Roadtrippin
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2008
1
24
36
Trip End
Jun 15, 2009
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Take it away Caroline ....
Yes a road trip was in order and it was an excuse to see the South of Australia! We stayed in Adelaide for 2 days then made our way to the outback to a city called Broken Hill. It was weird that after hours of driving and seeing nothing, this city just appeared! It is a big mining town and we found a hostel and then had a mooch around the town!
The guide book mentioned some sculptures - Sculpture Symposium, so the following morning we decided we would go for a look! They were beautiful, 12 sculptures by 12 international artists on a hill overlooking the city! We went up, got lots of pictures and then made our way to Silverton! I first read about this place in "Down Under" by Bill Bryson. It is a small ghost town with a pub - the Silverton Hotel which has featured in lots of films and advertisments! Some films include Mad Max, December Boys and lots of beer commercials- check out "Where the Bloody Hell are you" commercial on Youtube(seconds 1-3!)!! We went for a look and it is in the middle of nowhere! Mad Max car is parked outside and inside there are pictures taken from the sets of different movies and the different names the hotel was given in the movies and commercials! It was cool!
John had read about the Silverton Test in Lonely Planet so asked the bar lady what it was! She said it was a charity test and a gold coin donation was required to do it but if you passed you would get a certificate! John took a deep breath and donated! The lady pulled out a funnel and potato from under the counter. She put the funnel down her pants and said that you have to put the potato on your forehead and try to get it into the funnel without using your hands! Easy Peasy thought John and shoved the funnel down his shorts! He put the potato on his head and the lady told him to put his other hand on the bar! Then I heard John scream - the lady had thrown a glass of water down the funnel! I didnt see it coming as I was to preoccupied with giving John advice as how best to balance the spud on his forehead! It was hilarious! John got the certificate anyways but was not a happy man! So we took off with a cloud of red dust behind us to Mildura!(Pictures to follow shortly as the internet here is really slow at uploading)
