Australia
Broken Hill
Twelve sandstone sculptures on a hilltop where the outback stretches to a vanishing point.
Twelve sandstone sculptures stand on a hilltop at the edge of town, their forms dissolving into the sunset. Behind them, the Barrier Ranges stretch to a vanishing point. In front, Broken Hill's heritage streetscape glows in the same light that drew artists here a century ago.
Broken Hill in far west New South Wales is closer to Adelaide than Sydney and feels like neither. Built on one of the world's richest deposits of silver, lead, and zinc, the town's prosperity funded grand heritage buildings, a School of the Air, and the Royal Flying Doctor Service base that still operates daily. The Brushmen of the Bush — Pro Hart, Jack Absalom, Eric Minchin, Hugh Schulz, and John Pickup — turned the outback light into a painting movement. The Palace Hotel's murals, painted for the film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, remain on the walls as a permanent installation.
Solo
Outback art pilgrimages, sunset at the Living Desert sculptures, and the kind of silence that makes your own thoughts audible.
Couple
Heritage hotel verandahs, art gallery wandering, and dinners in pubs where the publican knows everyone by name.
- The Living Desert sculptures sit on a hilltop where you can see the curvature of the earth at sunset.
- Pro Hart's gallery and the Palace Hotel's Priscilla murals make this an outback art pilgrimage.
- The Royal Flying Doctor Service base offers tours — the outback's lifeline operates from this town.
- Heritage pubs serve cold schooners on verandahs where the only sound is wind through saltbush.
Counter meals at the Palace Hotel — the pub from Priscilla Queen of the Desert, murals still intact.
Outback pub steaks washed down with cold beer at the Silverton Hotel, 25 kilometres into the red dust.
Rye
England
Cobblestoned lanes so steep and crooked even the houses lean in to listen.
Shell Grotto, Margate
England
Millions of shells arranged in unexplained mosaics beneath a mundane street — origin unknown.
Abydos
Egypt
Temple paint vivid after thirty-three centuries, concealing an underground granite chamber that still puzzles archaeologists.
Casabindo
Argentina
Argentina's only bull ceremony strips ribbons from horns at 3,400 metres each August.
Strahan
Australia
Cruise the Gordon River past Huon pines that were saplings when Rome was still a republic.
Maria Island
Australia
A car-free island where Tasmanian devils roam free and convict ruins crumble into wildflower meadows.
Dampier Peninsula
Australia
Red pindan dirt meets turquoise sea at Aboriginal communities where the country is still the boss.
Sydney
Australia
Ferries carve blue water between surf beaches and opera sails as cockatoos screech overhead.