We headed to Broken Hill on the Silver City highway. About six kilometres from town, we turned off to look at the Peeri Sands. This collection of sand dunes are brilliant colours, reds and browns. This is a few hectares of dunes in the middle of nowhere.

Almost no traffic was heading our way as we  headed back on the highway and quickly entered real outback country, long straight roads and nothing but scrub. We stopped for a pee at a rest area at Papitah Lake. The lake had water in it, unusual for here and a large dry mud flat in front of it.  A flat shoreline with a light covering of bush, there’s the semblance of a 4wd track around it. It is maybe a good spot in the future to capture some pictures of the local bird life.

We crossed the road and wandered a few yards into the desert.. A hundred yards from the road way there was still broken glass and rubbish. We saw a few “Big Reds”  (Kangaroos) as we climbed a ridge, they must have smelt us and hopped away as we came into sight. I was warm but not super hot and probably around 28 degrees.

Our trip to Broken Hill, was interrupted a few times to take photos of the fantastic straight lines of pylons heading off into the distance over red sands.

The Silverton Pub

Approaching Broken Hill the first things you see is the tailings and mine heads, as you drive in the cool green streets that are at the gateway to this mining town. We stayed at the Lake View Motel, which is an optimistic name for very well organised camp grounds. In the normal course of things this style of campgrounds would not be our choice but we could’t find anywhere different in the short period of time we had.

After tent erecting we went to Silverton, an early, mining town some 26 kilometres from Broken Hill. The most notable feature of this town is, it is home to the most westerly pub in New South Wales. The pub has been the location for numerous beer advertisements, and movies such as, Mad Max II, A Town like Alice, and Razor Back. It is a very photo generic town because of it’s rustic out back look and it’s closeness to a small New South Welsh town

Old stone houses in various states of repair make up this town of Silverton, that has become the home of a number of artists and has five or six galleries in it.

We sat in the beer garden and had a drink, and watched the comings and goings of the locals, it was amusing.

We drove up to an old house, it was getting late in the day, it was around 5pm. Ali took photo’s of the place in various lights.

Old Dwelling in Silverton

The town was magic, there is a walking trail around it but we never did walk it, maybe next time.

There is a motor camp which is a local domain in Silverton, when we were there the camp sites were reasonably cheap at $5 a night. The camp sites were rough desert but the desert is pretty anyway. This camp ground is worth remembering, there is plenty to do and see in Silverton, it warrants at least half a day.

We drove to the end of the seal and looked at it’s reservoir which is a nice oasis in all of this red desert. The view from the top of the hill beyond Silverton over the Mundi Mundi plains at dusk was spectacular. Al took lots of photos here.