The Melbourne Takeover: Broken Hill: Day 3

Continuing on with my Broken Hill posts....Day 3 in Broken Hill was...the most adventurous day of the entire trip, I must say. From exploring a mine to riding a camel, to climbing a mountain (!!!), Day 3 was crazy, but fun! Read more after the jump!

Me in my miner gear!

We started the morning with a trip to the historic Daydream Silver Mine. It's said to have been discovered and worked in before the town of Broken Hill was even founded, dating back to the late 1800s. We walked around the land above the mine, where our tour guide Trent gave us a little bit of history about the mine, what the miners did to survive while they worked, etc. We then proceeded to get ready to explore the inside of the mine. We put on safety helmets as well as lights to see around in the dark.

Underground!

It was a bit hard to navigate around the three different levels of the mine. Of course, it's not filled with even sidewalks or anything, so you had to hold on tight to the railings and slowly make your way down. It was great though. Trent showed us pieces of silver that were still lodged in the rock, as well as miner equipment that had been preserved. We had a time where we all sat down and turn our lights off as Trent told us about how the miners only had one candle to make it through the day. They had to preserve them, so at times, they would work in complete darkness!

The trip was fun and educational. And now I can say I've explored a mine, and REALLY have been underground. (According to my friend Lauren, the Metro subway back home doesn't count haha) When I told my mother all of this, she completely freaked out!!

The next stop was CAMEL RIDING! This was a must, because not only had I never ridden one before, but also because as a Howittian (the mascot being the camel), I felt it was my duty! Of course, the area was filled with a crazy amount of flies, and terribly stinky, but it was worth it! The ride was fun. Camels are pretty calm, or at least mine was. One of the guys' camel was a bit upset about being ridden, making this horrific noise. So I passed when the man conducting the rides offered me the same one. Look at me, branching out and doing things in Aussieland :-)

The sheep in the middle was sheared. The sheep, somewhat
instinctively gathered around her to give her warmth,
I assumed

We visited the Eldee Sheep Station for the rest of the day and witnessed a live sheep shearing demonstration. Now, I understand that sheep shearing is necessary for wool obviously, and it's probably a pretty profitable profession, but I hated it. Nemo, the man who conducted the demo, said that the process was harmless. I say otherwise. He dragged some sheep out one by one by their legs, violently held them down to keep them still, and then proceeded to shave them quickly and a bit carelessly. I felt so terrible for the sheep. They were skittish from the moment he stepped into the gate to grab one of them, and Nemo ended up cutting one of the sheep quite a few times. I purposely didn't take pictures because I hated the process. I could only to stand to watch him do two, and then I left. Worst part of the entire trip.

We then went for a walk through the hills. I've said on plenty of occasions that I'm not an outdoorsy person. I'm a city girl, and it definitely showed on this walk, as we were surrounded by persistent buzzing flies that I continued to flinch and swat crazily at. I was so completely over walking by the time we got to the landmark that they wanted to show us, that I didn't even care. My camera was dead anyway. And then, we walked up mountains (yes MOUNTAINS) to see a sunset. Not that I didn't want to see a sunset, but it wasn't exactly like we were walking across the smoothest of lands. The terrain was extremely rough. Hands down, the hardest hike of my life. When I and a few of the other people in the group finally got to the top of one mountain, we found that the rest of the group had continued on to climb another! (I later discovered that we were originally supposed to stop here, but a boy from Loyola who shall remain nameless continued on in explorer mode urgghhhh). The sunset from the top of the mountain was really beautiful though. However, I was happy when we finally reached ground again. We ended the night with a barbeque and a campfire. Nightfall at Eldee was really peaceful. The view of the stars was great. I sat underneath them and close to the fire, just contemplating my life haha. It was a great ending to this adventurous day!

More pics below!