Day Twenty-Two - Bye-Bye Broken Hill!

Hello to you all! Reporting in from today's landing spot ... Lightning Ridge ... Which My Beloved Geek Boy & I will explore tomorrow, since it was dark by the time we arrived tonight. It's been a big day of driving today ... Over nine hours & we got a bit of a late start ... But it was a really good reason to get on the road late! :0)

Our day started with packing all of our stuff back into Big Blue ready to hit the road, but before we farewelled Broken Hill, we had one more special thing to see ... A former convent ...

Isn't it fantastic! This wasn't a typical tourist attraction, but we were fortunate enough to be shown through it by GB's school friend, as it is currently owned by the Church Of Christ. But let me start at the beginning ...

The convent was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1889. The sisters ran a school & orphanage as well as helping the needy. While the duties carried out by the sisters varied through the decades & their numbers dwindled, they continued to have a presence in Broken Hill until 1979. On October 4, there was a fire in the convent, which caused extensive damage to the top floor, the sleeping quarters. 

You can see the damage to the roof in this photo of a photo on display in the former convent today. The fire was started by a faulty electric blanket & when the building was restored ...

... A little window into the past was preserved ... The scorched floor where the electric blanket started the blaze. The building was purchased by the Church of Christ with the goal of providing crisis accommodation for young people & many original features were preserved during the restoration ...

This stained glass window recently received some more TLC & is stunning with sun streaming through it.

As is this leadlight fan light. Another special feature that has survived the fire & time are a number of fan light stencils ...

Apparently when a heritage adviser was brought in during restoration, they were in fits of rapture over the stencils. Apparently there was only one place in England that made them & it was bombed during World War One, so there are very few examples of their work still around. Here's a couple more ... It almost looks like quilting fabric! :0)

This one has flowers ...

Other original features that have been saved include ...

... Two wall sconces beside a door that would have originally held bowls of holy water that the nuns dipped their fingers in before they went to pray ...

... The alcove that held the alter in the convent chapel ...

... A white marble fireplace mantel & original tiles ...

... And a few others that I went a little nuts photographing, but won't share or my blog ap will have fits over the number of photos I've shared. :0)  Have I mentioned that I LOVE old buildings?! :0) I also liked the knot garden that has been kept at the front of the convent ...

This was taken from the balcony outside the room in which the fire started.

So ... That was why we were late starting off this morning! :0) I'm so grateful we had the chance to look through it.

Now, though, I think it's time to hit the shower & then bed ... GB is already sawing off logs. Tee! Hee! Hee! I wonder what adventures we'll find here in Lightning Ridge tomorrow??! Stay tuned! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Day Twenty-One - More From Broken Hill!

G'day all! I hope you're all having a great week. My Beloved Geek Boy & I are enjoying our last week of holidays ... Even if we're not REALLY ready to go home & be grown ups again.:0) Still ... All good things must come to an end & before they do, we are packing as much into each day as we can. Today was Day Twenty-one of our road trip & we decided to spend it seeing the attractions in Broken Hill itself. First stop ...

... Was the Pro Hart gallery. This was something we've been looking forward to, because GB's Dad was good mates with Pro when they lived in Broken Hill & GB remembers the family visiting Pro's home & seeing his studio. While we couldn't take photos inside, we did get this ...

Two of the many special cars Pro collected ... A Rolls Royce & a Bently. Hmmm ... Somehow GB doesn't look like a match for the vehicles! :0) We enjoyed the gallery & considering Pro is best known for his outback scenes & dragonflies (remember that carpet ad Aussies??) it was interesting to see how many different styles he experimented with & used. We bought a small print to take home with us ... An original Pro Hart painting is a bit out of our price range. :0) 

Next stop was The Big Picture gallery. This was well worth the entry fee & one of the best presented attractions we've seen in our travels. The highlight was the panoramic painting 100m long that represents this region. Well worth a look. The other highlight for me here was that I got to buy some silver jewellery made from Silver City silver by a local artist. The beauty of Broken Hill silver is ... It doesn't tarnish because it isn't mixed with tin, as most silver is. Oh ... & it's PRETTY! :0)

After I finally dragged myself away from the silver jewellery, we took ourselves off to the Geo Centre, or more fully, the Albert Kersten Minerals & Mining Museum, which houses an impressive collection of mineral samples, the biggest silver nugget extracted whole (42kg - larger nuggets have been found but broken up to be extracted) & a very special table decoration ... The Silver Tree.

The building itself was pretty fabulous & inside ...

... Lots of minerals on display ... My geologist sister-in-law would have loved it. :0)

An example of galena, which contains silver, lead & zinc.

GB imagining the holidays we could have if we'd been the ones to find this silver nugget. :0)

The story of the Silver Tree ...

It's a bit tricky to photograph & you can really only appreciate the intricacies of the artistry in person ...

This would have taken a long time to be created. We were just finishing our visit as a school group arrived ... Good timing! :0) As we jumped back in Big Blue, GB noticed the temperature inside the vehicle ...

48 degrees Celsius. Yeah ... A bit warm! :0) The outside temperature was 36 ... & we hot weather people were just fine with that! Tee! Hee! Hee! 

We had intended to visit the rail museum next, but found it closed early due to high temperatures ... Hmmm ... Not sure how they go in summer?! GB says the town has obviously gotten softer since he was growing up! :0P We did squeeze in a visit to the Jack Absolom gallery, too. Jack, along with Pro Hart, Eric Minchin, John Pickup & Hugh Schultz were a group of Broken Hill artists known as "The Brushmen Of The Bush". 

We had also planned to visit the Broken Hill Sculptures as the sun set ... But we sacrificed this experience to spend the time having dinner with an old school friend of GB's. It was a very enjoyable time, so trade off worthwhile. We DID still enjoy a rather spectacular sunset with amazing colours painted across the sky, which seems bigger out here somehow. It's easy to see why so many artists live here or visit regularly. The Australian outback isn't for everyone & it certainly isn't for the faint hearted, but the colours, the contrasts, the vast expanses & big open skies sure do strike a chord for us ... Though I readily confess to enjoying living a bit closer to 'civilisation'. :0) And as we wound our way back to our home base, we passed the local Catholic Church & just had to get a photo ...

Rather impressive, isn't it? I DO love old buildings. :0) 

So ... That was our last day in Broken Hill. There were still a few things we didn't get to tick off our list, but that leaves a few for future adventures, doesn't it? :0) Tomorrow we head off to Lightning Ridge, which will be one of our longer driving days & a big step closer to home. We're really not ready for the adventures to be over, but apparently we have to soon go back to being responsible grown ups ... SIGH! :0) So with an early start on the agenda, I'd best go hit the shower & then the pillow. Tune in again on the same Bat-channel for the next instalment of Roadtripping with Kris & GB. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS,

KRIS

Day Twenty ... The next Bit!

Righto ... I'm back to continue the round up of Day Twenty of our adventures. After emerging from the mine, we jumped back into the Big Blue (actually my knees were jelly after our mine climbing so I crawled into the ute!!) & we headed further down the road to ...

Silverton. Once the busy hub of silver mining in this area, Silverton's population of around 3,000 at its peak has now dropped below 100. This decline occurred after the three main silver mines in the area closed down one by one, & the miners & their families moved to be closer to work opportunities, taking their house with them in many cases. Today the almost ghost town is home to a number of artists & is known as a popular backdrop for filming movies ...the most famous of which is Mad Max 2 ... More about that later.

While most of the town's accommodation moved on with the vacating silver miners or was left to crumble, there are some lovely stone buildings left ...

The Methodist Chapel ...

... The Catholic Church ...

... One of the more colourful buildings, John Dynon, one of the local artists. And the highlight ...

The Mad Max 2 museum. Funnily enough, this is run by an expat Pom. :0) When my brother heard we were visiting Silverton he said we HAD to visit this place. Mad Max is one of the most iconic Aussie movies to come out of the 80's (though the original actually was released in 1979) & I have a confession to make ... I've never seen it! :0) But I enjoyed the museum. So ... Having not seen the movie, these are all just cars, but I'm sure Mad Max fans will enjoy these pics ...

I DO know this is a replica of Max's vehicle. :0)

A buggy ...

... Er ... Another buggy?!

A gyrocopter & ... A white car?! :0P

Somebody having a very bad day. :0) And then being all touristed out for the day, we headed back into town for some refreshment & a walk down memory lane for GB with a visit to Bell's Milk Bar ...

It's a step back in time to the fifties & an old time milk bar like we saw in Happy Days. The list of flavours for milkshakes, spiders & sundaes is amazing & the flavour syrups are made by Bell's. GB remembers having a spider at Bell's after church many Sunday's of his childhood in Broken Hill. Apparently it's changed locations but ...

... They still make a great spider. :0)

And that was our day. I'm now more than ready to go & soak my aching mine-climbing muscles in the claw foot tub before I hit the pillow. I hope you're enjoying traveling with us. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Day Twenty - Silverton

Greetings & salutations from "the original outback" ... which is what is written on all the tourist signs around Broken Hill. GB & I are currently sitting with our feet up after a pretty full day. In fact, I took so many photos that I just know my blog writing ap will spit the dummy, so I'll divide them into two posts ... You may want to grab a cuppa & put your feet up. :0)

So ... Our first stop today was ...

... Daydream Mine. This was one of the earliest silver mines in the area & is about a half hour drive from Broken Hill, including some bumpy dirt road driving. In fact, as we drove in, this was what we saw ...

And we wondered who would look at this vast, open, harsh environment & decide to start digging?! :0) The mine is no longer a working concern ... There's still plenty of silver in that thar ground, but the price of silver is relatively low, so it isn't cost effective to mine. They do, however, offer a tour of the former mining operation ... So off we went. Above ground ...

Some of the machinery used ...

Everywhere there are piles of discarded rock that was brought up from underground in the hunt for silver.

The 'bosun's chair' & one of the buildings involved in the mining process. Then we all donned highly attractive safety helmets & headed down one of the shafts. With roughly cut steps, low sloping ceilings & darkness this was definitely physically challenging for this unfit slug & I felt like I'd done a month's worth of squats by the time we got down & back, as much of the journey was achieved in a semi squat. But I did it. :0) 

Here's a smooth section of tunnel.

And some examples of the tools used to break through the rock to extract the galena (lead, silver & zinc combined) & transport it to the surface.

And do you see the black veins in the rock? That is silver in its 'tarnished' form & the sparkle in the centre of this pic is where some rock has broken away to reveal the shine of silver. And that is what our miners were looking for. :0) 

It was a very interesting insight into how the pioneers of this area made a living ... I certainly wouldn't want to do it! Once we'd emerged into the sun again, it was off to our next stop ... The 'ghost town' of Silverton ... Which will be a separate post to keep the blog ap happy. :0) 

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Day Nineteen - Broken Hill!

Well ... Here we are, on day nineteen of our rambling adventures, having changed states again. Our watches, phones & various other connected devices have jumped back & forth between time zones so often that they just about quality for the Olympic jumping events. :0)

Today we said farewell to the Adelaide Hills, thanked my Aunt & her Sweetie for being gracious hosts for the last week, told Mum & Dad we'd see them in two weeks when THEY get back from road tripping, & turned our noses north east & hit the road bound for Broken Hill. Our GPS took us on a scenic route through some pretty hills & valleys dotted with gorgeous stone buildings. I think people born in South Australia might take these buildings for granted a bit because we seemed to see quite a few left empty & falling down ... It breaks my heart as much as seeing old Queenslanders left abandoned. I've mentioned I LOOOOOVE old character homes, right?! :0) One stone building that hadn't been let go was this one at Tarlee ...

It caught my eye when we stopped to get a coffee at the bakery next door ... Before hitting the road again. Five & a half hours later, we found Broken Hill ... Right where someone left it! Tee! Hee! Hee! Actually, it IS right where my Beloved Geek Boy left it 38 years ago. GB & his family lived in Broken Hill for 11 years & this is his first visit back in over 30 years. We've already had a bit of a drive around town past some landmarks he remembers, but we'll do more of that as we'll be staying for a few days. And this is our home-away-from-home for three days ...

It's a self contained cottage that's right up our alley ... In fact it's very similar to the first house we bought in Bourke, so we're feeling at home. :0) There are three bedrooms for us to spread out into, a comfy lounge with original fireplace ...

Isn't it lovely? And the glass panel in the front door ...

... Features a leadlight panel. 

The kitchen has plenty of space & after a hard day of playing tourist ...

... I can enjoy soaking in a claw foot tub. :0)

But for now ... It's time to go & test out that kitchen to cook some dinner. I'll check in again tomorrow to report on our touristing exploits. :0) 

Before I sign off ... OPAMERS ... It's that time again. It's time to update your sidebar finishes list & email your October tallies through to me or my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg. 

Over & out for today. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS