visited the gaol museum, which was quite interesting, lots of photos of groups of self important men in various guises, but also some household articles as well as the gaol buildings themselves.

Silverton	A Silverton Street	The Daydream Mine

After the ghost town a "ghost mine". I went out to the old Daydream mine and took a tour. It was in a very isolated spot, though apparently 500 people had lived there at the height of the mine's production (silver).

The tour was an underground adventure lead by an interesting young man whose Australian accent was a thick as I've ever heard. The group of about ten were decked out in helmets and miner's lamps and down we went under the rock. It was a bit of a scramble in spots and sometimes I needed to duck my head. Our guide pointed out side passages going hundreds of feet underground. At one point we put out our lamps and just had the light of a single candle - all the miners would have had - and they worked down there all day. Then he put out the candle and it was blacker than the darkest imaginable room. It was a most interesting experience.

After treating myself to coffee and scones I drove back to Broken Hill then out to the living desert sculpture site. This was very impressive - grand pieces of rock with evolving expressions of the individual artists. It was an interesting walk up to the site too - just disappointing that Tara had to stay in the car.

She was very keen for a walk by the time we got back to the caravan park so I just plugged in the power and went straight out again. There seems to be nowhere to take her to play, so we explored a few different streets. Some homes where people obviously take a pride - but hardly any green. A couple of locals who I have spoken with say they would not live anywhere else, but just feels hard to me.

Monday I left Broken Hill for Wentworth after walking Tara and stocking up the larder. An interesting week of travel.