Four days after leaving Sydney, we reached one of the goals of our trip. The town of Broken Hill was actually the destination. And that was the only "definite" point of our entire trip. We just insisted on getting here. It's only been a few days of our two-week vacation and we still didn't know where we wanted to go.
But we were already in such a "trip mode" that the plans didn't matter. We wanted to be here and now.
That is why we decided to use what we had around us.
And there's a desert around us.
Australian outback.
The scorching sun. Dust.
Absolute silence.
After replenishing supplies at the local supermarket, we headed towards Kinchega National Park, as there was a complex of nine quite large lakes marked on the map. The weather forecast indicated a wave of bitter heat coming our way straight from the Simpson Desert. This front of red-hot air would last for several days over Broken Hill, bringing temperatures over 40 degrees.
You will think: "40 degrees? Phi, I was in an all inclusive hotel in Turkey, when it was 42 degrees and it was bearable!"
Only this temperature at the seaside or in the mountains is completely different than the heat on the sun-scorched earth.
In such circumstances of nature, the option of stopping over any water seemed to be the only correct concept.
Did it surprise me to see huge lakes in the center of the outback on the map?
Well, I must admit not. Considering how huge a country Australia is, I assumed with 100% certainty that if someone has marked these great lakes on a paper map, they know what they are doing, right?
We were really lucky. It turned out that these lakes appeared this season for the first time in three years.
But maybe I can explain what the Lakes of Menindee really are.
The Menindee Lakes are a naturally occurring series of shallow wetlands along Lower Darling. They are located in southwestern New South Wales on the Darling River, about 200 km upstream from the Darling River's junction with the Murray River. The town of Menindee is located close to lakes, and the nearest, larger town is Broken Hill (approx. 80 km).
There are 4 main lakes in the system: Lake Wetherell, Lake Pamamaroo, Lake Menindee (the largest) and Lake Cawndilla.
The lakes were originally a series of natural depressions that filled up with floods. It wasn't until the 1950s and 1960s that they were modified to provide water storage for Broken Hill.
Oh, bliss. After a few days of traveling and sleeping in the car, bathing in whatever liquid felt like a luxury.
We got there late in the evening on December 30th. Along the coast there were already parked several huge caravans, tents and big bogan's trucks.
Several dozen minutes we went around to choose the perfect place for the next few days. Not too close to people, not too far from sanitary facilities (we're talking about a modest compost outhouse - but a brick one - so it's already a success), in the shade of trees and a short distance from the shore
After quickly setting up the camp, we start a bonfire. Campfire? At 35 degrees at night?!
Oh yes. First, it's a light source. There are no contacts here, electricity must be saved. The battery in the car too. Secondly, a sausage from the fire is always on props. And third, smoke protects against insects. The amount of flying and biting creatures in the outback is beyond human comprehension. The ubiquitous flies are unbearable during the day. They are terribly intrusive. Waving their hands does not scare them away. They go into the nose, ears and mouth. And they bite bitingly. So do armies of ants that attack from below. You are eaten by mosquitoes at night. Lots of aggressive bloodsuckers. Beetles, moths, and spiders will crawl over you too. Constant struggle.
So you keep rubbing insect repelents with you, alternating with sunscreen. Then you are covered with dust from a nearby road, and after just two days you have a shell on you that protects you from insects and from the sun, and slowly makes you look like a native of this earth.
Another challenge was sleeping in the car in such heat. If you want to protect yourself from the monsters buzzing all night over your ear, you lock yourself in the car at first. Unfortunately, it heats up in 5 minutes like an oven and you start to choke. All you can do is get some repellent and hope to fall asleep somehow. In the morning however, when the sun starts to heat sharply, we turned on the air conditioning for a few minutes to cool our bodies. And then we ran quickly to the water, because in the morning it was always more pleasant before it warmed up like soup.
During the day, we hid under the awning and replenished our fluids. We went into the water from time to time. However, these lakes are very shallow. At a distance of 500 m from the shore, the water was still waist-high. But a lot of trees grew there, so by soaking in this puddle, we protected ourselves from the bright sun in the shade of their branches.
However, it was not possible to sit down there for a long time. Because - as is well known - everything in Australia wants to kill you or eat you. And after just five minutes of sitting in this lake, you could feel something simply in the world biting your ass. I don't know what it was, the water was opaque there and we couldn't see it. They could be small shrimps, but also piranhas or small crocodiles. It bit hard.
The ice in our travel refrigerator has melted long time ago, the beer has heated up, and the phones have started to shut down from too high a temperature! :) Such an adventure!
And in such conditions, we waited for the end of 2021.
Around 10 p.m. other campers started blowing fireworks to finish the whole event just after midnight and go to sleep quickly, before the sun would not let you breathe the next day.
But I have to admit one thing. All inconveniences and difficulties were rewarded by spectacular views and wonderful, most beautiful sunsets!
And the sky at night ?! The number of stars and the visibility of the entire Milky Way were breathtaking! Something amazing! It was the starry night sky that gave me the idea for another attraction, which I will tell about in the next episode!
However, we started the first day of New 2022 feeling sick. And not because of a hangover. Believe me, it is impossible to drink alcohol at such temperatures. (Although I know a few agents who could do it :)
We both started having symptoms of sunstroke. Whoever was close to sunstroke, supposed to know that it is a bit like the beginning of the flu - you are lethargic, sore, you feel sick, you have a headache and you lack strength.
Although we tried to cool ouselfs with car air conditioning, we made a decision that we had to evacuate. Seems our campervan is not (yet) adapted to such conditions.
Two days earlier, I was laughing at the neighbors next door who had dragged a large, growling generator with them to cool their tent. I am not laughing anymore. I want generator for myrself.
In our whole life we heaven't packed as fast as we did this afternoon at temperatures of up to 50 degrees in the sun. As soon as range showed on my phone, I quickly booked the first, cheapest motel in Broken Hill. Number one requirement: air conditioning.
We ran away :) And that was our adventure on the Australian outback.
Broken Hill.
Now I will tell you a little bit about this town in godforgotten pleace, because we spent the next few days here.
Known as the Silver City, Broken Hill is located on one of the world's richest deposits of silver, lead and zinc ores. This place, in a hot and subdued region, was first visited in 1844 by Charles Rasp.
It is a mining town on the edge of the desert in the midwestern edge of New South Wales. Broken Hill is just minutes from the desert, no matter which direction you travel in. It's a city surrounded by red soils, gray brushwood, impossible flatness, and intensely blue skies that make the world seem bigger and more dramatic. The city is literally an oasis in the desert that can be extremely hot in summer, and during the winter months, temperatures can drop below zero at night.
24 km from Broken Hill lies the even smaller town of Silverton, to which a strange road leads with 49 flood-proof dips. These are deep ditches that cut perpendicularly broken asphalt, in front of which you have to suddenly brake so as not to break the car, which causes motion sickness of every passenger of the vehicle.
For over thirty years, Silverton, partly because of its wonderfully austere and historic atmosphere and partly because it's so close to the comforts of Broken Hill, has been home to film sets for over 140 movies and commercials. The drive to exploit the rugged landscape of Silverton began after Mad Max II - The Road Warrior in 1981, although it was here that Ted Kotcheff's 1971 classic Wake in Fright was filmed. The city and plains of Mundi Mundi were also the set for the cult movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (I recommend it very much), Razorback and Dirty Deeds. It was also the site for the Australian TV series Royal Flying Doctor and The Dirtwater Dynasty.
And so - as huge fans of Mad Max - we went to the only in the world museum of this movie.
The museum is a bit too much to say. It is an ordinary barrack located in the middle of the desert, heated to the limit, but what a vibe it is!
The door was opened by a very nice old man, on whose forehead was dripping sweat and after giving us a few instructions about the prohibition of filming the interior (unfortunately) and collecting $ 10 per person, he invited us inside.
Behind the gray with dirt curtain our nostrils were struck by the dusty and suffocating smell of history. From old TV hanged from the celling movie clips were playing looped in a circle. In the darkness of the barrack, lit only by yellow lamps, where the air was furiously grinded by huge, chrome fans, we began to watch the artifacts collected there from the Mad Max film set. It must have been absolutely everything!
Scenario cards with handwritten notes, hundreds of photos from the set, big and old cameras, silver film reel cassettes and a lot of gadgets that I am not able to say. This movie is famous for its amazing costumes and scenery, so you can guess what was there! The souvenirs were even steam punk cutlery and mugs, which the film crew used during desert lunches. To understand what I'm talking about, I recommend you just watch this movie again and take a look at what the actors were dressed in, what they used in the scenes and in particular, what the vehicles looked like!
Rumor says that all vehicles were scrapped after filming was completed. But entering the second part of the barracks, it turns out not to be true - unless they are replicas, but I sincerely doubt it. Several vehicles and motorbikes were collected there, and they were regularly smashed and destroyes on a movie set! Here I was able to take out the camera and you will be able to see a few shots in our video, which I placed at the end of the post.
Who knows this guy?
Was it worth it?
Although the visit lasted maybe 15 minutes, yes! Definitely!
Maybe if the museum itself were the only target, probably I would say it was a joke. But taking into account the whole - that is - a four-day trip to the outback, struggling with the inconveniences of the trip, staying by lakes in the desert, visiting a mining town in a remote area, accommodation in an old motel, the atmosphere of this area, people met, sunburned faces and taste dust in the mouth - that's it! It is definitely worth experiencing!
It is no longer about the museum itself, it is more about the road trip to this museum. That is the most attractive and iconic thing!
We hanged the rest of the day around the area. We also drove to the Mundi Mundi viewpoint, which is a few kilometers outside Silverton. The view of sunrise or sunset from here is impressive. You feel as if you are standing on the edge of the world where the flat and barren desert stretches low to a distant, blurry horizon.
Our journey in this part of Australia was slowly coming to an end. There was one more attraction waiting for us, for which we had to wait until the next evening, but I will tell about it in the next episode.
And finally, I invite you to the short video.
I put a lot of heart, time and sweat into this episode and I count on your feedback. Every YouTube like, comment and sub counts.
Please give me some sign that I am going in the right direction and you would like to continue watching our adventures, because I have hundreds of hours of materials, but I don't know if I have anyone to watch it!
I am counting on your big hearts!
Link to the movie on YT: https://youtu.be/20i3Tu_Z7vc