Looking for leaks,
mines and Max
A week
or so ago we bought a double air mattress that for three or four
nights was great at preventing nighttime hip and back pain. But at
some point we sprung a leak. The first little split was pretty easy
to find and we used a piece of the enclosed patch kit to seal it.
That was good for a night. Then another little puncture appeared on
the top velour portion, I found it, and successfully covered it with
duct tape. All's good. However, a night later I found myself cheek
down on the hard ground (and I don't mean face-cheek, kiddies).
We've spent some time hunting the elusive air leak, sometimes
thinking we've found it, but always with the same result. So this
morning we made a concerted effort to really go over the mattress in
exhaustive detail. We got our big tarp out, laid the mattress on the ground,
and really blew her up. For an hour or so we (well I got bored of it
after awhile but Diana persisted) listened and looked and tried out
best, even sponging the whole mattress with soapy water. Thought
maybe it was the blow-in valve itself. But in the end, we never
found it.
We gave
up, loaded up the LC, and went driving looking for a mine. Silverton
participated in the same mining boom that Broken Hill did, and in
1885 population had reached 3000. Within three years the mines here
went bust and people moved lock, stock and sandstone houses to BH
(photos show teams of camels dragging intact houses the 12 hilly
miles to BH). Now only about 100 live here, but tourism has sparked
a new boom.
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| Silverton Catholic Church |
There
were a couple nearby mines according to my topo map and we went
driving down a rough gravel road. I had hoped to get in some real
4WD driving, but we came upon the mine before the going got too
rough. The LC has such a low 1st gear as it is that we
can tackle fairly steep inclines without too much problem.
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| Galahs normally nest in trees, but there aren't many of those around these parts |
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| Don't drop your hat, Kevin |
There was a very steep rough track up a hill that I decided to try.
I hadn't locked the front hubs before I headed up and the route
quickly got too much for 2WD in 1st gear. Diana was very
nervous about the condition of the dried old tires we had on the LC
and suggested quite persuasively that it might make more sense to buy
our new tires first before trying any real fun roads. So, I let
'common sense' prevail, backed down, and turned the LC around. We
did go on a couple other patches of road that were fun, but certainly
not a challenge. Now that we have new tires hopefully that will
change.
Some of my most vivid images of the Australian Outback are from the
Mad Max movies. The kids and I love post apocalyptic films, and the
Mad Max series are among the best. Mad Max II was filmed around
Silverton and Broken Hill, and before we came on the trip I
researched the filming locations of the movie. There is a British
bloke who moved to Silverton in 2006 who is obsessed with MMII. He
opened a small museum with thousands of production photos from the
movie, many pictures of him with producers, stage hands and stars,
and a collection of vehicles left over from the film. Diana didn't
go into the museum, preferring to spend her time looking through the
mini-museum at the little cafe next door – and buying one of their
guandong ice cream cones. But I was fascinated with the place. He
had a documentary running on a TV screen, dummies dressed up in
costumes from the film, a selection of posters from around the world,
and three different versions of the Interceptor that Max drove in
the film, although the original is in a car museum in England.
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| From Mad Max II |
The owner was standing around acting rather bored as a handful of
tourists looked around the place, so I went up to him and asked him
if it was possible to go out to the Pinnacles west of town where the
compound scene was filmed. I knew that it's all on private property
and expected to be brushed off, but his eyes lit up at the thought of
engaging with a real Mad Max fan. He excitedly told me that yes, the
property was now being mined and off limits, but if I drove up to the
guard hut and dropped his name I might be able to look around. He
drew me an elaborate map detailing the route, and made me promise
that when we return in December with the kids to check in with him
and he'd tell me how to get to the other filming locations. He gave
me his business card as I left, encouraging me again to go out to the
Pinnacles and to contact him when we return.
We go
to jail, and order new tires
The old Silverton gaol has been converted to a funky historical
museum and we enjoyed looking at the antique objects, an uncurated,
eclectic collection that pretty much covered all the bases of life
in Silverton from days gone by.
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| Wish they had wifi here |
We drove back to BH and ordered new tires, spent time at the library
interneting, went up the big mine tip to see the Memorial to the 900
men that have lost their lives in the mines over the past 130 years,
and got a spot in a bare bones campground where we got showers and
met a family of six from Victoria on a 6 week trip around OZ
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| Memorial at the top of the tip |
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