Thursday, December 1, 2011

Honey, I Shrunk The Kids!

Large Park Bench, Broken Hill



Line of Load Miners Memorial

Thank you for all your encouraging comments on my last post. I'm still trying to figure out how to document our travels without boring you all to tears with the "and then we did this...and then we did that" type of commentary. More photos, less waffle perhaps? I'll probably mix it up with my regular kind of posts.

Anyway, what a great time we are having in Broken Hill! The Silver City. How could you not love a town that has an oversized Park Bench just for fun?

Once again I'm finding these new experiences are exceeding expectations so either my expectations are too low to begin with or I'm easily pleased. And The Pianoman assures me it's not the latter. 

Enthusiasm is still high so we drove straight through to Broken Hill from Nyngen yesterday. We were driving against strong winds which hastened fuel consumption but didn't pose a problem towing our Matilda Van.

We stopped quickly at Willcania to make some sandwiches for lunch but in the 39 degree heat the sandwiches quickly turned into toasted sandwiches. This would have been fine if they were ham and cheese but toasted wilted lettuce and soggy cucumber is far from appetising. Clearly we will need to modify our menu to suit the hot weather.

We made it to a great caravan park which didn't charge us for the kids again (love the friendly outback folk!) and it also had a pool so we wasted no time diving in to cool off.

Today I spent some time with Miss Fancy browsing the multitude of art galleries and op shopping while the boys amused themselves at the park and rail museum. We all headed up to the Broken Hill lookout which offers a fantastic view over the city and beyond and the kids collected rocks and mucked about on the old mining machinery.

Finally back to our spot for a BBQ and swim before heading out to the Living Desert to view the Sculpture Symposium. The Symposium features 12 Sandstone Artworks by Artists from around the globe and it was well worth keeping the kids up late to view them at sunset. What makes it even more special is the remote location of the sculptures and the fact you have a 360 degree view of, basically, nothing but the vast outback! The sunset was spectacular and the colours were absolutely breathtaking as you can see.

"Under the Jaguar Sun" by Antonio Nava Tirado, Mexico


"Motherhood" by Badri Salushi - Tbilisi, Georgia

"Horse" by Jumber Jikiya - Rustiva, Georgia

Spectacular Scenery


The next time we see the sun it will be Summer for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere!

8 comments :

  1. What an amazing place! But oh, that heat! How do you cope?

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  2. glad to hear you all are having fun. we are all missing you guys. both big and little pig have asked to come and play at blue eye's place.

    the girls have settled in and we are getting lovely eggs already.

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  3. Ahhh the memories! I LOVE the sculpture at sunset. We had our wedding photos taken up there!

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  4. Hi Annie, we were in the air conditioned car for much of the day driving so it wasn't too bad. It has been 24 to 26 degrees the last couple of days which was much more my style. I'm hoping we gradually get used to the heat as it WILL be that hot up north. And humid unlike the dry that here.

    Andy, so glad the chooks are behaving themselves and being productive. Tell the boys you are saving up to come and visit us in Hobart, hint hint :-)

    Sophie, what an amazing place to have your wedding photos done! I could have sat there for hours but sadly they closed the gates at 8.30.

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  5. How fabulous! So jealous of your adventures.

    PS: Your Weekend Rewind link is broken. :-)

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  6. That bench is so fab!!

    Back in your old town, it may be Summer but I'm wearing a coat... x

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  7. I loved that over-sized Park bench - you are reminding me to go back and look at my zillions of photos.

    The Living Desert sculptures were awe inspiring, I love what you captured.

    Enjoy ...It was a rare caravan park that didn't charge for our 5yr twins, sometimes they only charged for one but it adds up in some parks - one park in WA was $12 a child but it had a lot of children's facilities.
    We did a lot of free camping or cheap - do you have the Free Camps Australia book ?

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  8. Mel & Daniel! The blog id great! You look like you are having an amazing adventure. Keep us updated and travel safe!
    Twyla

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