Dated: 12 August 2014

When I was invited along to a road trip to Broken Hill, Menindee and beyond by one of the Port Adelaide Camera Club members Paula McManus I was dead keen to go along and have a bit of fun as well as do some photography. Generally on my own on road trips I thought it would be a great opportunity to make some new friends and connect to a few more like minded people.

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Broken Hill was the first stop and Di, Helen, Paula and myself stayed here for 3 nights sharing accommodation. Whilst there we visited the iconic town of Silverton 25km from Broken Hill and the Palace Hotel in Broken Hill where part of the movie Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed. We also did a night shoot at the iconic Living Desert Statues Park which was a unique experience for the few of us that were keen or maybe crazy to get out of bed at 3.30am to go and shoot the Milky Way.

The Living desert Statues is only a few kilometres out of Broken Hill and permission is required to access the park after hours. A group of us had been in earlier to do some sunset shots out there and to have a look around and whilst there I planned out the night shot that I wanted to capture before running it by the rest of the group from the club to see who was keen to get up very early. There were only 5 takers which included Allan Griffith the clubs President that were up for an early start the following morning.

When that alarm went off at 3.30am we all jumped out of bed in our zombie like states and layered ourselves up like Eskimos, it was freezing and unusually cold but clear. Di, Helen, Paula and myself packed out gear into the car and headed to the Park where we were meeting Allan at the gate.

Once in the car park we geared up with gloves beanies extra jackets we walked up to the sculptures with our torches to light the way and I walked straight over to where I wanted to set up my shot and show the others what to do. I captured one image before someone noticed something strange happening around us. There was a thick heavy blanket of fog consuming the entire town of Broken Hill. We were up quite high where we were and could see it moving steadily and quickly across the area, eerie was an understatement but it was beautiful at the same time.

Well that quickly finished our attempts at the Milky Way unfortunately so I just had a bit of fun doing some light painting instead with the others before the girls decided they had had enough and left Allan and myself to brave the cold for sunrise.

As Allan and myself chatted we watched light spill over the area, We hoped for something special but unfortunately the fog was just too heavy and we too decided to head back for a hot cuppa instead.

The trip did not end here the girls and I went to Menindee for a night and then moved on to Mungo National Park. This was a fun trip with great people and I very much look forward to the next one.

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